ABBA will release five new songs in 2021.
The Swedish quartet announced in 2018 they were planning to record new tracks for the first time in 35 years, and now it’s been claimed that whilst they have been forced to delay the releases – which includes the tracks ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ and’ Don’t Shut Me Down’ – due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there will be more material than originally planned on the way.
This also means that the ‘Dancing Queen’ hitmakers’ planned ABBAtar hologram tour is also off until next year.
Band member Bjorn Ulvaeus – who is joined by Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog and Frida Lyndstad in the chart-topping group – told journalist Geoff Lloyd as such.
Speaking on an upcoming episode of his podcast ‘Reasons To Be Cheerful’, the radio presenter explained: "I got to spend an hour with Bjorn Ulveaus from ABBA via Zoom. They’ve recorded five new songs. They should have been out at the end of last year. They’re going to get these holograms out on tour. 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."
In a statement announcing the new songs, ABBA said at the time: "The decision to go ahead with the exciting ABBA avatar tour project had an unexpected consequence. We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio."
Bjorn later explained the plans had been delayed until at least 2020 due to the complex technical nature of the show they are creating.
The ‘Waterloo’ group went their separate ways in 1982 at the height of their career, and during their final years Bjorn, 75, divorced bandmate Agnetha, 70, whilst Benny, 73, and Frida, 74, split up, too.
They performed together for the first time in decades in 2016 at a private event, which marked the 50th anniversary of the first meeting between songwriters Bjorn and Benny.