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''Voyage'' is the ninth and final studio album by the Swedish pop group
ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...
, released 5 November 2021. With ten songs written by
Benny Andersson Göran Bror Benny Andersson (; born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, singer, composer and producer best known as a member of the musical group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals ''Chess'', '' Kristina från Duvemåla'', and '' Mamma M ...
and
Björn Ulvaeus Björn Kristian Ulvaeus (; born 25 April 1945) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, producer, a member of the musical group ABBA, and co-composer of the musicals ''Chess'', '' Kristina från Duvemåla'', and '' Mamma Mia!'' He co-produced the films ...
, it is the group's first album of new material in forty years. The album was supported by the dual single release of "
I Still Have Faith in You "I Still Have Faith in You" is a song by Swedish pop music group ABBA. It was released on 2 September 2021 as a dual single alongside "Don't Shut Me Down" from the band's ninth studio album and first in 40 years, ''Voyage''. Anni-Frid Lyngstad p ...
" and "
Don't Shut Me Down "Don't Shut Me Down" is a song by Swedish pop music group ABBA. It was released as a single on 2 September 2021 as a dual single alongside " I Still Have Faith in You". Both songs are from the band's ninth studio album and its first in 40 years ...
", released alongside the album announcement on 2 September 2021. "
Just a Notion "Just a Notion" is a song by ABBA. It was released on 22 October 2021 as the second single from the quartet's 2021 album ''Voyage'', following the dual lead single " I Still Have Faith in You" and " Don't Shut Me Down", released in September 20 ...
" was issued as the second single on 22 October 2021, followed by the third single " Little Things" on 3 December. A digital
concert residency A concert residency (also known as musical residency or simply residency) is a series of concerts, similar to a concert tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countrie ...
in support of the album,
ABBA Voyage ABBA Voyage is a virtual concert residency by the Swedish pop group ABBA. The concerts feature virtual avatars (dubbed 'ABBAtars'), depicting the group as they appeared in 1977. The concerts are held in a purpose-built venue at the Queen Eliza ...
, opened in London on 27 May 2022. ''Voyage'' debuted atop the charts of Australia, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. It also became the group's highest-charting studio album ever in Canada and the United States, debuting at number two on the charts in both countries. The album was nominated for Album of the Year and
Best Pop Vocal Album The Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality vocal pop music albums. Awards in several ...
at the 2023 Grammy Awards, in addition to nominations for "I Still Have Faith in You" and "Don't Shut Me Down", the former for
Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without reg ...
at the 2022 Grammy Awards (the first Grammy nomination for the group), and the latter for Record of the Year and
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance The Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 63rd Grammy Awards category rules, "this category ...
at the 2023 Grammy Awards. The album has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.


