ABBA Mamma Mia! Movie - More Songs Revealed ! Benny Andersson So Busy !!

Swedish pop wonder ABBA is more current than ever.

A reunion in the form of a digital Abba tour is underway, interpretations for the new "Mamma Mia" film and Benny Andersson has just recorded a new solo disc.

But when Benny Andersson looks back in his career there are moments from the band's long career that he can regret.

 
"We have done songs with Abba that we would not have done," he said in an interview with Aftonbladet.

Benny Andersson is constantly questioned when the pop group ABBA will be reunited. And lately he has been able to give a message.

In 2019, the premiere is scheduled for a digital Abba tour, which he is currently working on.

It's about a tour where ABBA's music will be performed by a live band and where digital versions of band members will be projected in front of the audience.

"It will take some time, it takes time to digitize a face. It's fun that it's in that technical front end. It will be interesting, he has previously told Expressen.

The song will be from the group's old recordings, either from solo discs or from live concerts.

In an interview with Aftonbladet, the artist now says that he may not have thought he would work very much after 70's.

"I thought I could take it a little more calmly now that I've reached 70," he says.

And in addition to the digital tour, the ABBA songs are current in the new movie "Mamma Mia: Here we go again" there songs like "Dancing queen", "I wonder", "Why did it have to be me", "Angeleyes" and "When I kissed the teacher" gets a new life.

 

"It's fun, for those who are not hardcore Abba fans, there may be some unknown songs," he told Aftonbladet.

But there are also moments in his career that he is not as proud of as he can regret ABBA's contention.

"In retrospect, we can see that we did things in the 1960s and 1970s that we could not resist. You are entitled to not be top notch. We have made songs with ABBA that we would not have done. We would have refrained from trying to be rock'n'roll like in "Watch out". But it felt right and fun then" he told Aftonbladet.

Benny Andersson's piano "Piano" release will be released on September 29th. The disc includes "Thank you for the music", "The day before you came" and melodies from both "Chess" and "Kristina from Duvemåla".

http://www.expressen.se/noje/abba-latarna-benny-angrar-att-han-skrev/

 
  

ABBA TV Special Australia - Sunday Night - 17 September 2017

ABBA Special - Sunday Night - 17 September 2017 - Australia !


For those who missed it on TV last night or cannot view it on the official website, the Special has now been upload to youtube in 6 parts 😊

And surprise surprise - ABBA albums moving up the Australian itunes charts after the airing of the Special ! 

http://www.itunescharts.net/aus/charts/albums/current/

https://au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7/sunday-night/-/watch/37117281/sunday-night-sun-17-sep-season-17-episode-25/

A few photos:

ABBA Are Planning To Tour Australia - As Avatars !

 

‘70s pop stars ABBA to be digitally recreated for virtual reality world tour !

ABBA are planning to tour Australia — as holograms, or ABBA-tars.

The ’70s pop superstars are being digitally recreated as avatars for a 2019 virtual reality world tour.

The hi-tech tour would be the first of its kind, with holograms usually reserved for dead musicians.
“It’s perfect,” ABBA’s Benny Andersson told the Sunday Herald Sun.
“We can be on stage while I’m home walking the dogs. I don’t have to leave my house. If this really works there’ll be a lot of artists wanting to do the same thing, even artists who are still young and still touring. It’s a very interesting project.”

All four members of ABBA are involved, being digitally “cast” for the virtual reality tour, which was an idea pitched to them by Spice Girls manager and Idol creator Simon Fuller.

The band have spent a year having measurements taken to make the avatars as lifelike as possible. However, the holograms will be based on how Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Frida looked in 1979.
“We got hooked on it because it’s at the forefront of technology and what it’s possible to do nowadays,” Andersson said.

“To create the four of us digitally, it takes so much skill and so much time to do every hairline, every blink, every iris. If it’s good enough when we finish it’s probably ready to launch in the spring of 2019.”

Andersson, 70, said the ABBA-tars will be projected in front of an actual live band.
“It’ll be like you’re in 1977, with a live band, live backing vocals, a great set design with lights and sound, everything will be like a live concert,” he said. “But we’ll be there in the form of holograms and digital avatars. Our voices will be taken from the records, or maybe some of the live vocals from the Australian tour of 1977. If you’re sitting in the arena you’ll see us up there. It’s quite exciting.”

