Little Boots has revealed her role in the upcoming ‘ABBA Voyage’ tour.
The Swedish pop icons – Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad – are performing digitally with a live 10-piece band next year, and the 37-year-old English singer-songwriter has announced she will be singing backing vocals, as well as playing live keyboards and synthesisers at the shows, which is a dream come true for the “life-long ABBA fan”.
Sharing some behind-the-scenes snaps in the recording studio with Benny, she wrote on Instagram: “As a life long @abba fan It is an absolute honour to share that I will be joining @abbavoyage live on stage on keyboards/ synthesisers and backing vocals.
“My love for the songs of Abba runs hard and deep, there is no other songwriting I have been more inspired by throughout my career, in my opinion it is the most life-affirming, heart wrenching, joyful, liberating, powerful pop music on the planet.
”It has already been a dream to spend time in the studio with my musical heroes. I am beyond excited for this journey to continue and to have the privilege of performing these songs with a group of the most incredible musicians I have ever played with. The sound of this band will give you goosebumps!
”Huge thanks and congratulations on all their hard work creating something truly groundbreaking and legendary @abba @ludvigandersson2000 @svanagisla and @james_righton for getting our band together. (sic)”
The ‘Thank You For The Music’ hitmakers have teamed up with an 850-strong team from Industrial Light & Magic – the company founded by George Lucas – to create digital versions of themselves for the concert, using months of motion-capture and performance techniques.
The ‘Voyage’ concert experience will open on May 27 2022 at the ABBA Arena, which is a state-of-the-art 3,000 capacity arena located at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.
The concert will feature ABBA’s two new tracks, ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ and ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’, as well as songs from their upcoming album.
Producers Svana Gisla and Ludvig said in a statement: “The magic of ABBA and the herculean efforts of this whole magnificent team reaches a long-awaited milestone today. To be able to finally share this endeavour with the world is a proud moment for us and we can’t wait to welcome you to our arena in East London, a place where we are so happy to be.”
While Baillie Walsh, the director of the concert, added: “I watched ABBA win the Eurovision song contest in 1974, and never did I imagine that 47 years later I would be with them on this extraordinary voyage. Life is weird and wonderful sometimes.”