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Hit Different: How successful is ABBA's grand return?

ABBA’s virtual tour “like explaining a joke” - Cahill

Music journalists Mikey Cahill and Sosefina Fuamoli talk with Michelle Grace Hunder about how successful ABBA's return has been.

Not many expected legendary band ABBA to make a comeback and release new music, but that’s exactly what they did last week.

The new singles are 'I Still Have Faith In You' and 'Don't Shut Me Down'.

“It (‘I Still Have Faith in You’) is a five minute and ten second, very slow track that builds up to this little anthemic place, and you’re thinking can they somehow climb to the summit again?” Hit Different's Mikey Cahill said.

“With both of these songs, it’s really up very close to that blue-chip level of ABBA, and if you can get anywhere near that then you’ve massively succeeded.”

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“I don’t know why I was a bit surprised that ABBA’s new music was good, because they’re ABBA – they’re known for creating a pop framework that has obviously had and still does have a legacy to it,” fellow host Sosefina Fuamoli said.

Although Cahill, Fuamoli and music photographer Michelle Grace Hunder all agreed on the quality of the two new songs, the trio all had mixed opinions on ABBA’s proposal to tour next year.

"They're performing, but in a different way," - Fuamoli

The Swedish four-piece are building an arena in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for a series of virtual shows starting next May, as the ABBA Voyage concerts are set to be played in front of around 3,000 punters.

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We covered it on Hit Different, a weekly podcast that puts music culture in context.

“They’re performing, but in a different way,” Fuamoli explained.

“ABBA themselves are going to be appearing as avatars, they’ll be performing but appearing young, which is kind of creepy but kind of cool if they can pull it off, as it’ll be like ABBA in their prime.”

Cahill believes it could be “like explaining a joke” – something “they shouldn’t have to explain”. His verdict was that “it’ll either land or it won’t, so maybe it will be fantastic”.

The band will be supported by a ten-piece live band described by Klaxons' James Righton on Instagram as "the best group of musicians I've ever heard play together in a room". Star Wars and Indiana Jones creator George Lucas will also begin forging his way into the concert sphere on this tour with ABBA.

Having grown up loving ABBA via her parents, Michelle Grace Hunder can’t wait to see how the 2022 tour pans out.

“I'm excited for this,” she said.

“It can fall on the side of potentially being bad, but I think I will reserve judgement until I see it and then I’ll decide.”

Hear the full story on Hit Different, a free weekly podcast that puts music culture in context.

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