Since their spilt in the 1980s, ABBA vowed never to reform.
But in a move that delighted fans around the world, the Swedish pop quartet announced they were releasing their first new album in 39 years, and taking their hits to the stage once again.
Their new digital production has been created by the same people that do visual effects for the likes of the Star Wars and Marvel films, and means Anni-Frid, Benny, Bjorn and Agnetha can (virtually) perform as they looked in their ’70s and ’80s heyday.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
ABBA are back!
Sky News has delved into the archives to look at the group from their humble beginnings, to their iconic Eurovision win, to their technological stage show next year.
Image: 1973: ABBA performing as an unknown band in Sweden before they were famous – the people in that room had no idea just quite how influential they would be. Pic: I B L/Shutterstock
Image: 1974: But it wasn’t long before the group were catapulted into global stardom, winning the Eurovision song contest with classic tune Waterloo. Pic: AP
Image: 1977: At the height of their fame, ABBA toured all over the world – here they are in Manchester in February 1977. The group said that the UK always felt like the place to be. Pic: Andre Csillag/Shutterstock
Image: 1979: Performing at a UNICEF fundraiser at the United Nations in New York – a long way from the bars of Stockholm… Pic: AP
Image: 1979: Voulez-Vous had just been released and the group went on to tour it – here they are in Edmonton in those dashing blue outfits on the first night of a North America tour. Pic: Andre Csillag/Shutterstock
Image: 1980: They’d only been going a few years but it was already close to the end for Benny, Agnetha, Bjorn and Anni-Frid, pictured here in in Tokyo. Pic: AP
Image: 1982: It’s all smiles here – but the hit-churning group were about to take a break that ended up being their end – this is one of the last pictures of them as a group at the Dorchester in November 1982. Pic: AP
Image: 2021: The moment ABBA fans were waiting for – Benny and Bjorn at the Olympic park in east London speaking to Zoe Ball about the band’s new music and stage show. Pic: Sue Moore
Image: 2008: Bjorn Ulvaeus, who along with Benny Andersson, was the brains behind Mamma Mia! appeared at the premiere for the film version in New York – it was after the huge success of the stage show. Pic: AP
Image: 2018: And then the ABBA boys both appeared a decade later at the premiere of the sequel – Here We Go Again. Pic: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
It is “pretty surreal”, Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon admits, finding herself at the top of The New York Times bestsellers list.
When I meet the actress alongside her co-writer, best-selling author Harlan Coben, overnight the pair have learned that their thriller is now at number one.
He jokes: “I was texting her last night and saying you’ll now have to call yourself number one bestselling novelist, forget about Oscar winner!”
Image: Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben told Katie Spencer about their novel Gone Before Goodbye
As one of the most successful authors in the world, Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground.
Not content with running a hugely successful production company responsible for a string of hits, as well as one of the most successful book clubs in the world, she explains she felt compelled to give writing a try.
“People want you to stay in your lane… as a creative person I think it’s impossible to just choose one kind of life.
“Creativity is infinite and who I was as a creative person when I was 20 is very different from the person I am now at 49.”
More on Reese Witherspoon
Related Topics:
Gone Before Goodbye, a thriller about a talented surgeon who finds herself caught up in a deadly conspiracy, is the result of Witherspoon daring to put her head above the parapet.
Image: Witherspoon says she felt compelled to give writing a try
Coben admits he was “a little wary” at first.
“I don’t co-write novels but when she made the pitch and started talking about it, I was like ‘dang that’s good, we can do something with that’.”
While countless celebrities work with ghostwriters, Coben says: “I said to her from day one ‘it’s only going to be you and me in here… no third person in here, I don’t do that’. So every word you [read] comes from Reese and me.”
Image: Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground
Witherspoon explains: “He was like ‘if we’re going to do this, it’s going to have to be at a really high level because people going to expect a lot, so our bar was really high.”
“I said to her, in the beginning, novels are like a sausage,” Coben laughs. “You might like the final taste, but you don’t want to see how it was made and Reese got to see the full sausage getting made here.”
When it came to writing, Coben says they “fell into a rhythm right away”, working together in three-hour stints, “back and forth with a yellow legal pad – what about this? What about that?”
Image: Coben says they ‘fell into a rhythm right away’
Witherspoon says it “feels really deeply personal” to have their work now in print.
“Usually, as an actor, I walk into other people’s worlds and it’s already set up… but this was creating the whole world with Harlan and just from beginning to end feels very personal.”
While the story seems an obvious fit for being adapted to the screen, perhaps with a certain blonde actress in the leading role, Coben says that was never their intention.
“The biggest, biggest mistake novelists make when you write a book is to say ‘this would make a really great movie’. A book is a book, a movie is a movie, and we both focused on wanting this to be just a great reading experience.”
Given that their collaboration is already selling in big numbers, will the pair team up again to write a second?
Witherspoon says: “Let’s just see what people think of this one first.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:43
May: Eight found guilty over Kim Kardashian Paris heist
Associate professor of neurology Dr Laura Stein told Sky’s US partner NBC News: ” The most well-described risk factors include a predisposition [family history of aneurysm], high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and inflammation.”
She went on to explain that most fatal ruptured aneurysms are in the brain, killing about one in three patients.
“When it’s a blood vessel that’s in the head and it bleeds, there’s a much higher risk of having a very bad problem just because the brain is enclosed in a fixed space,” Dr Stein added.
Low-risk aneurysms are monitored by doctors for growth or abnormalities, and there are a series of potential treatment options for those considered dangerous.
Elsewhere in The Kardashians clip, Kim admitted that her ex-husband Kanye West will be in her life “no matter what” because of the four kids they share together.