Background

ABBA informally split up in 1983, following the release of their retrospective greatest hits album '' The Singles: The First Ten Years'' in late 1982. Renewed interest in the band grew from the 1990s onwards following the worldwide success of their greatest hits album ''
ABBA Gold ''ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits'' is a compilation album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released on 21 September 1992 through PolyGram and released in 2008 through Universal Music Australia, making it the first compilation to be released after t ...
'', the ABBA-based musical '' Mamma Mia!'' and the subsequent film of the same name, followed by its 2018 sequel, '' Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again'', and the use of their songs in some other film soundtracks such as ''
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert ''The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'' is a 1994 Australian road comedy film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot follows two drag queens, played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, and a transgender woman, played by Tere ...
'' and ''
Muriel's Wedding ''Muriel's Wedding'' is a 1994 Australian comedy-drama film written and directed by P.J. Hogan. The film, which stars Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Jeanie Drynan, Sophie Lee, and Bill Hunter, focuses on the socially awkward Muriel whose ambi ...
''. However, the members steadfastly refused to reunite. In 2000, they reportedly turned down an offer of $1 billion to perform again. In July 2008,
Björn Ulvaeus Björn Kristian Ulvaeus (; born 25 April 1945) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, producer, a member of the musical group ABBA, and co-composer of the musicals ''Chess'', '' Kristina från Duvemåla'', and '' Mamma Mia!'' He co-produced the films ...
categorically stated to ''
The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', kn ...
'', "We will never appear on stage again. There is simply no motivation to re-group." Ulvaeus reiterated this in a 2014 interview while promoting the publication of ''ABBA: The Official Photo Book''. On 6 June 2016, however, ABBA did informally reunite at a private party in
Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
. This led to a more formal reunion. Two years later, in April 2018, they announced they had recorded two new songs, "
I Still Have Faith in You "I Still Have Faith in You" is a song by Swedish pop music group ABBA. It was released on 2 September 2021 as a dual single alongside "Don't Shut Me Down" from the band's ninth studio album and first in 40 years, ''Voyage''. Anni-Frid Lyngstad p ...
" and "
Don't Shut Me Down "Don't Shut Me Down" is a song by Swedish pop music group ABBA. It was released as a single on 2 September 2021 as a dual single alongside " I Still Have Faith in You". Both songs are from the band's ninth studio album and its first in 40 years ...
". The new songs initially were intended to support both a
TV special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...
produced by
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and the
ABBA Voyage ABBA Voyage is a virtual concert residency by the Swedish pop group ABBA. The concerts feature virtual avatars (dubbed 'ABBAtars'), depicting the group as they appeared in 1977. The concerts are held in a purpose-built venue at the Queen Eliza ...
tour which the TV special itself supported. However, this project was later cancelled in favour of the "ABBAtar" tour announced months prior. One of the album's tracks, "
Just a Notion "Just a Notion" is a song by ABBA. It was released on 22 October 2021 as the second single from the quartet's 2021 album ''Voyage'', following the dual lead single " I Still Have Faith in You" and " Don't Shut Me Down", released in September 20 ...
", was previously partially included in a demo version as part of the medley "ABBA Undeleted" from the 1994 ''
Thank You for the Music "Thank You for the Music" is a song by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was originally featured on the group's fifth studio album, '' The Album'' (1977), and was released as a double-A sided single with "Eagle" in May 1978 in limited territories ...
'' box set. The reworked song was released as a single two weeks before the album, on 22 October 2021. Whilst the vocals date from 1978, its instrumentation was mostly re-recorded.


Promotion and announcement

Promotion for ''Voyage'' began with the website abbavoyage.com, going live on 26 August 2021. Billboards were erected in London, and social media accounts titled "ABBA Voyage" were also set up. The band announced during a 2 September 2021
YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
live stream that ''Voyage'' would be released on 5 November 2021. The two songs first announced in 2018, "
I Still Have Faith in You "I Still Have Faith in You" is a song by Swedish pop music group ABBA. It was released on 2 September 2021 as a dual single alongside "Don't Shut Me Down" from the band's ninth studio album and first in 40 years, ''Voyage''. Anni-Frid Lyngstad p ...
" and "
Don't Shut Me Down "Don't Shut Me Down" is a song by Swedish pop music group ABBA. It was released as a single on 2 September 2021 as a dual single alongside " I Still Have Faith in You". Both songs are from the band's ninth studio album and its first in 40 years ...
", were confirmed as the double-sided lead single from ''Voyage'' during the September 2021 live stream.


Tour

During the album announcement live stream, ABBA also announced a
concert residency A concert residency (also known as musical residency or simply residency) is a series of concerts, similar to a concert tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countrie ...
, known as
ABBA Voyage ABBA Voyage is a virtual concert residency by the Swedish pop group ABBA. The concerts feature virtual avatars (dubbed 'ABBAtars'), depicting the group as they appeared in 1977. The concerts are held in a purpose-built venue at the Queen Eliza ...
, with concerts starting from 27 May 2022 in a custom-built venue at
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City developm ...
in London. ABBA first announced they were preparing digital avatars in September 2017. Dubbed the "ABBAtars", they will appear during the
ABBA Voyage ABBA Voyage is a virtual concert residency by the Swedish pop group ABBA. The concerts feature virtual avatars (dubbed 'ABBAtars'), depicting the group as they appeared in 1977. The concerts are held in a purpose-built venue at the Queen Eliza ...
concerts in place of the four actual band members. To animate the avatars, the ABBA band members wore motion-capture suits and were filmed using 160 cameras, with graphics later added by
Industrial Light & Magic Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began pro ...
, a visual effects company. The ABBAtar tour was originally set for 2019, but was delayed due to technical issues. The
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
then forced the band to push the tour back to 2022, it now turning into a seven-month residency in London. , no further tour locations have been announced.


