Abba rule out reunion for Eurovision 2024 in Sweden
Abba have ruled out reuniting for Eurovision 2024 in Sweden on the 50th anniversary of their win with Waterloo.
Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson said they would not be reforming for the contest with fellow band members, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and also dismissed the idea that they might compose Sweden's entry.
Since the band won the contest in 1974, Sweden has gone on to win five more times, including this year with Loreen’s song Tattoo.
Ulvaeus, 78, and Andersson, 76, have said they will never tour again and reportedly refused a fee of $1 billion to play one hundred shows at the turn of the millennium.
'I don't want to'
"I don't want to, and if I don't want to, the others won't," Andersson told BBC Newsnight in an interview celebrating the first anniversary of their virtual concert, Abba Voyage.
"It's the same for all four of us - someone says 'no' - it's a no."
Ulvaeus said: "We can celebrate 50 years of Abba without us being on stage."
He added that the response to Abba Voyage, which features virtual avatars of the band members, had surpassed "every expectation".
'Emotionally they are connected'
"That emotional connection was the important thing for us," he said. "We never knew until we started whether that would work.
"Their intellect is telling them that we're not there - but emotionally they are connected, which is a fantastic thing."
Ulvaeus has said that the technology could be deployed in the future so that fans can attend concerts of stars who are deceased.
However, he acknowledged that this would pose an "ethical question" because the dead performer may not have consented to their image being used in such a way.
