Yes Gays, New ABBA Music Is on the Way

Iconic Swedish pop band ABBA is set to release their first new music in 39 years!

After teasing a mysterious ABBA Voyage announcement for next Saturday, a source told the Sunthat the group is making a comeback and dropping new songs next Friday. The group is also expected to announce the dates or more information for their new hologram tour show featuring "ABBA-tars" of the band in a purpose-built London venue.

A source told the Sun, "Abba are finally making their comeback and plan to release their first new music in 39 years next Friday -- it's huge."

ABBA, comprised of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and her royal highness Agnetha Faltskog, last recorded music in 1982, and have not performed publicly since appearing in 1985 on a Swedish television program honoring their manager Stig Anderson. (Although the band did reunite briefly for a private event in Stockholm in 2016.)

The announcement was teased on the group's new ABBA Voyage website (www.abbavoyage.com) and social media. Their post on Twitter references next Saturday, while the website encouraged fans to register for early news about the Voyage.

Plans for the ABBA-tar hologram tour were announced in 2016 and it is expected to open sometime in May next year. The show plans on projecting holograms based on old imagery of the group performing onto the stage of the purpose-built theater in east London. According to Ulvaeus, the idea came from Simon Fuller, manager of the Spice Girls.

"He came to Stockholm and he presented this idea to us that we could make identical digital copies of ourselves of a certain age and that those copies could then go on tour and they could sing our songs, you know, and lip-sync," Ulvaeus told the BBC during the project. "I've seen this project halfway through and it's already mind-boggling."

Ulvaeus confirmed earlier that new music would be coming this year, telling the Herald Sunit "is not a case anymore of it might happen, it will happen."

The band is expected to release two earlier recordings along with three additional new songs. It remains unclear if the band plans on reuniting for live performances, but the source did confirm all four members of ABBA "will all be there on opening night" for the unveiling of their ABBA-tars.

ABBA was the dream team of Swedish music at the time, with successful songwriters Ulvaeus and Andersson teaming with stars Lyngstad and Faltskog. They burst into the homes of a much wider audience when they won the 1974 Eurovision competition with their performance of "Waterloo." Since then they have sold over 400 million singles and albums, and their peppy pop tunes became developed into LGBTQ+ favorites. The musical Mamma Mia! (produced by Ulvaeus and Andersson) was a smash hit both on stage and in film.

The band has long been an LGBTQ+ fave, and Ulvaeus acknowledged his queer fans and said they were "very proud" of the community's love for their music.

"We found out quite early that 'Dancing Queen' had become an anthem and we were very proud that we've been chosen by the community," he said in 2019.

He went on to call "Dancing Queen" a "liberating anthem" and "a wonderful thing" that makes him proud.

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