Critical reception

''Voyage'' was met with positive reviews from music critics. At
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 72 based on 16 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Aggregator
AnyDecentMusic? AnyDecentMusic? is a website that collates album reviews from magazines, websites, and newspapers. Primarily focused on popular music – covering rock, pop, electronic, dance, folk, country, roots, hip-hop, R&B, and rap – albums are adjudg ...
gave it 7.1 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from ''
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
'' website gave the album three and a half stars out of five and noted that "Andersson and Ulvaeus wisely decided not to follow any stylistic trend or adopt any modern production technique" which made the songs "recognizably ABBA music". He also wrote that like all ABBA's albums " tbrings the lows along with the highs" and called the album "unexpected and delightful". Helen Brown from ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' gave it a full rating of five out of five stars and noted that, as with songs from the 1970s albums, ABBA didn't try to follow the trend or "to update the gloriously gaudy vintage tinsel of their Eighties office party sound" and she stated that a lot of that comes from the fact that the song's creators, Bjorn and Benny, realized from the beginning, "it was their lack of freshness that struck a chord with everyone's inner outsider" and enabled them to have a long career. In his review for ''
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
'',
Neil McCormick Neil McCormick (born 31 March 1961) is a British music journalist, author and broadcaster. He has been Chief Music Critic for ''The Daily Telegraph'' since 1996, and presented a music interview show for Vintage TV in the UK, Neil McCormick's Nee ...
wrote that "ABBA’s reputation was established as a consummate singles outfit rather than an album band", and none of the songs featured are as good as their hit singles. He concluded by stating that the result as a whole "is out-of-time rather than timeless". Ed Potton from ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' magazine rated it with three stars out of five and stated that "''Voyage'' is a reassuringly familiar blend of clear-eyed sentiment, outrageous musicality and utter indifference to fashion". He praised Frida (about whom he claimed to have noticed a stronger Swedish accent than usual, although he doesn't consider this a bad thing) and Agnetha's vocals, calling them "pristine and moving", and wrote that even though the "songs can sound naff on first listen yet you’re pulled in by Benny Andersson’s melodic oomph and Bjorn Ulvaeus eccentric lyrical insights". Rob Sheffield from ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' gave the album four out of five stars and wrote that it's a surprise that the group has returned with new material and that "it’s a bigger, sweeter surprise that they returned so full of musical vitality. All these years after 'Waterloo', ABBA still refuse to surrender".


Commercial performance

''Voyage'' sold more than 1 million units worldwide in its first week of release. The album recorded 40,000 UK pre-orders in the first 24 hours following the announcement of its release. Three days after the album was announced, it had received over 80,000 pre-orders in the UK alone. This broke the record for the biggest pre-ordered album for Universal Music UK, previously held by ''
Progress Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension wi ...
'' (2010) by
Take That Take That are an English pop group formed in Manchester in 1990. The group currently consists of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen. The original line-up also featured Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. Barlow is the group's lead singe ...
. By October 2021, the album had recorded 111,000 pre-orders. Advance orders in the Netherlands totalled 40,000 copies. The album entered the
UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
at number one, with 204,000 chart sales, 90% (180,000) of which were physical sales. It was the biggest opening week for an album in the UK since
Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...
's '' ÷'' (2017), and became the fastest-selling album of 2021 as well as the fastest-selling vinyl LP of the 21st century, with 29,900 vinyl copies sold. It is ABBA's first number-one album since ''
ABBA Gold ''ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits'' is a compilation album by the Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released on 21 September 1992 through PolyGram and released in 2008 through Universal Music Australia, making it the first compilation to be released after t ...
'', which topped the chart in 1992, 1999 and 2008. It became the 3rd biggest album of 2021 in the UK with 400,000 units and the 2nd best-selling album with 387,000 pure sales. In Germany, the album also entered at number one on the
albums chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include re ...
with over 200,000 chart sales. In its first week, it sold more copies than the rest of the albums chart combined and also reached the top of the year-end albums chart for the time being. In Italy the album debuted at number six on the
albums chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include re ...
. ''Voyage'' became ABBA's highest-charting album in the United States, entering the ''Billboard'' 200 at number two on 20 November 2021, beating their previous high of number 14 with '' ABBA: The Album'' in 1978. It opened with 82,000
album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...
s, including 78,000 album sales (60,500 of which were physical), making it the highest-selling album of the week. According to
IFPI The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is the organisation that represents the interests of the recording industry worldwide. It is a non-profit members' organisation registered in Switzerland and founded in Italy in 19 ...
, ''Voyage'' was the eighth best-selling album worldwide (all formats) and the second in album sales list. The album sold 2,050,000 copies in 2021, and over 2,5 million till November 2022.


