ABBA Voyage: General Discussion 2023-24

Whatever they decide to do it will have to be novel enough for people to buy it.

They have done reissues and coloured vinyls for both albums and singles.

The Visitors anniversary box set would be something to look forward to.

The only thing I can think of would be to reissue the Anniversary Collection from 1984, with the singles being pressed on gold vinyl with sleeves and presentation box.

Artwork wise, I would like to see a 7" picture disc with the album sleeve used as the artwork, other than that I honestly don't know what they are going to issue next year.

shopmerch.abbavoyage.com/products/abba-voyage-2023-side-profile-a3-event-poster-abb

Like the New ABBA Voyage Poster for 2023, and same design for New T Shirt. And they did a Special Christmas Edition Cover For the Programme Booklet Nice. I want that woolly Scarf, but not in UK so not risking buying it with extortionate import duties.

Unfortunately it won't. They singled this one out in one of the interviews as a song that's not going to appear in the show and it was Benny who was against it. But it puzzles me too, as Benny is clearly fond of the song.

Yeah but very unlikely given they didn't make Voyage. They would have to be exceptionally good - and that would mean a lot of extra work on them. 😀

If they need more/better vocals chances they will never be released. If just a production issue, possibly, as rarities/anthology tracks.

^

That’s interesting. Can’t say I agree with Benny’s (presumed) opinion though. What makes MMM different from SOS? They have a similar structure: piano intro, relatively slow verse and then a ‘banger’ of a chorus.

ForeverFan - Gold is heading also towards 21x platinum 6.3 million sales which it should get in early May.

You're right yet another compilation album won't sell.

We've had Gold and its variant Number Ones sold a fraction of it.

We've had The Definitive Collection and its variant The Essential Collection sold next to nothing

We've had The Albums Box Set. A similar more recent one was a big flop.

Remember the 4 disc Thank You for the Music? Nice for fans but didn't sell.

An Anthology or Rarities wouldn't sell much imo

Maybe to celebrate 50 years of Waterloo they could have a TV interview or documentary. Gold will probably still be in the charts and any media attention may get interest in the back cataligue...again.

I think the difference is that SOS is one of the group's very best recordings. For that reason they couldn't leave it out.

MMM is a fine, well known,and probably iconic ABBA recording. From the band member's perspective and I think music critics in general it is not held in the same esteem as SOS, along with DQ, KMKY and TWTIA which are in the pantheon of all time great pop recordings.

I watched that part of the interview again and gained the same impression, that Benny's negativity was not about the song itself. I personally like MMM.

It is interesting to watch Benny's musings on the songs in the interview I have metioned. Also his and Bjorn's comments on recordings that weren't singles that they liked.

Best Wishes

Truedogz

When the Voyage show was advertised and the ABBA Voyage had your dream set list, my set list was much more adventurous than what was realised. I suppose all die hard fans’ set list would be. What is funny that after all these years, and with the countless tribute acts sprouting up all over the world. ABBA are now their own tribute act using avatars. In a way when the Mamma Mia musical was first advertised, many fans noticed the similarities of the wedding drawing and Muriel’s Wedding cover. Obviously it’s so much better having ABBA, and the show is a sensory experience for us all, but here’s hoping there are many variations in the future.

Yeh I’m happy too, only thing I would change is Thank You For The Music for TACOM or ST. I loved the wee snippets of TACOM from the In Concert TV show, it’s criminal that it wasn’t included later in the TV special as it has always been a Live favourite of mine, lots of atmosphere.

I thought When I Kissed The Teacher and Slipping Through My Fingers would have been included as they were quite successful in the Mamma Mia movies, I thought the former would have been performed by the group but have 3 dancers recreating the scene from the movie, only reason was it made the top 40 in singles chart and I think (the last time I checked.) it has 27 million views on YouTube.

I don't think the setlist will be extended. 20 songs plus intro and outro for 90 minutes or so seems about right.

They'll probably though drop a song or two and replace them.

I understand ABBA did 22 capture motion songs. Or did they? Does this include the songs with videos?

This will divide opinion!

The Boys are more into the ABBA brand than the Girls - who sent them packing for promotion for the Voyage album.

The ABBA sound, the Girls. The ABBA gimmicks, the Boys.

ALERT! sales/geeky post. If you don't like, don't look.

First Week Sales for Voyage Singles and Album (UK)


DSMD 26,111
ISHFIY 23, 325
JAN 7,008
WYDWM 6,614
LT 10,000

VOYAGE 203,909
(Sales for 2021 were 400,375 of which 387k were pure sales, 13k streaming equivalent. Plus about 60k in 2022, almost all pure sales)

Comments
Despite being promoted as the "first '' single with official video and vinyl disc the public thought differently and DSMD outsold ISHFIY by 3000 in their opening week. By December that gap would increase and be 100k to 70k in DSMD's favour. These "sales'' include Streaming equivalent as well as actual sales. I would estimate pure sales to be around 20k-25k for both - across physical and download. DSMD charted higher than ISHFIY everywhere - except Germany where their charts are Value based, so expensive vinyl helped it.

The opening sales for JAN (2 weeks before Voyage) and WYDWM (on Voyage's release) were very similar. This despite JAN being a single with a CD available and A listed on Radio 2 (Europe's most listened to radio station). Had WYDWM been the single instead of JAN, arguably it would have made the Top 40 and quite possibly Top 30. It only needed 3000 more sales to reach the Top 40 (achievable with a CD release and downloads before Voyage's release. It could have got 5000 with these) and Radio Airplay would have helped too with even more streams, converted into sales. In Sweden, where the Singles Charts are streaming only, WYDWM made the Top 10 and JAN failed to enter the Top 20. Like with the first two singles, the public thought differently.

LT did quite better in sales than JAN or WYDMM. Its 10k sales would have been enough for a Top 40 placing - but it was Christmas with literally dozens of Christmas songs re-entering the charts - on streams rather than pure sales. But then of course it needed to be released Christmas time! In the UK at least a lot more promotion about it being available on CD and actually cheaper than previous Voyage singles. Its sales were more physical based rather than download or streaming.

NDAI was pointless as a "radio only" single. Sure, it got some airplay but no sales, no CD was issued and next to no downloads or streaming. It didn't help revive the fortunes of its parent album either, which clearly was the aim. KAEOD or any other Voyage track would have faced the same fate at this stage.

Voyage's first week's sales were amazing. Almost all were actual sales with sales on CD being dominant. You can see from a commercial point of view an album was necessary.