Bjorn Ulvaeus has confirmed ABBA will release new music this year.
The 76-year-old singer-songwriter and producer has insisted the ‘Mamma Mia!’ hitmakers will “definitely” be putting out new music in 2021, 40 years after the release of their last studio album, ‘The Visitors’, in 1981.
Speaking to The Herald Sun, he said: “There will be new music this year, that is definite, it’s not a case anymore of it might happen, it will happen.”
Bjorn – who formed part of the Swedish pop group alongside Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog, and Frida Lyndstad – also revealed the group have returned to the studio to record new tracks.
He added: “We’re really, really good friends. The four of us stand in the studio for the first time in 40 years and there’s just something in knowing what we’ve been through. It’s hard to describe, but there are such strong, strong bonds between us.”
The news comes after ABBA confirmed in 2018 they were planning to record new tracks for the first time in 35 years, and it has now been revealed they have more songs than originally planned.
Despite the news, ABBA have had to delay the releases – which includes much-anticipated tracks ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ and ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’ – as well as their ABBAtar hologram tour, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The group went their separate ways in 1982, and 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.
As of the time of writing, it’s not yet known whether the new music will take the form of a complete album or individual songs, and there is no release date set.