2019

So it was recently announced that ABBA's two new songs, as well as the TV special that the ABBA Avatars would be debuting on that had been planned for Winter of this year, have been postponed, possibly all the way to Spring 2019.  This could be because the ABBAtar project isn't coming out exactly the way they had originally planned.  From what I've seen, many fans are quite disappointed by the delay (as well as the whole ABBA avatar project in general and maybe they're even hoping for it to be scrapped, lol.)

To be honest, I'm not really concerned.  Why?  Because Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Frida are perfectionists.  During the 70s and 80s, they all worked hard with every album release to make sure that the songs they were releasing sounded perfect or at least as close to the original vision as possible.  As we know, Bjorn and Benny spent a long time mixing Summer Night City because they couldn't get the right sound they were looking for, but when they got a mix that they liked, the song was released and that's the version that we all know and love today.  I'm assuming a similar thing happened with Just Like That that a lot of fans have been dying to hear in good studio quality someday, but it never turned out right which is why it has not been released.  Same with all the songs that were sampled in the Undeleted medley. 

Based on this, I think the reason why both songs I Still Have Faith In You and Don't Shut Me Down, as well as the ABBAtar project are being delayed is because they haven't gotten them right yet.  But I still have faith (hehe) that eventually ABBA will get the songs to sound just right and release them in the Spring, and even if it's delayed until the Summer, or next Winter (which I certainly hope it won't, lol), by the time they get released, the finished products will be the same familiar ABBA sound.   Same thing for the ABBAtars.  ABBA have a vision for what they want the avatars to look like, and I think it's awesome, but to get it exactly right and to make it as accurate as possible takes time. 

The only thing I am a little worried about is that if these projects aren't coming out right that they'll become another Just Like That situation, that fans want but ABBA are like "Nah, we're not releasing them ever".  I don't think that'll happen, but you'll never know.  :P

To stay on the positive side, Spring 2019 will be here in no time and we'll be hearing Agnetha and Frida harmonizing and Bjorn and Benny's incredible song writing talents once more, and then shortly after that virtual ABBA will be performing on stage and young fans like me will be able to actually go to an ABBA concert for the first time! :D  (That's why I think Virtual ABBA is a good thing, btw, so that younger ABBA fans get to experience what it feels like to attend an ABBA concert without needing tribute bands, etc.)