Benny Andersson | Interview with Jan Gradvall 2024 - Benny Anderssons Orkester

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIvT4FBn0ps

ABBA Voyage revenue topped £100m in 2023

Friday 27 September 2024 

Abba Voyage doubles profit as sales pass £100m

By:Jon Robinson

Abba Voyage first launched in 2022.

The company behind London’s Abba Voyage experience more than doubled its pre-tax profit as its turnover passed the £100m mark during 2023, it has been revealed.

The business has reported a profit of £6m for the 12 months, up from the £3m it achieved in 2022.

According to newly-filed accounts with Companies House, Abba Voyage’s turnover also increased from £97.1m to £103.6m over the same period.

The accounts show that its turnover from show sales surged from £58.8m to £101.5m in the year as its earnings from the sale of film rights were slashed from £15.3m to £1.1m.

Its turnover from the sale of stage rights also fell from £22.8m to almost £900,000.

In the year the average number of people employed by the firm behind Abba Voyage increased from 64 to 113.

Abba Voyage to continue ‘as long as possible’

A statement signed off by the board said: “The group’s long-term strategy is to continue to run the show in London for as long as it remains commercially viable.

“During the period, the group successfully operated the Abba Voyage show, building on the critical acclaim received following its launch in May 2022.”

In 2023, 374 performances were staged, up from 228, which attracted more than one million visitors, up from 675,600.

The company added: “There is substantial market demand for Abba Voyage and the directors anticipate a continued high level of activity throughout 2024.”

Concerts feature digital avatars which depict the group as they appeared in 1979.

They are held at Abba Arena, a purpose-built venue in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The results come after Oxford Metrics, the technology firm behind the concerts, posted a revenue of £23.5m for the first half of 2024, up 10.5 per cent.

However, its pre-tax profit fell by 17 per cent to 2.8m compared to the same period in 2023.

https://www.cityam.com/abba-voyage-doubles-profit-as-sales-pass-100m/GWRhg8A_aem_QdSfGctuzTEXDbPG2w6b1w

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 ABBA Voyage revenue topped £100m in 2023

The groundbreaking production sold more than 1m tickets last year, with the company behind it posting a £6m profit

By James Hanley on 30 Sep 2024

ABBA Voyage

image © Ralph Larmann

ABBA Voyage grossed more than £100 million (€120m) in 2023 after attracting in excess of one million visitors, it has been revealed.

The groundbreaking production pulled in a total of 1,097,597 visitors last year, according to documents filed in the UK with Companies House by Aniara, the firm behind the virtual concert residency.

Over the 12-month period, the show completed 374 performances and attracted 1,097,597 visitors, achieving an occupancy rate of 97.8%. Revenue from ticket sales was £103,665,597, with Aniara declaring a pre-tax profit of £6,065,402 – more than double the £2,990,757 garnered in 2022, when it played for seven months.

Held at the purpose-built 3,000-cap ‘ABBA Arena’ under the direction of producers Svana Gisla and Ludvig Andersson and director Baillie Walsh, the show debuted at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in May 2022.

“During the period, the group successfully operated the ABBA Voyage show, building on the critical acclaim received following its launch in May 2022,” reads the report. “There is a substantial market demand for ABBA Voyage and the directors anticipate a continued high level of activity throughout 2024.

“The group’s long term strategy is to continue the run of the show in London for as long as it remains commercially viable”

“The group’s long term strategy is to continue the run of the show in London for as long as it remains commercially viable.”

The show has brought the Swedish pop legends – Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus (co-founder of lead investor Pophouse Entertainment), Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad – back to the stage in avatar form, supported by a 10-piece live band. Standard tickets range from £27.50 to £319.50.

Costing £141 million, the entire venture was funded privately from Swedish investors. Turnover for the seven months its was active in 2022 was £97,118,038 from 675,600 visitors across 228 shows, meaning ticket sales revenue topped £200m in its first 19 months of operation.

By the year-end of 2023, Aniara had net assets of £13,886,925, compared to £5,826,001 12 months earlier.

Revisit IQ‘s 2022 interview with producers Svana Gisla and Ludvig Andersson and director Baillie Walsh here. Gisla also delivered a keynote during Touring Entertainment Live (TEL) at this year’s ILMC.

https://www.iq-mag.net/2024/09/abba-voyage-topped-100m-revenue-in-2023/

Bernard Lohr on preparing ABBA Voyage’s audio and mixing ABBA Gold in Dolby Atmos

 Bernard Lohr on preparing ABBA Voyage’s audio and mixing ABBA Gold in Dolby Atmos

Words By Alice Gustafson 

jun26, 2024

Bernard Lohr on preparing ABBA Voyage’s audio and mixing ABBA Gold in Dolby Atmos

Bernard Lohr is one of the founders of Pole Position Production, a Swedish company which specialises in field recording, interactive sound design, industrial sonification, audio post production, game implementation, music production and composition. The former race car driver, who also serves as the in-house engineer at ABBA’s Benny Andersson’s Mono Music studio, reveals how he’s mixing ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits in Dolby Atmos, and how he prepared the songs for ABBA Voyage in London.

What are you currently working on?

I'm working on mixing the ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits album into Dolby Atmos, which takes a long time, but it's a very good result when it's finished. I have started on Dancing Queen, which is a lot of work, but it will be super. 

When I have played these mixes, Benny [Andersson] has listened to them and said, ‘This is great!’. People that are listening in Atmos seem to find things that they didn't hear before, which is very interesting. When you have an Atmos room, there’s so much more space for things to come through.

You were formerly a race car driver. When did you decide to get into the engineering side of things?

I studied mathematical physics at Chalmers University in Gothenburg, and did my exams in acoustic treatment and sound acoustics. Before I did the exam, I didn't know if I wanted to work with music and sound, or cars. Cars have been a hobby for my whole life. But driving race cars started quite a lot later, when I had had the money for it!



I didn't know if I wanted to work with music and sound, or cars!

You’re an in-house engineer at Benny Andersson’s Mono Music studio. How did you get started there?

I started in Gothenburg. I moved to Stockholm, and the guy that helped me find a place to start in Stockholm did the live mixing for ABBA, and he invited me to a few studios. I started at this studio called Soundtrade in the north part of Stockholm. 

After a couple of years I was head-hunted to Polar Studios, which was ABBA’s studio, and after a short while, I met Benny and Bjorn and started working together with them. After a while, I started freelancing while still working on Benny and Bjorn's music, and ABBA’s.

ABBA is a Swedish music institution; before you started as an engineer, could you ever have imagined working on their music with an ABBA member?

It was not something that I thought about from the beginning [smiles]. It just happened that way.

What is it like to work with ABBA?