Hologram tours by the likes of Tupac Shakur, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Michael Hutchence have long been rumoured as technology improves, but ABBA would be the first time major artists who are still alive are able to “tour” without leaving home.

 
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/70s-pop-stars-abba-to-be-digitally-recreated-for-virtual-reality-world-tour/news-story/be146a18ca86a3ef7c58d53923512074 

Abba-tars: Super Troupers return, and somewhere in the crowd there’s you

 

Björn, Agnetha, Benny and Anni-Frid are back – as you haven’t seen them since 1977

Since splitting up in 1982, Abba – one of the most successful and loved music groups of all time – has had almost daily offers to reform. Some 15 years ago the four members of the band sat in a room together and seriously discussed reforming for a series of live shows after they received a $1 billion offer.

“We were going to do the shows and build a hospital with the money,” Björn Ulvaeus told this reporter.

But that offer – like thousands of others – ultimately came to nothing. Hence the surprise this week when Abba officially confirmed they were getting back together to tour in 2019. But only in virtual reality.

All four members of the best-selling band: Björn, Agnetha, Benny and Anni-Frid are being digitised using techniques that capture them as they were in their spandex prime.

Using audio from previous live Abba concerts, a digital Abba will be shining like the sun, smiling, having fun on stages once again. The band are all now in their late 60s or early 70s and have little appetite to schlep around the live circuit in person. But this virtual reality tour is no cheap gimmick. The giant Universal record label and Simon Fuller (the impresario behind the Spice Girls and The X Factor) are looking to reimagine the live entertainment economy with this virtual Abba tour.

As Fuller said this week: “The creativity and ideas flowing from the members of Abba over the past few months have filled me with great excitement. We are exploring a new technological world, with virtual reality and artificial intelligence at the forefront, that will allow us to create new forms of entertainment and content we couldn’t have previously imagined.”

 

Digital avatars

 

It’s now all too common, when a major-league live act announces a visit, the expensively priced tickets sell out in minutes, leaving many fans disappointed. The live tour economy is buoyant, and demand far outstrips supply.

Given that a major act can only get to certain places at certain times, the entertainment industry has been investing heavily for some time in the concept of the virtual reality substitute tour.

If the original Abba fans find the idea of going to see digital avatars of a group preposterous, the next generation of gig-going age has grown up with hyper-realistic video games and see the world differently.

The music industry has already tried out the idea. In 2012 the rapper Tupac Shakur (who died in 1996) appeared as a hologram at that year’s Coachella music festival. In 2014 a moonwalking Michael Jackson hologram appeared at the Billboard music awards, five years after his death.

The Universal Music Group, Simon Fuller and Abba are not going to get involved in a poorly thought out and cheaply executed technological publicity stunt.

A lot of attention will be focused on a world tour by the heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio which kicks off this November. Dio died in 2010 but the Dio Returns tour features a hologram of the singer being backed by the musicians who used to play with him. Dio’s live vocals each night will be taken from previous performances in his career.

Dio Returns will play in venues across Europe, South America, Australia, Asia and the US. Live music promoters are not known for being generous with their money, so the fact that so many venues have already booked the Dio Returns show suggests there is a market for hologram/virtual reality tours.

New live entertainment format

 

Abba, however, are a different proposition. They have a far bigger commercial reach, and could be a more effective test case for this new “live music” concept.

Such is the still massive appetite for Abba’s pop music that the stage musical Mamma Mia (based on their songs) has grossed more than $2 billion worldwide since opening in 1999. The 2005 film adaptation of Mamma Mia became the highest-grossing musical film of all time. The band’s greatest hits collection, Gold – originally released in 1992 – is still selling healthily.

Abba guard their legacy jealously (they wouldn’t let their name be used in the Mamma Mia musical), and they hardly need the money that a virtual tour might make them. A motivating force, however, may be to pioneer a new live entertainment format in which they’re (albeit digitally) front and centre.

