After five years of teasing us without ever really revealing very much, ABBA have finally returned to the stage (kinda) - more than 40 years since the Swedish foursome last did so.
Three thousand fans are packing out the purpose-built ABBA Arena in East London every night to watch ABBA Voyage, a show HuffPost described as “jaw-dropping”.
With groundbreaking technology at the show’s heart, it took a team of thousands and a mind-boggling one billion computing hours to create.
Here, we take a look at how the fantasy became a (virtual) reality...
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), founded by George Lucas of Star Wars fame, created the digital versions of ABBA, known as ABBAtars
“They got on a stage in front of 160 cameras and almost as many genius [digital] artists, and performed every song in this show to perfection, capturing every mannerism, every emotion, the soul of their beings — so that becomes the great magic of this endeavour,” explains producer Ludvig Andersson.
“It is not four people pretending to be ABBA: It is actually them,”
It took 1000 artists working in four global studios to bring the ABBAtars to life
“Their enthusiasm, professionalism and love for their craft has not only been very infectious but also paramount for the whole endeavour,” Ludvig says.
ABBA are officially more important than Batman
“It took a while to convince ILR to do it because we’re basically taking over the whole company,” Ludvig reveals.
“They had Batman going ‘hello, we have Batman and we need you’. It was a big decision for ILM to take us on.”
160 cameras were used to film ABBA’s motion capture performance technique over a five week period
“For a whole month we got into our ‘space suits’ and helmets to perform our songs,” Agnetha recalls.
“It got a little hot under the lights and spots, but there was nothing for it but to carry on. Sometimes all four of us wondered what it was we’d got ourselves into.”
The sight of each other in their ‘strange’ motion capture outfits had the whole group cracking up
“It’s no exaggeration to say that it took a few days to get used to it, both seeing yourself in the mirror and the others in these strange outfits,” Frida says.
Agnetha adds: “We had many wonderful laughs looking at each other.”
Each day of filming was themed by a different ABBA song
“Every day had a working title, which was the title of one of our songs,” Frida recalls.
“Images were hung on the walls of our backstage room to illustrate the day’s theme. It all helped create a great working environment and sense of community.”
…And that meant the crew really embraced the themes too
“On Eurovision Day, all the crew was dressed like Napoleon and carrying the Swedish flag,” Producer Ludvig remembers.
ABBA’s signature moves are present and correct… but they’ve cleverly been brought bang up to date
World-renowned and award-winning choreographer, Wayne McGregor has been working with ABBA since 2020 to bring movement and life to the ABBAtars, innovating with their signature dance style.
The stunning costumes are all real designs, which have been digitised
There are five costume changes during the show, with design created by Dolce & Gabbana, Manish Arora, Erevos Aether and Michael Schmidt.
There is a 10-piece live band accompanying the ABBAtars on stage
“The fact that every note you hear is being played live, in the moment, is one of the fundamentals of the whole project,” says producer Ludvig.
It is LOUD
There are 291 speakers inside the ABBA Arena, creating 870,000 watts of audio amplification, which means nothing to us but it sounds very, very impressive.
There are also a LOT of lights
30,000 individually controlled lighting points and 500 moving lights to be precise. That’s going to be one hefty electricity bill.
The lighting plays a major role in the show
“It’s one of the three creative pillars that sublimates the ABBA avatars by weaving a link between two worlds: the real room and the virtual stage,” explains lighting producer Matthew Debay.
“Creating a bridge between the world of cinema and the world of entertainment. That was our challenge.”
The show features 20 songs… but it took a long time to narrow them down
“I think Benny and Björn did about 18 versions of the setlist,” producer Ludvig reveals.
Director Baillie Walsh was already a huge ABBA fan
“I’m not just a fan of ABBA, they’re in my DNA,” he revealed. “They’re part of who I am. I saw them win Eurovision and they’ve been in my life ever since.”
Choreographer Wayne McGregor has also always been a massive fan of the group
“I grew up listening to ABBA in Stockport. I learnt Ballroom, Latin American and Disco dance to ABBA tracks,” Wayne recalls.
HuffPost UK were at the opening night of the show. Read our review of ABBA Voyage here.
ABBA Voyage is now booking until 28 May 2023 with more dates to be released soon. For more information go to abbavoyage.com.