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How to stream the new ABBA Voyage songs online

Listen to the latest tracks from ABBA Voyage

For the first time in 40 years, ABBA is ready to make us fall in love with its disco-pop tracks all over again with its new studio album, Voyage. While the full album won't be playable until 5 November later this year, you can listen to the first two tracks online right now.

Alongside the release of Don't Shut Me Down and I Still Have Faith In You, ABBA has announced a new concert too. Called ABBA Voyage (confusing, we know) the pop stars will be brought to life using virtual avatars alongside a 10-piece live band in a custom-built arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London.

Much like the music on their new album, ABBA Voyage will blend the old and new into a music experience you don't want to miss. Though if you can't wait until Spring 2022 to get a taste of what ABBA has to offer us, here's how you can boogie down to two of their new songs today.

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How can I listen to ABBA’s new music?

Thankfully ABBA's new music isn't exclusive to any one streaming service, and there isn't a tricky technique to have to use to access it. It's all available right now on all of the best music streaming services out there. That includes popular favorites like Spotify , Apple Music , and Amazon Music as well as all the others you can find links to from ABBA's official page .

You can even find music videos for the new tracks on YouTube along with a trailer for the new ABBA concert.

If you want to snag tickets to ABBA Voyage they will go on sale to the public at 5 AM ET / 10 AM BST / 7 PM ACT on 7 September. You can find out more and register your interest on the ABBA Voyage page to get early access, too.

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Hamish is a Senior Staff Writer for TechRadar and you’ll see his name appearing on articles across nearly every topic on the site from smart home deals to speaker reviews to graphics card news and everything in between. He uses his broad range of knowledge to help explain the latest gadgets and if they’re a must-buy or a fad fueled by hype. Though his specialty is writing about everything going on in the world of virtual reality and augmented reality.

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ABBA Take Trip to the Future With Virtual Live Show: Inside the Pioneering Production

The four members of ABBA made a rare public appearance to watch their 'ABBA-tars' perform in the highly technical stage show.

By Richard Smirke

Richard Smirke

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LONDON — After a 40-year wait, Swedish pop sensations ABBA made their eagerly-anticipated return to the live stage on Thursday. And although none of the real-life musicians were actually onstage performing, all four of them were present in London, making a rare public appearance at the premiere of their virtual live concert ABBA Voyage.

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Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog walked the red carpet and received a rapturous standing ovation when they appeared onstage together at the end of the much-hyped show, which features de-aged digital avatar versions of the band – or ABBA-tars, as the show’s producers insist on calling them – and takes place in a new purpose-built 3,000-capacity ABBA Arena in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London.

ABBA Partner Pophouse Enters Catalog-Buying Market With Swedish Mafia House Deal

Billed as a “Concert Like No Other,” the launch was attended by King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, as well as several music stars and VIPs, including Kylie Minogue, Zara Larsson, Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker, Kate Moss and Keira Knightley.

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For lovers of ABBA, who broke up in 1982 and have continually resisted lucrative offers to re-form, ABBA Voyage delivers the type of jaw-dropping greatest hits live show that most fans thought they’d never get the chance to see again.

For the wider live music industry, it represents a fascinating glimpse into a potential future where the world’s biggest acts no longer have to travel or even physically appear onstage to pack concert venues and sell millions of tickets, theoretically extending an act’s touring career well into old age and, if demand allows, beyond death.

The concept is not new and versions of 3D hologram live music shows have been around for several years now: Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Whitney Houston, Tupac Shakur and Roy Orbison are among the artists that have been recreated digitally for audiences’ entertainment, with varying degrees of success and believability.

ABBA Voyage represents a seismic leap forward in terms of technology and sheer scale to sit at the cutting edge of what virtual concerts can now deliver. Breaking new ground comes at a high price, however, with the Swedish band reportedly needing to recoup around £140 million ($176 million) to cover production costs (a spokesperson for the production declined to comment on how much the show costs to stage).

Work on the production began in 2016 and went through several different guises as the thinking and technology behind it evolved. Early on, the show was envisaged as a hologram-type event, then a touring concert series, before settling on a London residency.