It's like working with any band. I work so much with Benny and Bjorn, so I work with them on other things also, like musicals and so on. But it was really fun to hear Agnetha and Anni-Frid start singing, and it absolutely started to sound ‘ABBA’. That was really amazing.

When mixing the ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits album into Dolby Atmos, what has that process been like to reimagine these tracks in an immersive context?

It's difficult because it's a fun project, but it's very difficult because you have to find sync with the masters that are on the streaming services and the old ABBA multitracks, but they are, of course, recorded on analogue tape recorders. So the speed of the songs are not exactly the same, which takes a long time to find out how to do, but it's a real joy to work with.



it's a fun project, but it's very difficult because you have to find sync with the masters.

Have ABBA been involved in overseeing the immersive mixes?

Actually, they have left it to me a lot. I work until I feel that I'm finished, and then I take Benny up here, and he knows the material so damn well! If it’s a little wrong, he tells me directly, but otherwise, they seem to love it. It's both fun and difficult!

Which of ABBA’s work do you think sounds the best remixed in Atmos?

The first project I started work on in ‘real’ Atmos was Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. I recorded and mixed all the songs and mixed them together with Benny, and then mixed it for the movie in Dolby Atmos. I had to think of what to do with the songs. 

You have to leave the rock group holding it together in some way, then you can play with extra overdubs like background vocals, maybe acoustic guitar, sometimes strings and some special effects, but the main rock group has to hold together in a stereo type of field.

we had to cut up all the songs in pieces and straighten out the tempo.

Abba Voyage in London is extremely popular and is regarded to be a spectacular, immersive experience. Were you involved in this with regards to the immersive mix for the purpose built ABBA Arena?

It's a live band with 10 musicians playing. I worked on it to deliver all the songs in a usable format to the theatre in London. We worked a lot here [Mono Music studio] first, and also, musicians came here to rehearse. So we tried to find out what was good to play when preparing all the songs for the theatre.

Tell us about what was involved with this project?

The only things that are recorded before are the voices of the girls, and in some songs, Benny's piano, because he's in the picture and he has to play the exact thing. 

So what we did was – together with an arranger that Benny often works with – we cut up all the songs, because they were recorded without click track, and it's impossible to follow the tempo as a musician if you don't have a click track that is steady. So we had to cut up all the songs in pieces and straighten out the tempo. 

A chorus can be a bit faster than the verse, but to be able to follow it, you have to have a click track to play to. So that was a lot of work.

Were there any other challenges involved in this unique project?

The problem was to actually make the songs playable so that the musician could play to them. Then, of course, we had to play around with all the vocals so it fits and sounds right. It was a long project because they had to do the animation and it's a lot of work, maybe one and a half years or something like that just for the animation. 

It's so much work, and then they have to have all the vocals ready. So it took a lot of time, but I agree on the result. It's fantastic to see!

What were your first impressions when you saw the finished show?

The first time I was there, long before the premiere, I came into the arena and saw a technician creeping on the floor, fixing some cables. I saw four people standing and trying to play on stage. The more I looked, I saw that it was ABBA! I didn't realise it was just a screen. It seems like they were there!



Benny has used Genelecs for maybe 15 years as the only monitors he actually relies on.

You’re building new studios at Pole Position Production using Genelec studio monitors. Why were they the right choice for the new Atmos studio?

There have been so many Genelec versions, and I like them a lot as an Atmos system. They work fantastically. It's a studio standard; almost everybody seems to like them and work with them, so of course it should be Genelecs. The guys that work for us like them a lot too. There will be at least one Dolby Atmos room, and we have three more studios to do.

How do Genelecs give you confidence in your immersive work?

They have a good sound field and they spread quite well. I like the sound of them a lot. I listened to them at an exhibition for the first time and liked them from the beginning. They are just super.

Mono Music studio has also just upgraded to Atmos; was this also using Genelelec monitors?

Yes, definitely. That's where I'm sitting right now! It's a 7.2.4 system.

It’s a Genelec 7.2.4 The Ones speakers with two subwoofers .Did Benny specifically request Genelecs for his studio?

He loves the Genelecs and has his own writing room here in the building. He has used Genelecs for more than 10 years, maybe 15 years, as the only monitors he actually relies on.

https://headlinermagazine.net/bernard-lohr-abba-voyage-audio-mixing-abba-gold-dolby-atmos.html

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Detalles desconocidos del nuevo disco – desde el interior del estudio Abba

Texto: Johan Bratell

Publicerad 26 sep 2021 kl 12.08

Abbas ”Todavía tengo fe en you” y ”Don't Shut me down” fue recibido con los brazos abiertos por fans y críticos y ahora muchos esperan ansiosamente que el álbum se lance el 5 de noviembre.

En una larga entrevista, Bernard Löhr, que trabaja con la música de Abbas desde hace 15 años, habla de los detalles secretos detrás del nuevo disco.

– Dijeron que estaba nervioso un par de semanas antes de ese jueves, Benny y Björn estaban nerviosos, dice.

ABBA

A pocos pasos del Museo Nacional y del Grand Hôtel, en una pequeña casa en Skeppsholmen en Estocolmo, se encuentra Bernard Löhr. Originario de Karlskoga y con educación en física técnica de Chalmers, no estaba del todo claro que en 2021 se sentaría junto a Benny Andersson y mezclaría el nuevo álbum de Abba.

El viaje comenzó durante sus años de estudiante cuando tocó en una banda, navegando entre diferentes estudios en los años 80 de Gotemburgo. Finalmente, también recibió una oferta para empezar a trabajar en uno de los estudios.

Tres años más tarde, la carga de mudanzas se trasladó a Estocolmo y finalmente acabó en la discográfica Polar, por lo que entró en contacto por primera vez con Benny Andersson. La colaboración entre el dúo finalmente resultó en el musical ”Chess”, y luego quedó enganchado.

– Después de eso he trabajado con Benny con todos los lanzamientos de ”Benny Andersson's Orchestra”, Chess in Swedish, Kristina from Duvemåla, el musical Mamma Mia y las películas. Básicamente todo lo que Benny ha hecho, en lo que he estado involucrado desde entonces.

Mientras tanto, ha realizado alrededor de 40 colaboraciones con el legendario estudio Cherion en Fridhemsplan y varias otras colaboraciones antes de que Benny Andersson lo invitara a Abba.

He trabajado con – Abba durante quizás 15 años. De vez en cuando se ha publicado alguna grabación en vivo, etc., pero, por supuesto, no hay material nuevo. He hecho un poco de eso hasta hace poco.

Bernard selecciona su calendario en la computadora, que está instalada en la mesa de mezclas de aproximadamente tres metros de largo.

