They flocked in glitter and gaiety, wishful lookalikes in bell-bottoms and knee-high boots, sparkly hats and capes, queuing outside a black marquee in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with the anticipation of people about to see something impossible. Inside revealed a 3,000-capacity arena built for one purpose – to bring Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Frida back, frozen at the peak of their songs, for a 100-minute performance that dances between eras and emotions.
This is ABBA Voyage. Since it opened in May 2022, it has become a unique entertainment phenomenon in London. Digital versions of the band, “ABBAtars,” have been created from motion-capture performances and rendered with startling clarity. Together with an in person, ten-piece live band, they belt out non-stop hits from I Still Have Faith in You and Don’t Shut Me Down, Waterloo. Money, Money, Money to Fernando and Dancing Queen. The arena, just a short walk from Pudding Mill Lane or Stratford stations, is dazzling, full of energy and accessible to all.
But, hey, when you stop to think about it, this is not real at all. ABBA Voyage has developed the formula to engage with the band as if they are live and in front of you. Standing or sitting, stare into their eyes and sing out of tune, the show tricks you into thinking they are real. So, for many leaving the arena still humming and buzzing, it begs the question, where did the true story actually start?
Sweden is ABBA’s home, the country which also introduced the flat-pack retailer, IKEA, Volvo, H&M and meat balls. Fly out on direct flights to Stockholm from Heathrow and within a few hours you’re in a city built, on water with around 30,000 islands making up its archipelago, a proportion inhabited, all threaded together by bridges. The best way to explore is a sightseeing boat gliding past waterside homes and letting the shape of the city reveal itself.
I stayed at the Rival Hotel in Slussen, on the edge of the Old Town, owned by band member, Benny Andersson who occasionally drops in to play the piano. (I’m assured it is him in person, not a hologram). It’s a creative and colourful 99-room boutique hotel and has a quiet Hollywood feel about it. This may be due to its theatre downstairs, a public entrance that projects a hint of glamour and a theatre foyer check-in area with welcoming efficiency while a carpeted staircase leads from a bar to a brasserie in warm reds and browns. My room was comfortable and spacious with a balcony decorated with flower boxes overlooking the public square. And on a thoughtful note, a teddy bear in every room to avoid any guest feeling along – a gesture initiated by Benny himself.
Slussen itself sits in the district that has introduced a slow fashion hub, a sustainable initiative started by three women selling vintage, second-hand and redesigned clothing. The Old Town’s cobbled lanes are walking distance away as is the Royal Palace, a working royal residence with opulent State Apartments open to visitors. Time your visit for 12.15 to watch the changing of the guard. Fika, the Swedish refreshment tradition, is never far away serving cinnamon buns which are, frankly, impossible to resist.
Backstage Hotel, ten minutes from central Stockholm, is co-owned by Björn Ulvaeus, with 57 individually designed rooms, lofts and suites, each one dressed in rich materials and details reflective of music, theatre, and life behind the curtain. He also owns the Hotel Stottsholmen on Water in Västervik. Inspired by his own hotel stays worldwide during his ABBA tours, he wanted to create a meeting place that was sustainable in the place he grew up in. Today it’s run by his family. Of the 43 rooms, there’s a suite called the Mama Mia Suite complete with two floors and three balconies, and, naturally, in the suites are Abba vinyls.
A short ferry ride is Djurgården island where the museum-hopping happens. It’s worth a full day on its own. The Vasa Museum is the headline act, a 17th-century royal warship, decked with 700 statues and carvings, astonishingly and grandiosely intact, having spent centuries on the seabed after sinking on its maiden voyage in 1628 just metres from shore. It is the only surviving ship of its kind in the world. Next door, the Viking Museum fills in what you didn’t know about Vikings and the Junibacken brings Swedish children’s fairy-tale to life for younger travellers. Elsewhere in the city, the Nobel Prize Museum holds around 200 artefacts from laureates – freedom fighters, scientists, and adventurers – a reminder that Stockholm’s reach runs well beyond pop music. Walk on to City Hall for the banquet hall, browse the market stalls at Hötorget, or wander around Nybroplan, where the gilded columns and art deco style of the Royal Dramatic Theatre sit in the well-heeled Östermalm district.
And then, of course, there’s the ABBA Museum, which is, in its way, ABBA Voyage’s opposite. The sign outside says you walk in and dance out, and I did, skipping the whole way. Inside I auditioned to be the fifth member, practised in a booth, singing my heart out but to no avail. I tried on the outfits and watched the preview of the Voyage hologram technology, here on Swedish soil. This museum is a high-performance exhibition. It showcasing Mamma Mia! The Musical, 25 years on from that 1974 Eurovision win, and now staged in around 440 cities worldwide. And Chess, ABBA’s other collaboration with Tim Rice. And then a spotlight on the 1979 benefit concert during the International Year of the Child. ABBA donated Chiquitita, and its royalties to UNICEF Sweden – a piece of ABBA history no hologram sings about.
Back in London, the ABBAtars will keep performing exactly the same set, exactly the same way, for as long as the arena stands and untouched by time. But Stockholm is where it all began in a city sitting in an archipelago and ABBA’s actual costumes displayed under exhibition lights, not as pixels in an arena three hours’ flight away. Sweden is what made the legend possible while technology preserves it forever.
ABBA Voyage was created with Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Frida Lyngstad. The concert is directed by Baillie Walsh and produced by Svana Gisla and Ludvig Andersson.
ABBA is one of the world’s most successful music acts of all time. Ever since their breakthrough with Waterloo back in 1974, ABBA’s music has drawn fans from all over the world. Today, the songs they created were written and produced by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus and interpreted vocally with passion and commitment by Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad. They have sold nearly 400 million albums worldwide, have 17 No. 1 hits and over 16 million weekly global streams. In the 21st Century, ABBA is more popular than ever. ABBA Gold, originally released in 1992, recently passed its 1000th week on the UK Album Chart, the first album in history to reach this milestone. ABBA was inducted into the Rock N’Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, and Dancing Queen, one of their most beloved songs, was added to the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 2015.