To create the digital versions of Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Frida, technicians from George Lucas’ special effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) spent five weeks inside a Stockholm movie studio filming the four band members – now all in their 70s – performing their back catalog, while wearing figure-hugging motion-capture suits.

There were 160 cameras scanning their bodies, recording their every movement and facial expression, which the designers then used as the basis for the avatars that drive the live show. Body doubles were also used in the motion capture process to give the digital band – represented in their late 1970s prime, complete with glitzy sequined costumes and winged catsuit outfits designed by B Åkerlund and Dolce & Gabbana — a more youthful energy.

More than 1,000 visual-effects artists and one billion computing hours went into making the ABBA-tars as eerily realistic and human-like as possible. During the show, they appear on huge 65-million-pixel screens, often as life-sized versions of their younger selves. At other times, the four musicians are shown in photo-realistic close up on the large screens that loom over the dance floor and surrounding seats.

The boundaries between physical and digital realms are further blurred by a 10-piece live band that energetically performs the group’s hits onstage, merging seamlessly with recordings of Agnetha and Frida’s voices, Bjorn’s guitar and Benny’s piano.

A spectacular light show utilizing 20 lighting rigs and over 500 moving lights add to the visual spectacle, helping create the illusion that you have travelled back in time and the four members of ABBA are there, performing on stage in front of you.

The magic is temporarily broken whenever the avatars address the audience and their pre-recorded words are drowned out by the crowd (rather than pausing and milking the applause as any seasoned real-life performer would instinctively do). But the show moves at such a fast visually stimulating pace that these awkward moments are fleeting and soon forgotten.

There are also playful nods to the digital artifice on display with the four characters routinely joking about how good they look for their age or pretending to struggle to get into their costumes. Two animations by U.K.-based visual artists Shynola effectively act as big-budget intervals between the virtual avatar performances, while the production team – led by Ludvig Andersson, son of Benny, Svana Gisla and director Baillie Walsh — wisely steer clear of making the avatars’ dancing seem too slickly choreographed and synchronized, replicating the quirky homespun charm of the original performers.

“With ABBA Voyage the band have created their own monument which is as brilliant and timeless as their music,” says Frank Briegmann , chairman & CEO Universal Music Central Europe and Deutsche Grammophon.

For now, the concert runs just over 90 minutes with 20 songs, spanning some of ABBA’s biggest hits (“Mamma Mia”, “Thank You For The Music”, “The Winner Takes It All”, “Knowing Me Knowing You”) alongside fan favorite album cuts (“The Visitors,” “Hole In Your Soul,” “When All Is Said And Done”) and two tracks from last year’s comeback album, also called Voyage (“Don’t Shut Me Down” and “I Still Have Faith In You”).

It’s a safe assumption that the set list will change over time with new songs dropped into the production at regular intervals throughout its run to encourage repeat visits. The model behind ABBA Voyage is expressly built to maximize those revenue generating opportunities, with the show booked to run in London for least the next 12 months, hosting between seven and nine gigs a week, including two weekend matinees. (In an interview with Variety earlier this week, Andersson said they had sold around 380,000 tickets so far).

Beyond that, the purpose-built venue — a futuristic-looking steel structure which loosely resembles a 70s spacecraft, houses 291 speakers and has LED lights spelling out the band’s name on its outer skin – has a four-year lease agreement with London council in place, meaning that more than four million people could pass through its doors by the time the show leaves the U.K. in late 2026 (based on full capacity shows running seven times a week).

Where ABBA Voyage goes after that is open to all possibilities with the band’s global popularity – enhanced by the two Mamma Mia feature films, spin off Mamma Mia! The Party dining experience and ongoing popularity of the group’s evergreen catalog – meaning they could theoretically pack up and transport the ABBA Arena, or even operate multiple versions of the same immersive concert experience, anywhere in the world.

“To be or not to be,” wise cracks Benny’s avatar during the show “That is no longer the question.” ABBA Voyage makes those words a reality.

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27 May 2022 12:24 PM

ABBA Voyage live in London: groundbreaking pop meets jaw-dropping spectacle

The futuristic new show from the legendary swedish pop group is uncannily, eerily realistic – it has to be seen to be believed.

