Entertainment reporter(wp/es):
The biggest reunion in music has finally been confirmed.
Swedish super group ABBA have announced plans to release new music, nearly four decades after they split.
Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad confirmed the news in a statement on Instagram, saying it was an “unexpected consequence” of their decision to put on a “virtual reality tour”.
The four piece described their return to the studio to pen two new tracks as “an extremely joyful experience”.
The statement read: “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. And it was like time had stood still and 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 new TV special produced by NBC and the BBC aimed for broadcasting in December.
“We may have come of age, but the song is new. And it feels good.”
I Still Have Faith In You will debut on the BBC in December.
The news comes over a year after the group announced plans for a digital experience in collaboration with Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller.
Ulvaeus, 72,revealed earlier this month that virtual “Abbatars” are being created of the four singers for the upcoming digital tour, expected for 2019 or 2020.
The band will appear as they looked at their peak in 1979 using technology Ulvaeus described as “simply mind-boggling”.
The foursome, who formed in 1972, were famed for hits including Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, SOS, Voulez-Vouz and Dancing Queen.
They hit international fame after winning the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo in 1974, before going on to sell 400 million singles and albums worldwide.
They devastated fans on announcing their split in 1983. They performed once more in 1986 on Swedish TV and were last pictured together at the opening of Stockholm’s ABBA-inspired dining experience, Mamma Mia! The Party in January 2016.