The details of the technology being used to bring Abba to digital life are a closely guarded secret. It’s unclear, too, what type of venues virtual Abba will play in or how the overall product will be controlled and distributed.

What is known is that, following Abba’s announcement, industry talk has already begun about virtual reality “de-ageing” tours, including the possibility of Fleetwood Mac performing their Rumours album looking and sounding as they did when it was released in 1977.

Abba aren’t the only ones who don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/abba-tars-super-troupers-return-and-somewhere-in-the-crowd-there-s-you-1.3222297

ABBA Virtual Project - Dinner With Simon Fuller In London !

ABBA's Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus join Simon Fuller for dinner in London after it's announced they're working on a 'groundbreaking venture'

They recently sparked excitement among their fans by announcing they were reuniting for a special virtual project.

And ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus, 71, and Benny Andersson, 69, joined music mogul Simon Fuller, 56, to discuss business over dinner at Ristorante Frescobaldi in Mayfair, London, on Friday night.

The famous musicians put on dapper displays, with Bjorn wearing a grey overcoat covering a turquoise shirt as well as dark trousers, black shoes and a grey scarf.

Benny dressed in a black suit jacket, a grey sweater and white shirt. He teamed the items with black jeans and shiny black shoes.

The musician slicked back his mid-length locks and also wore specs and rocked a silver beard.

Simon looked in fine spirits smiling as he accompanied Bjorn to the eatery. He dressed all in black, combining a leather jacket with a shirt, smart trousers and Chelsea boots.

A full scale comeback might not be on the cards, but the pop quartet are set to give loyal fans the next best thing by reuniting for a ‘virtual digital entertainment experience’ in the new year.

The Swedish band have joined forces with Simon for the project, described as a ‘a groundbreaking venture that will utilise the very latest in digital and virtual-reality technology … which will enable a new generation of fans to see, hear, and feel ABBA in a way previously unimagined.’

In a statement released on Wednesday, Fuller explained: ‘We are exploring a new technological world that will allow us to create new forms of entertainment and content we couldn't have previously imagined,’ 

News of their latest venture comes 34-years after the band stopped recording as a group and four months after they reformed for a one-off concert at a private gala event in their native Stockholm. 

The group, comprised of married couples Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, became one of the most commercially successful pop acts of all time after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974.

But after topping charts across mainland Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand South Africa, Ireland and the United Kingdom - where they scored eight consecutive number one albums - the band performed for the last time in 1982.

While never announcing a formal split, the group's retreat from the spotlight was believed to be prompted by the collapse of their marriages; both couples divorced in 1980.

Reflecting on their new project, Andersson said:  'We’re inspired by the limitless possibilities of what the future holds and are loving being a part of creating something new and dramatic here.

'A time machine that captures the essence of who we were. And are.' 

Lyngstad added: 'Our fans around the world are always asking us to reform and so I hope this new creation will excite them as much as it excites me!' 

Despite disbanding almost four decades ago, the group have maintained an enduring appeal thanks to their extensive back catalogue of hits, among them Waterloo, The Winner Takes It All, SOS and Dancing Queen. 

The enormously popular musical Mama Mia, which draws inspiration from the band's music, has also helped preserve their legacy while grossing for the £2 billion in revenue since its launch in 1999.

A film of the same name starring Colin Firth, Meryl Street and Pierce Brosnan was released in 2008.  

To celebrate the news, Google Play Music has released the most streamed ABBA songs globally. The top ten include favourites such as Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3929878/ABBA-s-Benny-Andersson-Bjorn-Ulvaeus-join-Simon-Fuller-dinner-London-s-announced-working-groundbreaking-venture.html

ABBA Returns - In Digital ! Press Release 26 October 2016

OMG !
This sounds amazing !!
Virtual ABBA !
I really wish they would recreate the 1977 Tour - how amazing it would be to see the whole concert !
But I will be happy with anything they do - why wouldn't I ?
Some people are already grumbling and being negative about this - I don't understand that.
This is exciting - and fun - and we are blessed to still have these moments after all these years !
Roxy

PRESS RELEASE - DIGITAL ABBA

(Stockholm and Los Angeles 26.10.2016) Nearly 35 years after their last public performance together, the members of ABBA are preparing to give their fans around the world what millions of them have long dreamed of but considered impossible: A new entertainment experience.