– A principios de mes entre mayo y junio de 2017, dice.

Fue entonces cuando Abba se reunió nuevamente en un ambiente de estudio.

– Estoy aquí en la casa todos los días, así que escucho un poco, aunque normalmente lo escucho por último. Pero luego Benny dice que hemos reservado dos semanas y que vamos a empezar a intentar trabajar en esto, y luego veremos si pasa algo, así fue aproximadamente. Me preparé bien de tal manera que me aseguré de que todo funcionara en el gran estudio, que está en la casa de al lado.

Foto: ANNA-KARIN NILSSON

Junto con Björn Ulvaeus, de 76 años, Benny Andersson, de 74, Agnetha Fältskog, de 71 años, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, de 75 años, y algunas otras personas, entró al estudio.

– Al principio estaba un poco nervioso, ”¿cómo será?” Lo que fue tan fascinante fue cuando las chicas o mujeres entran, se sientan y empiezan a cantar – y suena como antes. Simplemente nos sentamos y nos miramos: ”wow”. No habían cantado juntos en 35 años ni nada por el estilo, pero ya era hora.

– Fue muy divertido. De repente sintió que el trabajo era fácil de alguna manera. Puede ser así a veces, trabajas y trabajas pero apenas avanza, pero aquí progresó inmediatamente. Se sintió muy fácil y todos pensaron que era muy divertido. Eso fue lo que finalmente lo convirtió en un álbum, que todos, las chicas y Björn, Benny y yo, por supuesto, pensamos que era muy divertido.

¿Qué pasó después?

– Desde entonces hemos hecho varias canciones, dos años después. ¿Cuatro tal vez? Y el resto este año. También se han probado un par de canciones que han desaparecido, pero ese siempre es el caso cuando haces un disco. Abba tiene una regla que dice que si hay alguien que no cree que una canción sea buena, la elimina y se le ocurre algo nuevo.

Confirma dos títulos de canciones en el nuevo disco

En el estudio de Skeppsholmen, donde vive Bernard Löhr desde 1992 y que está de pared a pared con el de Benny Andersson, soplan vientos de cambio. Se deben introducir nuevos sistemas de altavoces para que funcionen con uno de los nuevos requisitos de Abba cuando se trata de cómo la música ahora puede, y según algunos, debe sonar.

– Terminamos relativamente con el disco antes de tomarnos unas vacaciones este verano, pero luego hay mucho trabajo posterior. Solía ser sólo un formato, luego se convirtió en CD y ahora son todos los formatos posibles e imposibles. Implica bastante post-trabajo, hay que comprobarlo para que todo suene bien.

– Intentaré que las canciones suenen exactamente como son, pero de alguna manera en un entorno. Entonces usaré las mezclas que hemos hecho, luego traeré a Benny y Björn y luego tendrán que sentarse, escuchar y pensar. ”¿Será bueno esto o arruinará la canción?”, como.

¿Son generalmente críticos?

– Cuando grabamos, probablemente ambos sean críticos en muchos sentidos, cuando los mezclamos somos principalmente Benny y yo quienes nos sentamos. Es el arreglo de Benny desde el principio, básicamente todo, luego pondré un poco de mezcla en la que creo, luego ambos nos sentaremos aquí y quitaremos las reglas.

– Lo hemos estado haciendo durante muchos años, así que sé lo que le gusta a Benny y él sabe lo que a mí me gusta, y básicamente normalmente pensamos igual. Estamos muy tejidos de esa manera cuando trabajamos.

¿cómo sucede cuando Abba crea música?

– Benny siempre hace algunos bocetos primero, luego los grabamos para tener una base para los fondos y luego grabamos la música mientras Benny continúa trabajando en la base. Retoma, rehace. No son producciones simples, hay algunas canciones que son simples, pero ”todavía tengo fe en you”, por ejemplo, son cientos de pistas. Es mucho más de lo que crees y lleva un poco de tiempo transmitirlo.

– ”Todavía tengo fe en you”, Benny la había tenido antes y la había tocado, así que lo sabía y pensé que incluso entonces era una canción fantástica. Realmente no sé si tuvo algún otro pensamiento al respecto en primer lugar, pero al menos terminó aquí.

¿Lo habías oído antes?

– Tenía un texto diferente desde el principio y era algo completamente diferente, realmente no sé para qué estaba destinado originalmente, pero luego Björn escribió este texto y luego cayó increíblemente bien en este concepto. Eso es más o menos lo que puedo decir que sé.

¿QUÉ CARACTERIZA UNA CANCIÓN DE ABBA?

Bernard Loehr:

”Lo más fácil de responder son las voces de las chicas, las dos juntas se convierten en Abba y nadie más lo ha hecho sonar así. Realmente no puedo decirlo, pero van bien juntos y tienen muy buen momento juntos. Entonces los arreglos son increíblemente mucho más complicados de lo que crees.

Es muy raro que el versículo uno y el versículo dos tengan exactamente la misma estructura. Generalmente no los tienen, aunque no lo pienses, lo que significa que las canciones nunca se vuelven molestas. La mayoría de las veces, escribes algunos acordes, versos y melodías y luego los mueves al segundo verso y luego reescribes el texto. No es así con Abba, casi siempre es diferente de las diferentes fiestas, incluso si las experimentas como similares.

Todos los músicos que tocan de fondo dicen que es difícil. Estas no son canciones fáciles, aunque para los humanos pueden sonar simples. Ese es uno de los grandes, que no se vuelve molesto.”

¿Qué nos puedes contar sobre el nuevo disco?

– Es un disco bastante ancho, es bastante diferente pero hay un poco de cada uno. Son un poco de baladas, un poco de canciones pop, pero no quiero decir demasiado, tienen que decírtelo ellos mismos.

Continúa diciendo que Abba tiene una especie de regla de veto, lo que significa que si a alguien de la banda no le gusta la canción, se elimina.

– Una de las canciones ha sido rehecha varias veces. Es la canción de cierre del disco y es una especie de himno. Se llama ”Oda a la libertad”. El nombre ha circulado bien en Internet, así que puedo confirmarlo.

También se sabe que es una canción navideña en el disco. En una entrevista con Radio Tyresö, Bernard Löhr nos dijo que se llama ”Little Things”.

– Es muy simple, en cuanto a la grabación no tomó tanto tiempo. Son sólo dos voces, algunos teclados y esas cosas. Ni siquiera es la batería en esa canción.

Cuando ”The Winner Takes It All” fue lanzado en 1980, se especuló que la canción trataba sobre el divorcio entre Agnetha Fältskog y Björn Ulvaeus, algo que luego también se confirmó.

