Thank You for the (New) Music! ABBA Releasing First Songs in 35 Years
Good news dancing queens — ABBA has two new songs for you to jive to!
Over one year after singer Benny Andersson, 71, revealed that the group would be reuniting — as virtual avatars — for a live “entertainment experience,” the beloved band has announced that they’ll also be releasing new music.
“The decision to go ahead with the exciting ABBA avatar tour project had an unexpected consequence. We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio. So we did,” wrote Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog, 68, Björn Ulvaeus, 73, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 72, in a group statement shared on social media.
“And it was like time had stood still and that we only had been away on a short holiday,” they continued, describing their time together in the recording studio as “an extremely joyful experience!”
A post shared by @ abbaofficial on Apr 27, 2018 at 4:11am PDT
RELATED: Calling All Dancing Queens: ABBA Plans to Reunite — but There’s a Catch
While the group has yet to announce a release date for their new tunes, ABBA said fans might get to hear one of the songs — and see a preview of the groups’ new “digital selves” — this December.
“[The reunion] resulted in two new songs and one of them ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ will be performed by our digital selves in a TV special produced by NBC and the BBC aimed for broadcasting in December,” the wrote in the statement.
Continuing, they added, “We may have come of age, but the song is new. And it feels good.”
Want to keep up on the latest from PEOPLE? Sign up for our daily newsletter to get our best stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
In 2016, Andersson described the group’s virtual reunion as “a time machine that captures the essence of who we were. And are.”
RELATED: Mamma Mia! ABBA Performs Together in Public for the First Time in 30 Years
“We’re inspired by the limitless possibilities of what the future holds and are loving being a part of creating something new and dramatic,” he added of the hi-tech entertainment concept, which was the brainchild of former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller.
RELATED: Mamma Mia! ABBA Performs Together in Public for the First Time in 30 Years
The four members of ABBA — who have sold 380 million records throughout their career — split in 1982, after the group’s two married couples got divorced.
RELATED VIDEO: Mamma Mia! Abba Reuniting for ‘New Digital Experience’
Although singers Fältskog and Lyngstad largely withdrew from the music world, Ulvaeus and Andersson went on to create the Broadway hit Mamma Mia!, which later became a movie musical starring Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan.
The film’s sequel, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! will hit theaters this July.
ABBA previously reunited in 2016, when all four members sang onstage for the first time in 30 years during a special 50th anniversary party in Stockholm.
Months earlier, the group reunited at the launch of Ulvaeus’ new restaurant, “Mamma Mia! The Party,” in Stockholm.
