How many GOLD songs should be in Voyage show?

There's only a maximum of 5 or 6 other ABBAtars songs. I doubt if Rock Me, Ring Ring or On and On and On are among them.

The Australian version of Gold has been the same since the rest of the World's since 2008. Super Trouper was a flop down under but I would imagine it's more popular now.

HOMETIME’s post has made me think…

Around half of the world’s population at the end of 1982 are now dead. And around half of the current population were born since (in fact, substantially more than half as the population has increased). And even some of the half that were around in 1982 were too young to remember the likes of Ring Ring being either a hit or a flop (depending on your country).

It therefore has to be said that sales and chart positions from the original ABBA period are largely irrelevant now. There is a legacy from them - UK chart positions determined the tracks selected for Gold (with just Summer Night City left out in favour of Thank You For The Music) and that in turn influenced what was used in the original Mamma Mia! - but other than that, it now has to go more on Spotify and YouTube streams.

HOMETIME also mentioned in a previous post that anyone can very easily listen to the non-Gold songs in the Voyage show before they go. There’s no excuse for not checking out the setlist and therefore looking up the likes of Hole In Your Soul. It’s easier than it’s ever been to hear exactly what you want, when you want. No hunting down and having to buy old studio albums.

I concede that times change and generations of fans' priorities alter, and/or they literally die out!
That said, I think that if 'Voyage' did eventually make its way to Australia, there may be consideration given to the songs that charted (and were extremely popular on radio) during their mid-1970's heyday in this country.

To provide an amusing insight, the two main television channels used to break for an hour at midday each weekday and display a test-pattern. During that hour, the Australian 1975 release, 'The Best Of ABBA', was frequently played (nearly every day). At the end of Side 1, there would be about thirty seconds of silence whilst someone at the station flipped the vinyl over and Side 2 commenced! (The self-titled album also received quite a few spins, as did 'Arrival'.)

Anyway, the point I make is that there are many tracks not currently featured in the 'Voyage' show that would probably still receive a rousing reception (and be expected), even after all these years because a sizeable amount of the original fans would still be keen and these songs continue to be played on radio, which remains popular in Australia despite streaming services.
I also believe that creating new ABBA-tar performances may not require motion-capture sessions in the future, particularly in terms of body movements and dance routines.

Therefore, an Australian-centric version of 'Voyage' could potentially feature any of the following local fan/radio favourites that would capture ABBA at their peak of popularity in this country (alongside the ABBA 'Gold' staples):

"Ring Ring"
"Nina, Pretty Ballerina"
"People Need Love"
"Honey, Honey"
"Dance (While The Music Still Goes On)"
"King Kong Song"
"Hey, Hey Helen"
"Tropical Loveland"
"Bang A Boomerang"
"Rock Me"
"I've Been Waiting For You"
"So Long"
"When I Kissed The Teacher"
"Money, Money, Money"
"That's Me"
"Tiger"
"Happy Hawaii"
"The Name Of The Game"
"Take A Chance On Me"
"Angeleyes"
"On And On And On"

Now I realise that none of this is likely but as technology both advances and decreases in cost, anything is possible. Unique setlists for different countries could be a great selling point and Bjorn never misses a business trick if it's viable.

Wasn’t there something a while ago that said they were no where near breaking even? Also, although the real ABBA may have performed more songs, that might be as far as it got. It’s possible they selected which ones to use at that point, so the others were taken no further. If they’re getting bums on seats with the setlist as it is, why invest more by changing it?

I saw something the other day where Andrew Ridgeley said he’d like to do a Voyage-style show for Wham! As they only had 12 hits (and one of those a Christmas song) I’d imagine they’d use George Michael solo songs as well. As no other acts have announced any definite plans in the wake of Voyage, I do wonder if ABBA’s was just a bit too early? I mean early as in technology/costs? They know that “everyone likes ABBA” so could be confident it would work, but how many other acts could guarantee that?

In some ways I wish the Voyage show was more true to the real ABBA. Some of the dance moves you could never imagine them doing in reality. Frida could move and looked great doing it (even when she does her own thing in the Take A Chance on Me video where it looks spontaneous - the camera’s on her so she’ll play to it), whereas Agnetha didn’t look as comfortable in that regard. We loved that it looked a bit amateurish. The ABBATars look much less so. I’d be happy to see Frida going for it while Agnetha merely goes through the motions, just like the real thing.

I don't mind the ABBAtars being more energetic than ABBA were in Concert. It's not the real ABBA after all.

There is only an extra 5 or 6 ABBAtars that have been done. I don't think there will be anymore - even without ABBA directly involved in capture motion suits.

What are they? It looks like TACOM, MMM and ST. The others? Dare I remind people The King Has Lost His Crowm and Under Attack were announced on that pre-Voyage interview. I can think of literally dozens of ABBA songs better than TKHLHC or UA.

We know most ABBA fans are casual fans and that GOLD has sold millions. But here's a thing, the Top 7 ABBA most streamed songs on Spotify account for HALF of all ABBA streams. Casual fans probably not even interested in large chunks of GOLD - just a few favourites.

I get the impression many fans would like to just have DQ, MM, Waterloo and TWTIA in a loop and performed 4 or 5 times each at the show with maybe SOS, Chiquitita and GGG thrown in for variety.

It would be interesting to see how the Voyage show would have worked with more Voyage songs.

I think the uptempo songs No Doubt About It, When You Danced With Me and Just a Notion would have gone down well - much better than the slow songs.


On the actual show there's a few unfamiliar songs for the more casual fans. Of them I think Summer Night City Hole in Your Soul and The Visitors went down much better with the crowd than When All is Said and Done or Don't Shut Me Down. These two do of course have very catchy choruses but overall less uptempo.

Unfamiliar songs, arguably, work best when they are uptempo.

*SNC was a single - but 45 years ago. It was on More Gold from 30 years ago and hasn't been featured in either Mamma Mia movie. So I'd call that unfamiliar for the casual fan

There's no chance of more Voyage songs but as Hometime suggests it's "just a bit of fun" speculating.

I do however think unfamiliar but uptempo songs go down better than unfamiliar but more ballady, generally.

That being said I do think ISHFIY went down nuch better than DSMD. Probably a combination of factors - emotional lyrics and vocals, uplifting chorus, far more interaction with the ABBATARS.