Universal Music UK has announced that ABBA’s hugely anticipated reunion album Voyage has the biggest ever pre-orders in the company’s history.
Following the news last Thursday (2) of its upcoming release and the appearance of the new songs “I Still Have Faith In You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down,” the album now has pre-sales of more than 80,000. The news was shared by the company ahead of today’s (7) opening of ticket sales for their 2022 live extravaganza ABBA Voyage.
The first new studio album by the Swedish superstars since 1981’s The Visitors has now surpassed the previous record-holders for UK pre-sales, Take That’s Progress and III albums. The album was reported to have amassed advance orders of 40,000 in the first 24 hours alone after the news surfaced. It will be released by Universal Music Group on November 5.
ABBA are also on course to make their first appearances in the Top 10 of the UK singles chart for nearly 40 years. The Official Charts Company reported on Sunday (5) in its Official Chart: First Look that early sales, two days into the current chart week, place “I Still Have Faith In You” at No.6 and “Don’t Shut Me Down” at No.7. The quartet last occupied such lofty ground when “One Of Us” spent the last of its five weeks in the Top 10 in January 1982, having peaked at No.3.
“I Still Have Faith In You” is performing especially strongly in CD and vinyl sales in the UK, while “Don’t Shut Me Down” was the nation’s most-downloaded song of the chart week to Sunday. Each song had been streamed over 500,000 times.
Voyage will include eight new compositions and reworkings of the rarities “Just a Notion” and “Bumblebee,” and will also feature the group’s first Christmas song, “Little Things.”
Pre-order ABBA’s Voyage, which is released by Universal Music Group on November 5.