– Björn lo escribió sobre nosotros después de que nuestro matrimonio se vino abajo. El hecho de que lo escribiera justo cuando nos divorciamos es realmente conmovedor, dijo Agnetha Fältskog a Expressen en 2013.

¿Habrá algo similar en el nuevo disco?

– Hay tales piezas en todo esto, creo que es absolutamente. Hay algunas canciones tristes, pero muchas felices también, por supuesto.

¿Las canciones tristes?

– Quizás reflejan algo, pero aún con algún tipo de giro positivo al final.

¿Cuánto tiempo se requiere por canción?

– Se tarda al menos un mes en horas de trabajo. Si vas a hacer una buena producción de una canción que ha terminado de escribirse, te llevará al menos un mes, definitivamente es lo mínimo si no se trata solo de acordeón y voz, dice.

A Bernard Löhr le queda mucho trabajo antes de terminar su propio esfuerzo en ”Abba Voyage”, pero aunque la decisión no es suya, tiene claro un punto:

– Sería divertido hacer más.

– Es bueno que todos piensen que es muy divertido. No es algo que haya que apretar hacia adelante, está ahí sentado de alguna manera.

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Okända detaljerna om den nya skivan – inifrån Abba-studion

Text: Johan Bratell

Publicerad 26 sep 2021 kl 12.08

Abbas ”I still have faith in you” och ”Don't shut me down” togs emot med öppna armar av fans och kritiker och nu väntar många spänt på albumet som släpps 5 november.

I en lång intervju berättar Bernard Löhr, som jobbar med Abbas musik sedan 15 år, om hemliga detaljerna bakom nya plattan.

– De sa att det var nervöst ett par veckor innan den där torsdagen, Benny och Björn var nervösa båda två, säger han.

 Så går det till när Abba skapar sin musik

 Låttitlarna på nya skivan

 Särskilda regeln i studion

ABBA

En kort promenad från Nationalmuseum och Grand Hôtel, i ett litet hus på Skeppsholmen i Stockholm sitter Bernard Löhr. Ursprungligen från Karlskoga och med en utbildning i teknisk fysik från Chalmers var det inte alldeles glasklart att han 2021 skulle sitta tillsammans med Benny Andersson och mixa Abbas nya album.

Resan tog sin början under studieåren då han spelandes i ett band, kryssade mellan olika studios i 80-talets Göteborg. Så småningom fick han också ett erbjudande om att börja jobba i en av studiorna.

Tre år senare gick flyttlasset till Stockholm och så småningom hamnade han på skivbolaget Polar, och i samband med det kom han i kontakt med Benny Andersson för första gången. Samarbetet duon emellan mynnade så småningom ut i musikalen ”Chess”, och därefter var han fast.

– Efter det har jag jobbat med Benny med alla ”Benny Anderssons orkester”-släpp, Chess på svenska, Kristina från Duvemåla, Mamma Mia-musikalen och filmerna. I princip allt som Benny har gjort har jag varit inblandad i sedan dess.

Däremellan har han gjort ett 40-tal samarbeten med den legendariska Cherionstudion på Fridhemsplan, och flera andra samarbeten innan Benny Andersson bjöd in till Abba.

– Abba har jag jobbat med i kanske 15 år. Då och då har det varit någon release på någon live-upptagning och så vidare, men så klart inget nytt material. Lite sånt där har jag gjort, fram tills nyligen.

Bernard plockar fram sin kalender på datorn som står uppställd på det drygt tre meter långa mixerbordet.

– Vid månadsskiftet mellan maj och juni 2017, säger han.

Det var då Abba återförenades i studiomiljö igen.

– Jag är här i huset varje dag, så jag får ju höra lite, även om jag oftast får höra det sist av alla. Men då säger Benny att vi har bokat in två veckor och ska börja prova jobba med det här, och så får vi se om det blir något, ungefär så var det. Jag förberedde mig väl på det viset att jag bara såg till så att allting fungerade i stora studion, som ligger i nästa hus.

Foto: ANNA-KARIN NILSSON

Tillsammans med Björn Ulvaeus, 76, Benny Andersson, 74, Agnetha Fältskog, 71, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 75, och ett fåtal andra personer gick han in i studion.

– Det var väl lite nervöst först, ”hur ska det bli?” Det som var så fascinerande var när tjejerna eller kvinnorna går in och sätter sig och börjar sjunga – och det låter precis som förr. Vi satt bara och tittade på varandra: ”wow”. De hade ju inte sjungit ihop på 35 år eller något sånt där, men tajmning fanns.

– Det var väldigt roligt. Det kändes plötsligt att jobbet var lätt på något vis. Det kan vara så ibland, man jobbar och jobbar men det går knappt framåt, men här gick det framåt direkt. Det kändes så lätt och alla tyckte det var så roligt. Det var ju det som på sikt gjorde att det blev ett album, att alla, tjejerna och Björn och Benny och jag med förstås, tyckte det var jätteroligt.

Vad hände sedan?

– Sedan dess har vi gjort ett antal låtar, två år senare. Fyra kanske? Och resten i år. Det har testats ett par låtar också som har fallit bort, men så är det alltid när man gör en skiva. Abba har en regel ihop som säger att om det är någon som inte tycker att en låt är bra, så tar de bort den och hittar på något nytt.

Bekräftar två låttitlar på nya skivan

I studion på Skeppsholmen där Bernard Löhr huserat sedan 1992 och som ligger vägg-i-vägg med Benny Anderssons egen blåser förändringens vindar. Nya högtalarsystem ska in för att fungera med ett av de för Abba, nya kraven när det kommer till hur musiken numera kan, och enligt vissa, måste låta.

– Vi var väl relativt klara med skivan före vi tog semester i somras, men så är det massa efterarbete. Förr var det bara något format, sedan blev det cd, och nu är det alla möjliga och omöjliga format. Det innebär ganska mycket efterarbete, det måste kontrollyssnas så att allting låter okej.

– Jag kommer försöka få låtarna att låta exakt som de är, fast i surrond på något vis. Så jag kommer använda mig av mixarna vi har gjort, och sedan kommer jag ta in Benny och Björn och så får de sitta och lyssna och tycka. ”Blir det här bra eller förstör det låten?”, liksom.

Brukar de vara kritiska?

– När vi spelar in är de nog kritiska bägge två på många sätt, när vi mixar är det mest Benny och jag som sitter. Det är ju Bennys arrangemang från början, allting i princip, då lägger jag upp någon mix som jag tror på sedan sitter vi här båda två och drar i reglarna.

– Vi har gjort det i så många år så jag vet vad Benny gillar och han vet vad jag tycker om, och vi tycker i princip oftast lika. Vi är väldigt hopvävda på det viset när vi jobbar.

