It’s going to be a few more months before ABBA fans can say “thank you for the music” (and all the joy they’re bringing).
“They’ve recorded five new songs,” said Reasons To Be Cheerful podcast co-host Geoff Lloyd, who had a Zoom conversation with Björn Ulvaeus. “They should have been out at the end of last year.
“Because of technical difficulties and the pandemic, it’s delayed things. But he promised me that the new ABBA music will be out in 2021.”
ABBA announced in April 2018 they were planning to release two new tracks: “I Still Have Faith In You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down.”
“We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio,” read a message to fans at the time. “So we did. And it was like time had stood still and that we only had been away on a short holiday. An extremely joyful experience!”
ABBA – Agnetha Fältskog, 70, Björn Ulvaeus, 75, Benny Andersson, 73, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 74 – broke up in 1982 following the divorces of the group’s two couples (Fältskog and Ulvaeus; Lyngstad and Andersson).
Ulvaeus and Andersson went on to create the smash hit stage musical Mamma Mia! (which spawned two films). Fältskog released five English solo albums (the most recent was A in 2013) and Lyngstad put out solo albums up until 1996.
Ulvaeus, Andersson and Lyngstad were together in Toronto for the May 2000 North American premiere of the Mamma Mia! musical.