Mamma mia! After 35 years, ABBA is back.
The good news is that the chart-topping Swedish group has reunited in the studio to record new songs. The bad news is that Anni-Frid, Bjorn, Benny, and Agnetha will not be going on the big reunion tour.
The "ABBA avatar tour project," which is the realization of the virtual live experience plan whereby "avatars" of the group will go on tour and perform their hits, was announced Friday in an Instagram statement by the group.
ABBA announced a partnership with "American Idol" creator and Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller in October 2016 and shared that together they're creating a "virtual live experience" that would launch this year. This live experience would allow "a new generation of fans to see, hear and feel ABBA in a way previously unimagined."
"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. So we did," according to the statement.
"It was like time had stood still an that we only had been away on a short holiday. An extremely joyful experience! It resulted in two new songs and one of them, 'I Still Have Faith In You,' will be performed by our digital selves in a TV special produced by NBC and the BBC aimed for broadcasting December."
"We may have come of age, but the song is new," the statement concludes. "And it feels good."
There has been no word yet on a specfic timing for any of these projects.