Hur går det till när Abba skapar musik?

– Benny gör alltid några skisser först, sedan tejpar vi ner dem så att vi har en grund för bakgrunderna och sedan spelar vi in musiken samtidigt som Benny jobbar vidare med grunden. Tar om, gör om. Det är inga enkla produktioner, det finns några låtar som är enkla, men ”I still have faith in you” till exempel, det är hundratals spår. Det är så mycket mer än vad man tror och det tar sin lilla tid att få fram det.

– ”I still have faith in you”, hade Benny haft innan och spelat upp, så den kände jag till och jag tyckte redan då att det var en fantastisk låt. Jag vet inte riktigt om han hade någon annan tanke med den från början, men den hamnade i alla fall här.

Du hade hört den innan?

– Den hade en annan text från början och var något helt annat, jag vet egentligen inte vad den var tänkt till från början, men sen så skrev Björn den här texten och då föll den så otroligt bra in i det här konceptet. Det är väl ungefär det jag kan säga att jag vet.

VAD KÄNNETECKNAR EN ABBA-LÅT?

Bernard Löhr:

”Det enklaste att svara är tjejernas röster, de två ihop blir Abba och det är ingen annan som har fått det att låta så. Riktigt varför kan jag inte säga, men de passar bra ihop och de har väldigt bra tajmning ihop. Sedan är arrangemangen otroligt mycket mer komplicerade än vad man tror.

Det är väldigt sällan som vers ett och vers två har exakt samma uppbyggnad. De har de oftast inte, även fast man inte tänker på det, vilket gör att låtarna aldrig blir tjatiga. Oftast är det så att man skriver några ackord, vers och melodi och sedan flyttar man det till andra versen och så skriver man om texten. Så är det inte med Abba, det är nästan alltid annorlunda de olika partierna, även fast man upplever dem som liknande.

Alla musiker som spelar i bakgrunden säger att det är svårt. Det är inte lätta låtar, även om de för människor kan låta enkla. Det är en av storheterna i det, att det inte blir tjatigt.”

Visa mer

Vad kan du berätta om nya skivan?

– Det är en ganska bred skiva, det är ganska mycket olika men det finns lite av varje. Det är lite ballader, lite poplåtar, men jag vill inte säga för mycket, det måste de berätta själva.

Han berättar vidare att Abba har en slags veto-regel som går ut på att om någon i bandet inte gillar låten, så stryks den.

– En av låtarna har gjorts om flera gånger. Det är den avslutande låten på skivan och är en slags hymn. ”Ode to freedom” heter den. Namnet har väl cirkulerat på internet, så det kan jag väl bekräfta.

Det är också känt att det är en jullåt på skivan. I en intervju med Radio Tyresö berättade Bernard Löhr att den heter ”Little things”.

– Den är väldigt enkel, inspelningsmässigt tog den inte så lång tid. Det är bara två röster, lite keyboards och grejer. Det är inte ens trummor på den låten.

När ”The winner takes it all” släpptes 1980 spekulerades det i att låten handlade om skilsmässan mellan Agnetha Fältskog och Björn Ulvaeus, något som senare också bekräftades.

– Björn skrev den om oss efter att vårt äktenskap gick i kras. Det faktum att han skrev den precis när vi skilde oss är rörande faktiskt, sa Agnetha Fältskog till Expressen 2013.

Kommer det vara något liknande på nya skivan?

– Det finns såna bitar i det hela, det tycker jag nog, absolut. Det finns lite sorgliga låtar, men många glada också förstås.

De sorgliga låtarna?

– De återspeglar någonting kanske, men ändå med någon slags positiv vändning på slutet.

Hur stor tidsåtgång är det per låt?

– Det tar minst en månad i arbetstid. Om man ska göra en bra produktion på en låt som är färdigskriven tar det minst en månad, det är absolut det minsta om det inte bara är dragspel och sång, säger han.

Det återstår en hel del arbete för Bernard Löhr innan han är i mål med sin egen insats i ”Abba Voyage”, men även om beslutet inte är hans är han tydlig på en punkt:

– Det vore kul att göra mer.

– Det är kul att alla tycker att det är så roligt. Det är inget som måste klämmas fram, utan det sitter där på något vis.

https://www.expressen.se/premium/noje/okanda-detaljerna-om-nya-skivan-inifran-abba-studion/

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ABBA Voyage: building a "magic ABBA space church"

 

ABBA Voyage: building a "magic ABBA space church"

Bea Mitchell — 

Svana Gisla, a producer for ABBA Voyage, has received multiple Grammy and Emmy award nominations for her work on music documentaries and live concerts. She has produced music videos for the likes of David Bowie, Madonna, Coldplay and the Rolling Stones. She has also worked with artists such as Jay-Z and Bruce Springsteen. Before ABBA Voyage, ABBA approached Gisla to create a music video with digital avatars. She was then enlisted with business partner Johan Renck to create a live experience.

Ludvig Andersson, son of ABBA’s Benny Andersson, is also a producer for ABBA Voyage. 

He has extensive experience in the music, theatre and film industries. He has worked on box office hits like the 2018 film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Originally a musician and artist, Andersson is also the founder and head of RMV, a publishing, film and record company based in Stockholm.

ABBA Voyage is a spectacular show in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park where Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid sing and dance as digital versions of themselves.

“To me, it’s simply a concert,” Gisla tells blooloop. “That was our end game. It’s the concert that ABBA wanted to put on in the 21st century. It’s ABBA’s best possible concert in the 21st century.”

ABBA’s best concert in the 21st century

“Go see it for yourself,” says Andersson. “I’m not saying that because I think it’s amazing. I say that because it’s the only way to explain it.

“The original concept came from the very simple question – if we’re going to do something with ABBA, but ABBA is not physically there, what should we do? ABBA Voyage is what came of that. Should it be done? Is it interesting? We decided it is interesting to do.”

He adds:

“I’ve spent years trying to explain to people that it’s not about trying to trick people that ABBA are really there. It has nothing to do with that. It’s about simply creating a piece of art that you simply step into. It’s an experience on an emotional level. And that was all that mattered to us, to create something that could be felt.”

“And yes, it’s just a concert. But it took a really long time to make, and a lot of love and effort went into making it. What it is and how it makes you feel is impossible to describe. You just have to go and see it. A lot of people also say they are struck by thoughts of ageing, of youth, of time passing, and even of death. Not in a negative way, but in a beautiful, uplifting way.”

“What we accidentally created is some kind of magic ABBA space church that is for everyone.”

Cutting-edge technology at ABBA Voyage

Through cutting-edge technology, incredibly immersive lighting, and ABBA’s iconic songs, the band takes to the stage in a whole new way. “Everything about this show was unusual, and therefore the creative process was unusual,” Gisla says.

