ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus have confirmed that the group’s comeback record will be their last new music as a band.
ABBA are set to release their new album, Voyage, next month ahead of ‘performing’ groundbreaking shows via animated avatars in London next year.
However, the group’s songwriting duo insist this will not be the start of a full reformation and that they and bandmates Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad will not record together again.
“This is it,” Andersson told The Guardian. “It’s got to be, you know.”
The band’s original breakup in 1982 is shrouded in a degree of mystery as they never officially announced a split, but the musician said this will be a definitive end to ABBA.
“I didn’t actually say that ‘this is it’ in 1982,” he explained. “I never said myself that ABBA was never going to happen again. But I can tell you now: this is it.”
According to The Guardian, Ulvaeus then nodded in agreement and said, “Yeah.”
The decision to call it a day following the album is not down to any issues within the band, however, as the Chess composer insisted the group really enjoyed recording together again as they felt no pressure to match earlier hits like Waterloo and Super Trouper.
“It was just fun, really, to try and see if we could do something,” he added. “I think everyone was completely aware that if what we did was not up to the standard that we all wanted, we would just forget about it. There was no pressure in that respect.”
