ABBA Say 'No' To Appearing At 50th Anniversary Of Their Eurovision Win Next Year

ABBA won’t be performing at next year’s Eurovision, held in Sweden and the 50^th anniversary of the pop legends’ win of the Song Contest, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson confirmed.

Speculation hit a fever pitch after Sweden’s Loreen won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. With the winning country set to host the following year’s event, fans quickly assumed that ABBA would perform to commemorate their epic win with 1974’s Waterloo.

Other fans even put their hopes on ABBA becoming Sweden’s entrants in 2024, going for a second win and matching Loreen’s record of two-time Eurovision winner.

However, those hopes have been quickly dashed, with Ulvaeus and Andersson appearing on BBC Newsnight this week (24 May) and ruling out rumours.

"I don't want to,” Andersson admitted, "and if I don't want to, the others won't. It's the same for all four of us - someone says, 'no' - it's a no."

"We can celebrate 50 years of ABBA without us being on stage," Ulvaeus added. Does that rule out the band’s ABBA-tars though?

Their BBC Newsnight interview was set to promote the first anniversary of their London residency, hosted by virtual ABBA.

Earlier this year, sources told Variety that the hologram concert is set to go on a world tour – including Australia. That’s right, you could be seeing the virtual holograms resembling band members Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad (or “Frida”), Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson in 1979.

“Plans are now in development to take ‘ABBA Voyage’ around the world,” Universal Music Group chairman Lucian Grainge reportedly said during a company meeting. ABBA and Universal Music Group representatives didn’t offer Variety any further information. It's not much to go on, but neither was that inside information about Madonna's world tour, which is actually happening.

Discussing the emergence of the ABBA hologram tour back in 2018, Molly Meldrum, who has campaigned for the iconic group to bring the show to Australia, said, "ABBA are going to tour again, but it's with a difference, with a magical difference. 

"So, I'll use the old saying - do yourself a favour and check it out!"