“There were several different work streams. Creating ABBA digitally took a long time, with over 1,000 VFX artists. We had to build the arena, which is a whole process in itself, including finding land, planning permission and architects.”

Gisla adds:

“We were also putting on a live concert – so everything that goes into designing and procuring a live concert under the guidance of our director, Baillie Walsh. Also, setting up a company, employing people, and marketing and tickets.” 

“It was an enormous beast, to be honest – with a massive orchestra to conduct. We had fantastic people in every corner and still do, and they all contributed enormously. It was a joint effort in the greatest sense of that phrase. It really was humongous, but it was a very joyful and happy process. We didn’t really have a bad day; it was just so much fun. I think remnants of that live in the show, as it was created with a lot of joy and love by many very talented people.”

ABBA Voyage uses state-of-the-art technology, which the team chose “very, very carefully”, she says. “We looked at absolutely everything and did a lot of testing until we chose all the pieces of tech. It was great to collaborate with lighting artists from all over Europe. We didn’t really leave any stones unturned in finding the best possible procurement and people”.

Holograms by Industrial Light & Magic

The band members’ digital avatars, or holograms, were created by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the visual effects company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas. The band performed in motion capture suits, with cameras scanning their body movements and facial expressions. The resulting digital avatars are remarkable—almost unbelievable.

Gisla says: “We did two very big motion capture shoots – one in Sweden and one in London. The one in Sweden was right before the first lockdown in Covid. The second one was very complicated. We were the first film shoot in London after the lockdown in September 2020, with 50 people on set. It required a lot of planning, but we got through it, which was a miracle in itself. There was a lot of wind in our sails, and it felt like the clouds parted when we needed them to, for some miracle reason.

“Mine and Ludwig’s job, very often, was just to keep the path clean and clear for this project to be able to move forward all the time. That was tricky and often seemed quite impossible, but we did it. That’s a success in itself, regardless of the outcome, which thankfully was good.”

But back to the holograms, the ‘ABBAtars’. “I’ve never worked with ILM before because, obviously, they do huge, big, expensive movies,” she adds. 

ILM: a “magical dream factory”

“I just walked into their office with a storyboard in the beginning and was welcomed by Ben Morris [creative director at ILM] and Sue Lyster [executive in charge at ILM]. They welcomed us with open arms and said, ‘We’ve been waiting for something like this; our technology is capable of this now. It’s obviously pushing every single boundary, and we’re going to have to invent some stuff, but the technology is there, and we think we can do a great job at this.’

“So then we had the resources of some of the world’s most talented visual effects artists. We ended up using three or four of their studios internationally.”

“When you’ve got that backbone and that background of over 1,000 people pouring all their accumulated knowledge and artistry into your show, that’s a great feeling. They really did deliver. It was phenomenal what they did, and the attention to detail.”

Andersson says it was “a really nice process”. He adds:

“I think when they were presented with this idea, they were keen because they realised it was something that they had never done before, and it was also something basically that no one had ever done before.”

The ABBA Voyage project, he says, “took up ten times as much processing power as all the Star Wars movies. So it was also the biggest thing that they had ever done. We were there three times a week for reviews, just hanging out with them and getting to learn about [ILM]”.

“It’s just such a magical dream factory,” says Andersson.

Building the ABBA Arena

An entire arena was purpose-built for ABBA Voyage. Designed by entertainment architect Stufish, the building is widely reported to be fully demountable. Therefore, it is relocatable when the London show ends.

ABBA Voyage used five different lighting systems to align and match physical and digital light to trick the eye. Gisla adds: “Our lighting rig in the roof had to be redesigned three times to a point where it became so big that it’s actually very difficult to move. We will move eventually, I’m sure, but it’s not a flat pack.”

Andersson says building the arena was “a byproduct of what we wanted to do”.

He explains: “We realised we needed to construct our own venue to house ABBA Voyage. We can’t fit this anywhere else; we can’t tour it around. The physical building grew from the metaphysical idea of what the show would be. We started on the stage and built outwards, and that became the arena. That sounds pretentious, but that was how it was.”

Gisla says the ABBA Voyage team “exhausted every option of touring a show” early on in the creative process:

“We only really thought about this as a tour. It became very apparent, the deeper we got into this rabbit hole, that the amount of tech and stability, and then the geometry of the space that we needed in order for this digital world to blend and merge into the physical world, or shall I say for ABBA to be real on that stage digitally, needed a lot of control in terms of geometry.

“That you can only really get if you build it yourself. That also means you can’t move it from building to building unless you build more.”

When they decided to build an arena for ABBA Voyage (and got the green light from ABBA), Gisla says: “The whole thing just took flight”. Building an arena, she adds, “didn’t seem mad at all at the time, but obviously it’s a bit bonkers if you look back”.

“An audacious decision”

“That is quite an audacious decision for a show that nobody really knows if it will work or not. It just becomes a whole different project in that one decision,” she says.

“Within a year, we were presenting drawings to planning committees. It was ambitious, but if you’ve got ABBA prepared to come back together after 40 years, you’ve got those wonderful songs to work with, and you’ve got ABBA themselves being creative right next to you, it didn’t feel too ambitious. It felt right. ABBA deserves an ABBA Arena, we thought. Not many artists can pull that off, and ABBA is definitely one of them.”

Gisla has previously attributed the show’s success to ABBA’s involvement. “It starts right there. It starts not just with their music but with them as people. They’re very creative, they’re generous, they’re brilliant, obviously. They had involvement in every step of the process.”

ABBA’s involvement

“It trickles down from there quite easily. Their presence was in every one of those work streams. They were involved in absolutely all of them to some considerable detail, and that was fantastic.”

Andersson adds: “I think that’s definitely part of why people like coming. They feel that ABBA Voyage is not made by some corporation to make money. It’s actually made by ABBA, and it’s what ABBA wants to do now, today. It’s what ABBA wants you to see and feel.

“I think you feel that as an audience member, you feel that you’re not being lied to. There’s truth in it because the centre of the experience is the name on the building.”

“It was never a commercial venture. It was always a creative venture,” she says. “There’s not a single piece of costume that ABBA didn’t approve. Baillie sent them all of his lighting ideas for approval.

“It’s got their spirit, their sensibilities, and them ingrained into it. I think when you visit, you feel it. They chose to be on that stage, and more than that, they put themselves there and put the work in to be there. There is nothing cynical about it. It’s very genuinely theirs.”

Where to next for ABBA Voyage? 

ABBA Voyage welcomed more than one million visitors in its first year of opening. It also added £322.6 million to the London economy during that time. London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said the show is “a powerful example of how culture has a positive impact on our city”. 