World-renowned entertainment entrepreneur Simon Fuller, the members of ABBA, and Universal Music Group are partnering together in a groundbreaking venture that will utilize the very latest in digital and virtual reality technology. The aim is to create an original entertainment experience with the Swedish Pop Superstars, which will enable a new generation of fans to see, hear, and feel ABBA in a way previously unimagined.

Simon Fuller has been at the cutting edge of social and technological change for three decades, using his insights to transform popular culture. His business has been quietly investing in virtual reality technologies, developing hyper-realistic digital humans in the field of entertainment, for several years. The collaboration with the four members of ABBA, who first formed in Stockholm in 1972 and who remain among the most iconic and enduring talents in the world, marks a key moment to fully realize the possibilities of virtual reality ahead of the curve – and in the process transform the face of popular entertainment.

The members of ABBA will be involved throughout the creative process maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the bands original vision within this exciting new realm of entertainment possibilities.
Benny Andersson: “We’re inspired by the limitless possibilities of what the future holds and are loving being a part of creating something new and dramatic here. A time machine that captures the essence of who we were. And are.”

Frida Lyngstad: “Our fans around the world are always asking us to reform and so I hope this new ABBA creation will excite them as much as it excites me!”

Simon Fuller, Founder and CEO of XIX Entertainment: “The creativity and ideas flowing from the members of ABBA over the past few months have filled me with great excitement. We are exploring a new technological world, with Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence at the forefront, that will allow us to create new forms of entertainment and content we couldn’t have previously imagined.”

Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group: “Having the privilege of working closely with the band for over two decades, I can comfortably say there are few recording artists who like ABBA bring together their mastery of craft, a high level of professionalism and enormous commercial success. I’m thrilled to be involved in this innovative new project that will introduce the band who are responsible for some of the greatest songs and melodies in pop music to a new generation of fans.”

Further details of this pioneering collaboration to be announced in 2017.

From icethesite:

ABBA and Simon Fuller create cutting-edge digital experience!

All four members of ABBA, entertainment entrepreneur Simon Fuller, and Universal Music are partnering together in a groundbreaking venture that will utilise the very latest in digital and virtual reality technology.
Fuller came to prominence through managing pop group the Spice Girls.

He went on to create the Idol franchise and has managed the careers of some of entertainment and sports biggest stars, including Victoria and David Beckham, Annie Lennox and Lewis Hamilton.
In 2008, he was certified as the most successful British music manager of all time by Billboard magazine and even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The aim of the link up between Fuller and the ABBA members is to create an original entertainment experience, which will enable a new generation of fans to see, hear, and feel ABBA in a way previously unimagined.

Simon Fuller has been quietly invested in virtual reality technologies, developing hyper-realistic digital humans in the field of entertainment, for several years.

On the subject of the project, Frida said: “Our fans around the world are always asking us to reform and so I hope this new ABBA creation will excite them as much as it excites me!”

The collaboration with ABBA will fully realise the possibilities of virtual reality ‘ahead of the curve’ – and in the process hopes to transform the face of popular entertainment.

The members of ABBA will be involved throughout the creative process maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the band’s original vision within this exciting new realm of possibilities.

Simon Fuller: “Having seen over the past few months the creativity and ideas flowing from the members of ABBA, it fills me with great excitement.

“This new technological world we are exploring, with Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence at the forefront, allows us to create entertainment and new content in ways that could never previously have been imagined.”

Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group said: “I’m thrilled to be involved in this innovative new project that will introduce the band who are responsible for some of the greatest songs and melodies in pop music to a new generation of fans.

A press release to herald the new project states: Nearly 35 years after their last public performance together, the members of ABBA are preparing to give their fans around the world what millions of them have long dreamed of but considered impossible: A new entertainment experience.

Benny said: “We’re inspired by the limitless possibilities of what the future holds and are loving being a part of creating something new and dramatic here.”

icethesite hopes to be able to share a few more details of this exciting and pioneering collaboration, with the full backing of Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Björn, soon – but the full details of the project and where and when you can see it will be announced in 2017.