Track listing


Personnel

ABBA *
Anni-Frid Lyngstad Princess Anni-Frid Synni Reuss, Countess of Plauen (born Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad on 15 November 1945), also known by her nickname "Frida", is a Norwegian-born Swedish singer, songwriter and environmentalist, who is best known as one of the foun ...
– vocals (lead vocals on tracks 1, 8 and 9) *
Agnetha Fältskog Agneta Åse Fältskog (born 5 April 1950), known as Agnetha Fältskog (), is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and musician. She first achieved success in Sweden with the release of her 1968 self-titled debut album. She later achieved internatio ...
– vocals (lead vocals on tracks 4, 6 and 7) *
Björn Ulvaeus Björn Kristian Ulvaeus (; born 25 April 1945) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, producer, a member of the musical group ABBA, and co-composer of the musicals ''Chess'', '' Kristina från Duvemåla'', and '' Mamma Mia!'' He co-produced the films ...
– guitar, background vocals, co-producer, lyricist *
Benny Andersson Göran Bror Benny Andersson (; born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, singer, composer and producer best known as a member of the musical group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals ''Chess'', '' Kristina från Duvemåla'', and '' Mamma M ...
– vocals, piano, synthesizer, arrangements, mixing, producer Other vocalists *The Children's Choir of
Stockholm International School Stockholm International School (SIS) provides an international education in English to approximately 700 students aged 3–18 in the heart of Sweden's capital. Offering the International Primary Curriculum and International Baccalaureate Middle ...
(track 3) Other musicians * Jan Bengtson – baritone saxophone, flute * Mats Englund – bass (track 6) *Pär Grebacken – clarinet, recorder, tenor saxophone *
Per Lindvall Per is a Latin preposition which means "through" or "for each", as in per capita. Per or PER may also refer to: Places * IOC country code for Peru * Pér, a village in Hungary * Chapman code for Perthshire, historic county in Scotland Math ...
– drums, percussion *
Lasse Jonsson Lasse is a common masculine given name in Nordic countries. It is also often a nickname for people named Lars or Lauri. People Notable people named Lasse include: * Lasse Aasland (1926–2001), Norwegian politician *Lasse Åberg (born 1940), S ...
– guitar *
Lasse Wellander Lars-Ove "Lasse" Wellander (18 June 1952 – 7 April 2023) was a Swedish guitarist who played with ABBA. He first recorded with the group's backing band in 1974 and was featured on their debut album as well as on several subsequent hits. Wella ...
– guitar *
Margareta Bengtson Margareta Bengtson (born 1966) (formerly Margareta Jalkéus, having married and divorced Real Group bandmate Anders Jalkeus) is the former soprano of The Real Group, a professional a cappella vocal jazz quintet from Sweden. She sang with the gr ...
– harp Production and design * Görel Hanser – coordinator *
Baillie Walsh Baillie Walsh is a film director and screenwriter. Career Walsh made his feature-film debut with ''Flashbacks of a Fool,'' starring Daniel Craig and Felicity Jones, which he wrote and directed. He has also directed the documentaries ''Mirror M ...
– design *Bernard Löhr – engineer, programming, mixing *Linn Fijal – engineer *Vilma Colling – engineer * Björn Engelmann – mastering *Kimberley Akester – music director, Children's Choir of the Stockholm International School (track 3) *Anneli Thompson – musical assistance, Children's Choir of the Stockholm International School (track 3) * Göran Arnberg – orchestrator/conductor, Stockholm Concert Orchestra (track 10)


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications and sales


Release history


References


External links


Official ABBA ''Voyage'' website
{{ABBA 2021 albums ABBA albums Albums produced by Benny Andersson Albums produced by Björn Ulvaeus Polar Music albums