As for where to go next, Gisla has already said the team is looking at venues in North America, Australia, and Asia. “We’re talking to quite a lot of potential partners in exactly those locations. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re looking at many different options,” she tells us. 

“I’m hoping that in a few months, we’ll be in a position to pinpoint those locations. We would love to open more arenas. There’s a lot of appetite for the show coming from lots of different places. It would be a real thrill to be able to open another one.” 



Image credit: Johan Persson

“In Australia, specifically, there’s a lot of love for ABBA, and vice versa. We would love to take it there, and the same for North America. We are looking at Vegas, New York, and all the obvious places. Maybe even another one in Europe one day. We’re as ambitious about this as we’ve been about everything else.”

Andersson agrees: “We’re working really hard to make that happen. It’s not so easy because of the time, effort and costs involved. But it was always part of what we wanted to do. In a year or two or so.”

Digital versions of Kiss 

Kiss has now sold its music catalogue and face paint designs to Pophouse Entertainment Group, one of the founding investors of ABBA Voyage. Using cutting-edge technology, Pophouse will create digital versions of Kiss, a Pophouse statement said. “They have their own company; I don’t know anyone involved in that. It’s very much a separate endeavour – there are multiple different companies out there going into this space,” Gisla says.

“To be honest, doing a virtual concert isn’t the idea; it’s how you do it. The technology is not enough in itself. So much more goes into it than just turning some lights on. Good luck to anyone who wants to do this – I know how hard this is, how long it takes, and how many problems you face. They will have exactly the same problem.”

Andersson adds: “I wish them all the best. I don’t know what they will do, but I would not do the same thing. I would try to do something different. If I were Kiss, not that it’s up to Kiss anymore, I would say let’s start with ‘What do we want to do, and what do we want that to be?’ I would assume they are doing something new and super cool.

“We were lucky. It’s also about luck. Just because we thought this was cool, that didn’t necessarily mean that other people were going to like our show. It turns out they did, which is still incredible every day. People show up to see this thing, and that’s amazing. We’re so incredibly lucky with that, but it’s always a gamble and a risk.”

ABBA Voyage “belongs to the audience”

He adds:

“There were so many of us involved in this, and anyone could at any moment have segued and said, ‘No, this is insane, we can’t do this, it’s not going to work’. But no one did. Everyone kept at it. It was a beautiful time for everyone involved, and now it’s out there, and it belongs to the audience. It’s such a privilege to have been involved in something like that.”

https://blooloop.com/technology/in-depth/abba-voyage/

Frida at ABBA Arena

 

2 years as partner to ABBA Voyage

After two years as an official partner to ABBA Voyage, we can conclude that some things were hard to foresee. “Two different worlds but still trying to do something that hasn’t been done before” says ABBA member Benny Andersson.

2 years as partner to ABBA Voyage

After two years as an official partner to ABBA Voyage, we can conclude that some things were hard to foresee.

“Two different worlds but still trying to do something that hasn’t been done before” says ABBA member Benny Andersson.

To be perfectly honest, the partnership in the beginning wasn’t crystal clear. It started with an ABBA Voyage-branded Oceanbird vessel sailing to the tones of “Eagle”, which Benny Andersson is playing beautifully on the piano in the film above, and naming a premium section in the ABBA Arena to the Oceanbird Lounge.

This is just what is seen on the outside, but on the inside, it is even more. Regular meetings about anything from how to best give back to the local community, to setting a sustainability roadmap.

“It has become a friendship more than anything else”, says Ludvig Andersson, Producer ABBA Voyage. “We strive at ABBA Voyage, as most of us do I suppose, to be as sustainable as possible. And there is Oceanbird who specializes in that. Suddenly we had access to a lot of knowledge and knowhow through our partner.”

“ABBA has never had a partner or a sponsor or any such thing because they never wanted that. But then this happened and suddenly we did want it because it was something else” says Ludvig Andersson.

Richard Jeppsson, Wallenius

Something worth going for

It was formed around shared values between pioneers: ABBA Voyage and Wallenius owner family (Oceanbird is a joint venture between Wallenius and Alfa Laval). Both ABBA and Wallenius have pushed the limits on what is possible in their fields, whether it´s new ways of making pop music and stage shows, or developing wind-powered ships.

“We realize more and more how similar our values are. We have expanded each other’s competences to new areas,” says Richard Jeppsson, SVP Wind Powered Projects at Wallenius Lines.

Benny Andersson, ABBA

ABBA member Benny Andersson also express how much he appreciate the partnership.

“Oceanbird is a great, great, great project. Such a fantastic innovation. It’s really something worth going for”.

ABBA Voyage supported 5,000 jobs

In the first year of the show, with 1 million tickets sold, ABBA Voyage contributed to a capital injection of £322.6 million to the local area in East London and supported more than 5,000 jobs, according to the independent study “ABBA Voyage, Economic Impact & Social Value Assessment” by Sound Diplomacy and social value consultancy RealWorth.

Other initiatives to benefit social sustainability are:

Calmer Concerts: an evening with accessibility for neurodiverse and autistic audiences with extra trained staff, reduced arena capacity and chill out zones

An educational workshop for 800 schoolchildren at the ABBA Arena during the summer months

Collaboration with the lesbian and gay mental health charity ELOP for Pride month

Sign-language shows: ticket holders receive a seat in a booth with the best view of the interpreter

“The success of ABBA Voyage shows how London is the music capital of the world,” he said. “I’m proud that City Hall was able to help ABBA bring this pioneering show to east London, providing huge benefits to both the local area and London’s wider economy” says London mayor Sadiq Khan, in Wallenius magazine Our Way.

Second anniversary of Abba Voyage

 

abba voyage video

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Bjorn and Benny at the ABBA Arena

video Svana Gisla

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abba voyage page

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source facebook groups

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ABBA stars reveal ‘proudest’ career achievement

Ellie Muir 

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Members of Abba have revealed their proudest moments, which include a range of pivotal achievements from winning Eurovision to being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

As the Swedish pop supergroup celebrate the two-year anniversary of Abba Voyage, their London-based immersive experience that sees digital Abba-tars perform their greatest hits in a stadium setting, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson reflected on the defining moments of their careers.

Björn, 79, admitted that the moment where it all began – Eurovision – was his proudest, because it established the band as a household name. It was 50 years ago when the quartet rrived on the stage at Brighton Dome and won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with their winning track “Waterloo” and soared to international pop stardom.

“The feeling afterwards that now the whole world knew about us and that we could now concentrate on the writing. It was absolutely fantastic,” said Björn of their Eurovision win, at a Q&A event with 3,000 fans in the audience, to celebrate the Abba Voyage anniversary.