By Brit Dawson

It’s about a quarter of the way into the opening night of ABBA ’s Voyage residency when Benny Andersson starts stripping on stage. “We’re going to keep you in the dark while I make a quick costume change,” he tells the laughing crowd. “Can I get the towel? I never liked this costume in the first place. My arm is stuck, can you help me?” It’s one of several moments during the set that makes you forget you’re watching avatars – sorry, ABBAtars – instead of real people. And, yes, it’s a little cheesy, but it’s ABBA. What did you expect?

Last night (May 26), the band finally launched its enormous undertaking: a possibly never-ending string of concerts at a purpose-built (and flat-packable) ABBA Arena in east London. The residency, which stars digital avatars of the band in their “ 1979 prime ”, has been five years in the making, and arrives 40 years after their last concert. Playing alongside the avatars – which are amazingly, but eerily, realistic – is a live band, put together by former Klaxons member James Righton. They’re kept mostly in the sidelines for the show, but get their main stage moment with a solo rendition of ‘Does Your Mother Know’ – a sweet and welcomed moment in the otherwise digital set.

Though it mostly doesn’t feel digital. Opening with ‘The Visitors’ – the title track from the band’s final album before their 2018 reunion – the ABBAtars ascend from below the stage, dressed head-to-toe in the extravagant, shimmering costumes they’re so renowned for (though this time designed by Dolce & Gabbana). The huge screen that depicts the life-sized figures on stage also magnifies the avatars, giving the audience a close-up view of the slightly uncanny faces of Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The effect is jaw-dropping – the avatars move, talk, and sing like real people. They endearingly gesture to one another, and share coy, romantic looks (they’re depicted at a time when the respective couples were still married).

After a short speech by Andersson – in which he recalls the band’s last London show, in 1979 – the band launches into ‘SOS’ (but not before a brief EastEnders piano intro, which gets a big laugh from the crowd). Fältskog and Lyngstad energetically fly around the stage, as the audience roars the lyrics along with them. The third track, ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’, offers a stark reminder that you’re not at a real show – the life-sized avatars disappear from the stage, and instead the song is performed by them on the big screen. It’s one of a handful of moments where the producers don’t utilise the avatars to their full extent – the song sadly feels like an interlude, while you wait for the realistic-looking people to come back on stage. This happens later, with ‘Eagle’ and ‘Voulez Vous’ soundtracking an animation – the only dull moment in the show, perhaps.

Still, it’s quickly forgotten when the avatars are back. ‘Chiquitita’ is one of the highlights of the set, performed against the backdrop of an ever-shrinking moon. From there, the hits keep on coming – ‘Fernando’, ‘Lay All Your Love on Me’, ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!’, as well as new tracks ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’ and ‘I Still Have Faith in You’. As do the costume changes, a particular highlight being velour tracksuits, each bejewelled with the individual ABBA member’s name. Short speeches by the band reflect on their recent reunion, joke about the inspiration behind songs, and recall the UK giving them “nul points” at Eurovision in 1974 – a neat segue into showing their contest-winning performance on the big screen.

By the time you reach the closers, ‘Thank You for the Music’ and ‘Dancing Queen’, you feel like you’re in the presence of ABBA – and not just because last night you actually were . What the producers, and the band themselves, have done with the show is groundbreaking, and will likely transform live music (though whether that’s for better or worse is still up for debate ). Last night, though – and for the rest of ABBA’s residency – we can, once again, just be thankful for the music.

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Wild African elephants address each other with name-like rumbling calls: study

Science Wild African elephants address each other with name-like rumbling calls: study

African elephants are a highly social bunch with tonnes of different ways to communicate.

They greet each other by intertwining trunks and express strong emotions by trumpeting. They are even thought to send messages over large distances with ground-based vibrations, which could be detected through their feet.

Now researchers behind a new study in Nature Ecology and Evolution believe wild elephants may be able to communicate with other members of their group by using sounds akin to names.

Dolphins and some birds are reported to develop a signature call which other members of their species can used to identify them or copy to get their attention.

