Promising the next step in virtual reality, the members of the Swedish quartet ABBA have teamed up with entertainment entrepreneur Simon Fuller and the Universal Music Group to launch a digital experience that will allow a new generation of fans to see, hear and feel ABBA in a way described by Fuller as “previously unimagined.”
Fuller, the creator of American Idol and manager to acts like the Spice Girls and Annie Lennox, has been quietly investing in virtual reality technologies, developing hyper-realistic digital humans in the field of entertainment. “I was imagining who would be my very first choice to work with on an extraordinary new virtual reality experience to capture the world’s imagination,” the XIX Entertainment founder and CEO tells Billboard. “In a second, I thought it simply has to be ABBA. I approached them directly and thankfully they all fell in love with the idea and now that idea is fast becoming a reality.”
The Swedish group is personally involved in the creative process. “The creativity and ideas flowing from the members of ABBA over the past few months have filled me with great excitement,” Fuller said. “We are exploring a new technological world, with virtual reality and artificial intelligence at the forefront, that will allow us to create new forms of entertainment and content we couldn’t have previously imagined.”