Andersson, 77, said that his most fulfilling moment was being invited into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“Those are a few moments when you know that you’ve written a good tune. It doesn’t happen often, its maybe happened ten times in the last 40 years,” he said.

The two-year anniversary comes the same year as the band celebrate 50 years since their Eurovision win.

Some fans had hoped that the band would mark the occasion by reuniting on the Eurovision stage earlier this month, for the first time since 1982.

The hosts of Eurovision added fuel to the fire by ruthlessly teasing a potential surprise performance from an iconic band beginning with “A”.

However, many fans were left disappointed when the band’s virtual “Abbatars” performed instead.

Hosts Malin Åkerman and Petra Mede teased a performance from a Swedish super pop group “beginning with an A”, before introducing the popular pop trio Alcazar, who performed their hit “Crying at the Discoteque”. Fans instantly complained that they were duped by the gag, especially since Abba themselves had posted a TikTok just days before teasing a potential Eurovision performance.

The projection saw group members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad perform their hit “Waterloo”, which they performed when they won the same competition 50 years ago.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/abba-b2552520.html

I love the costumes that we have in Voyage

 I love the costumes that we have in Voyage." – Björn Ulvaeus 🪩 Take a closer look at some of the costumes in ABBA Voyage.

ABBA Voyage - Is Melbourne the next city??

 

ABBA close to landing Flemington as venue for spectacular virtual concert

Stephen Brook 

my5, 2024

Swedish pop group ABBA’s spectacular 3D virtual concert ABBA Voyage is close to signing a deal to build a permanent arena at Flemington Racecourse, making Melbourne the second city in the world to stage the 90-minute concert.

Michael Bolingbroke, chief executive officer and executive producer of ABBA Voyage, visited Melbourne from its London headquarters late last month and met with music promoters and officials from Visit Victoria and the Victorian government.



ABBA Voyage is a hit 40 years after the band split up.Credit: Johan Persson

Three sources with knowledge of negotiations but not authorised to speak publicly said a deal was close to being signed.

“It was a very positive meeting. I would suspect there will be an announcement within weeks,” one source said.

“Both sides want it and there are ongoing discussions to see if that can happen. But it has to make economic sense,” said another executive.

The negotiations involving ABBA Voyage, music promoter Paul Dainty, global live entertainment company TEG’s chief executive Geoff Jones, Visit Victoria and the state government have stepped up a notch since a previous meeting in December.

The cost of the venture is put at between $60 million to $100 million to build the arena and stage the hi-tech event, which uses LED screens to display the visuals, created with the help of Industrial Light & Magic, the company behind the Star Wars special effects.

Flemington Racecourse, which has hosted many concerts and music festivals and is accessible by train, is the preferred venue. It is currently hosting Canadian acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil in a big top tent.

Promoters are seeking a substantial government contribution of up to 25 per cent, which is beyond the scope of major events company Visit Victoria to provide.

Steve Dimopoulos, the Victorian Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, is keen to secure the concert but such an injection of funds needs the approval of Treasurer Tim Pallas and Premier Jacinta Allan.

“This would be a very big, very longstanding event,” one executive said.

The Sunday Age sent a list of questions to the minister’s office, which responded with a statement: “As Australia’s major events capital, we’re always looking at new opportunities and events for our calendar,” a spokeswoman said.

Paul Guerra, chief executive of the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, predicts the ABBA concert would be an even bigger hit in Melbourne than in London, where it has been making $US2 million ($AU3 million) a week, according to Bloomberg.

Promoter Paul Dainty Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“Melbourne gave ABBA its first No.1 hit, and so it is only right that Melbourne continues its celebrated connection through the ABBA Voyage experience,” Guerra said.

“It’s only Melbourne that has the style and capability to provide the right experience for ABBA fans from all over Australia and Asia Pacific.”

One scenario would see the permanent concert venue part-owned by the Victorian government and have a life beyond ABBA Voyage, which would need to run for years to recoup the investment.

Producers insist that fitting out a venue an existing theatre or arena is impossible due to the unique technology required to recreate 3D holographic likenesses of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad in their 1970s heyday belting out hits including Mamma Mia and Voulez-Vous accompanied by a live band and backing singers.

Since the show premiered in London in May 2022 it has broken records and the company has looked at expanding globally including to Las Vegas, Sydney and Singapore.

The pop group’s immense popularity in Australia made Sydney a favoured location but the NSW government withdrew from the process, citing the costs. Last year Melbourne successfully revived the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!

Last month ABBA fans celebrated 50 years since the group’s breakthrough moment at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton UK when they won with their single Waterloo.

Industry experts contacted by The Sunday Age said Victoria was maintaining its major events supremacy, even though Tuesday’s state budget is expected to cut deeply into the arts and culture sector.

“Melbourne is still a long way ahead, Victoria is starting a long way ahead and that is not only driven by money,” said lawyer Janet Whiting, who chairs Visit Victoria as well as the National Gallery of Victoria. “You need to think about better and different ways of doing things.”

One executive who declined to be named so he could speak frankly said NSW planned to build a covered arena with about 13,000 seats to compete with Rod Laver Arena: “Victoria should assume NSW is about to get very serious about live music and attracting the best gigs.”

Vas Katos, the chief executive of Anthem, a global entertainment consultancy firm based in Melbourne, said other states were successfully copying Melbourne’s major events strategy including developing government-backed organisations such as Destination NSW and Tourism & Events Queensland to compete with Visit Victoria.

“For the past few decades, our major events calendar has been Victoria’s answer to a spectacular harbour or Great Barrier Reef. Melbourne is now famous around the world for our culinary culture, arts scene, and major sporting events,” Katos said.

“Without the government partnerships, the commercials just don’t stack up for most producers and promoters to bring some of these global events to this country.”

“It is much more competitive these days. Victoria were the clear leaders of culture and hospitality, but the rest of Australia is absolutely catching up.”

Industry leaders cited South Australia’s aggressive campaign to stage the AFL Gather Round, Western Australia’s investment in the Coldplay concert, and Queensland’s expected major events investment ahead of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics

Others feel that Melbourne’s position is secure.

“We are so far ahead in the comedy stakes in Australia that whilst we are always looking to grow the festival in Melbourne we are not looking over our shoulder as much as other events,” said Bill Shannon, chairman of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

“You are never completely quarantined from a tough environment and a state that is hurting financially, but you take it on and look after yourself.”

Whiting said Victoria was still in a good position.

“It has been doing this for so long. Global rights holders want to do business with us. People like going out in Melbourne.”

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/abba-close-to-landing-flemington-as-venue-for-spectacular-virtual-concert-20240502-p5fobs.html

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