On 26 October 2016 the world went nuts with the news that ABBA would return “in a groundbreaking venture that will utilize the very latest in digital and virtual reality technology”.
Though the original media release made it fairly clear that it’s going to be some form of virtual reality technology, hinting at “hyper-realistic digital humans”, and that the group members would “collaborate”, some fans and most media outlets made the assumption that the original four would reform (in 2018, a year that isn’t mentioned in the media release), and/or that there may be new ABBA music.
But what exactly will this “new entertainment experience” be? It’s not really clear. The most common assumption is some form of hologram performance, as there have been for artists like Elvis Presley, Tupac, and Michael Jackson. Or it could be a VR app. Or it might be both.
When fans asked Benny about it at a concert in Norway this week, he responded “it’s going to be huge”.
My guess: some form of entertainment with ABBA hologram figures, based on the holograms and life-size figures currently at ABBA The Museum, “performing” well-known ABBA hits, limited to the ABBA Gold tracklist.
We will have to wait for sometime in 2017 for more news.
ABBA Omnibus blog 