But Colorado State University behavioural ecologist Mickey Pardo, lead author of the new study, believes elephant calls are more similar to how humans use arbitrary names rather than imitations used by other species.

"Elephants are among the few mammals that are capable of learning to produce new sounds , which is a prerequisite for having names," he said.

Elephant talk 101

Human names are conveyed through speech, but an elephant "name" sounds a lot different.

One of an African elephant's most common forms of communication are vocalisations known as rumbles, which can sound a bit like a growl or roar.

"It's actually easier for elephants to learn to produce rumbles on command than it is for them to learn to produce trumpets on command," Dr Pardo said.

To the inexperienced ear, elephant rumbles can sound the same or very similar, but Dr Pardo said that's akin to an alien assuming humans have a modest vocal repertoire of crying, laughing, screaming or speech.

"If you thought about it that way, you would be missing all the interesting stuff about human communication," he said.

Inspired by the work of behavioural biologist Stephanie King , who found dolphins could identify others by repeating signature calls , Dr Pardo wanted to dig deep into the rumbles of elephants, another big-brained mammal, to find if something similar was going on.

To do this, he and his colleagues analysed recordings of 469 rumbles made by groups of wild African elephant females and their young at Amboseli National Park and Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves in Kenya over 36 years.

While there are many different contexts for rumbles, the research team focused on three:

• Contact — where elephants try to make contact with other family members over a long distance or when out of sight
• Greeting — when elephants approach each other within touching distance
• Caregiving — when adult or adolescent females give comfort to or communicate with a young calf.

They used an artificial intelligence model to figure out which elephant was being addressed in each recorded call.

The next step was to play calls containing "names" to 17 wild elephants.

"I found that they reacted much more strongly to calls that were originally addressed to them than to calls from the same caller that were originally addressed to someone else," Dr Pardo said.

"That indicates that they can tell just by hearing a call whether it was addressed to them or not."

Behaviours explained

For some of the long-time elephant researchers involved with the study, the findings appear to confirm unexplained interactions they had witnessed before.

Joyce Poole — a conservationist, biologist and co-founder of not-for-profit Elephant Voices — said she had seen an elephant rumble out a contact call in the past, but noticed only one member of their group responded while others ignored them.

"Other times a different individual would answer, or perhaps none of the elephants that I was with answered," she said.

"Since the caller listened after calling, I knew she was waiting for an answer. 

"It made me wonder whether the elephants were 'rude' and simply ignoring one another or whether she wasn't calling the particular family members that I was with."

Harvard Medical School behavioural ecologist Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, who was not involved in the study, thought the findings were the tip of the iceberg for understanding elephant vocal complexity.

"[The study] puts a lot in perspective and totally makes sense as far as elephants trying to communicate over a kilometre or so, and wanting to address a specific individual," Dr O'Connell-Rodwell said.

Dr O'Connell-Rodwell said she had previously assumed elephants which reacted without delay to a call must have been an immediate family member. 

"Over time, I saw a more complex pattern emerging, but didn't know exactly what individuals were cueing in on," she said.

"This study very carefully assessed these situations and vocalisations and provided a quantitative answer to my long-standing question of why certain individuals responded more intently, other than the possibility of being more closely related."

What's in a name?

Although the new study's researchers believe they have found evidence of elephant names, they can't really tell how they are structured within the calls.

The human ear has a hard time detecting elements of elephant rumbles, which can be low on the decibel register.

Colorado State University wildlife conservation biologist George Wittemyer, a study co-author, said not understanding how elephant calls were encoded was a bit like not understanding an alphabet in human language.

Further research could also help understand if each elephant has a specific "name", or if they have a few different names that are used by different callers.

With room for interpretation, University of Western Australia behavioural ecologist Amanda Ridley, who was not part of the study, said whether name-like calls were truly being used by the African elephants was unclear.

"What I do think is convincing in the study is that they are using specific vocal information to address specific individuals," she said.

"This could be considered 'names' in some contexts."

But Dr Ridley said she thought it was the most convincing case of non-human name-use, which wasn't imitated , so far discovered in the animal kingdom.

"I think it highly possible other species do this as well, but the specific research to test this hasn't been conducted on them yet," she said.

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