Swedish Band

Abba: Band top charts with first album for 40 years

The Swedish band's long-awaited Voyage - their first album of new material for 40 years - shot straight to number one, earning them the biggest opening week of sales for any album in four years.

Its 204,000 first-week chart sales is the highest since Ed Sheeran's Divide.

Abba's last studio album, 1981's The Visitors, also topped the chart.

The former Eurovision winners have since hit number one with their greatest hits collections, The Singles and Gold.

Band teases major announcement ahead of new music

The Swedish band launched a new website on Thursday morning titled "Abba Voyage", asking fans to register interest in a new project.

It is expected to be a long-gestating "hologram tour" that Abba initially announced in 2016.

The band are also expected to release five new songs to accompany the show.

The quartet - Agnetha Faltskog, Anna-Frid Lyngstad, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson - returned to the studio in 2018, promising two new songs later that year.