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Super Trouper: ABBA returns to London stage as virtual avatars
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Real-life avatars: The four members of Swedish pop band ABBA arrive on the red carpet on Thursday for the opening performance of the ABBA Voyage concert in London. (Reuters/Henry Nicholls)
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erforming their much-loved hits like "Mamma Mia!" and "Dancing Queen", Swedish supergroup ABBA returned to the stage on Thursday, albeit as digital avatars, for a new London concert residency.
Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad have been brought to virtual life as digital versions of themselves from their 1970s heyday, thanks to motion capture technology. Their last performance together was some 40 years ago.
The foursome, all now in their 70s, posed for pictures together at their residency’s red carpet premiere on Thursday at a purpose-built venue dubbed the ABBA Arena.
"I think we all are very happy to be back in London, because I haven't been here for I don't know how many years," Faltskog told Reuters. "It is so nice to see all the faces and all the expectations and everything. It goes right into your heart."
ABBA worked on the project with an 850-strong team from Industrial Light & Magic, founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas.
Accompanied by a live band, the avatars, or ABBA-tars, perform some 20 songs during the 90-minute Voyage show, even making jokes and having costume changes.
The real ABBA band members watched among the audience and came on stage at the end, hugging each other and waving to the crowd.
The concerts, which officially begin on Friday, are part of a hugely successful comeback for the band, which topped charts last November with Voyage, its first album in 40 years.
Formed in 1972, ABBA has won legions of fans around the world and sold an estimated 385 million records. The band split in the early 1980s, with rumors swirling for years that it would reunite on stage.
"ABBA has never left us," Faltskog told one reporter.
Asked if this was it for the band, Lyngstad told Reuters: "Depends how long we stay alive [...] If we are lucky."
"I don't think we'll do another one. [...] Definitely no, but never say never," Andersson added.
"The avatars go on living," Ulvaeus said.
