ABBA's 'Gold' returns to top 40 on Billboard 200 after 3 years

(From left) Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson of ABBA on stage in Gothenburg, Sweden, which is their home country, in 1976. Pic/AFP

ABBA is back in the top 40 of the Billboard 200 albums chart for the first time in over three years, as the Swedish pop pioneers' 'Gold' greatest hits surged from No. 114 to No. 34.

The set vaults following the release of two new singles from the quartet on September 2, the announcement of a forthcoming studio album -- 'Voyage', its first in 40 years is due on November 5 and a series of concerts in 2022, reports Billboard.com.

'Gold' earned 15,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending September 9, up 61 per cent, according to MRC Data. Of that sum, album sales comprise 5,000, also enabling the set's 33-11 jump on the top album sales chart.

'Gold' was last in the top 40 of the Billboard 200 on the chart dated August 11, 2018, when the set ranked at No. 40. It was last higher than on the latest list just one week earlier, when it placed at No. 25, its peak. 'Gold' was released in 1993 in the U.S. and has spent 186 weeks on the chart in total.

"We took a break in the spring of 1982 and now we've decided it's time to end it," ABBA said in a statement. The group will return to live performances with its residency, ABBA Voyage, set to begin May 27, 2022, in London, in which the act's members will be depicted as avatars (a.k.a. "ABBAtars"), circa 1979.

ABBA is a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's name is an acronym of the first letters of their first names. Widely considered one of the greatest musical groups of all time, they became one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1974 to 1983.

The band was the first group from a non-English-speaking country to achieve consistent success in the charts of English-speaking countries. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. In 2015, their song 'Dancing Queen' was inducted into the Recording Academy's Grammy Hall of Fame.

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