ABBA

Rise of the ABBA-tars! Inside ABBA's Groundbreaking Live Residency. To cap off one of pop's greatest comebacks, all the Swedish superstars needed to do was ...

Many millennials were exposed to the group through the tribute pop band A*Teens at the turn of the century, and later, the musical Mamma Mia! and its cult-classic film adaptation (as well as the original sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again). For both millennials and Gen Z kids, the group is a musical fixture on the level of what the Beatles were for Gen X. There are ABBA-themed parties at venues across the globe, and songs like “Dancing Queen” and “Chiquitita” have become hits on TikTok. Andersson still doesn’t understand. “The English people have always treated ABBA like we were their own, for some weird reason,” Andersson says. They penned two new songs — “I Still Have Faith in You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down” — and asked Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad if they’d record them for the show. Eventually, they recorded a whole album, last year’s Voyage. “I Still Have Faith in You” was so well-regarded that it garnered the group its first Grammy nomination ever. “They’ve taken ABBA to their hearts and they show us that.” In some ways, ABBA’s return is perfectly timed. “It’s been a lot of uphill,” the elder Andersson says. The London location was a no-brainer for the group, which is still based in Sweden. Not only is London a major destination for international travel, it’s also the place where the often-maligned group felt most at home when away from home. The band and the team and ILM realized early on that an existing venue wasn’t going to work for the residency. There was a lot of work put into making the ABBA-tars — which, the band stresses, are not holograms, but digital versions of the members that look like real, physical performers. It’s been a lot of stuff that hasn’t worked well, but we’ve been resilient.” They finally realized a grander dream: ABBA Voyage, the 196-show concert residency at newly built ABBA Arena in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park that begins May 27. But a few years ago, British entrepreneur Simon Fuller pitched an idea that piqued the Swedish superstars’ interest.