ABBA’s chart voyage still some way to go in the U.K., where the Swedish pop greats set a new record.
The forthcoming ABBA album Voyage, due out Nov. 5 via Polydor, establishes a pre-order mark for its label, with more than 80,000 pre-orders in just three days.
That feat sees the foursome overtake Take That with their albums Progress and III, according to a statement from Universal U.K.
Britain has a deep connection with ABBA. It was in Brighton, the southern resort town, where Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus announced themselves to the music world in 1974, with the winning performance of “Waterloo” at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Across a glittering career, ABBA has bagged nine No. 1 singles and as many No. 1 albums in the U.K.
The band’s career-retrospective Gold is the only album to log more than 1,000 weeks on the Official Albums Chart and is the second best-selling album of all time in the U.K., with 5.61 million copies sold at August 2021, the OCC reports.
ABBA will return to the U.K., in a way, with a virtual residency starting next May at the custom-built ABBA Arena in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London.
Tickets for the ABBA Voyage show go on sale today.
All was revealed last Thursday, when ABBA confirmed the virtual concerts, the album and unveiled two new songs, “I Still Have Faith In You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down,” both of which are on track for Top 10 debuts on the Official U.K. Singles Chart later this week.
