An ABBA themed restaurant is coming to London next year.
ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus will be bringing his MAMMA MIA! THE PARTY experience to London’s O2 in spring 2019.
According to The Mirror, it will be “an immersive dining experience” and the restaurant will be a recreation of a taverna on the island of Skopelos, mirroring the setting of the first Mamma Mia! movie.
Mediterranean cuisine will be served whilst hits from ABBA’s extensive back-catalogue are played live during the experience. You can see what it will look like here:
A similar experience has been on offer in Stockholm since 2016 and has sold out shows there for three consecutive years.
Speaking about the new London venture, Ulvaeus said: “We have long admired The O2 and the huge entertainment success it has become…we believe bringing MAMMA MIA! THE PARTY to The O2 will add to this already vibrant cultural destination and provide the perfect location for our exciting new show.”
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John Langford, Vice President and General Manager of The O2 said hosting the experience was “a real honour.”
Earlier this year, it was announced that ABBA would release their first new material for 35 years, shortly after the band gave details of a “virtual ABBA tour” which would see the four-piece tour as “virtual holograms” in 2019.
In a press statement released in April, the band said: “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.
“And it was like time had stood still and that we only had been away on a short holiday. An extremely joyful experience!”
They continued: “It resulted in two new songs, and one of them ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ will be performed in a TV special produced by NBC and the BBC aimed for broadcasting in December. We have may come of age, but the song is new, and it feels good.” The band also shared photos from their recent recording sessions.
Asked about the direction of ABBA’s new material, Benny Andersson said: “One of the songs is like we would’ve written it [for] today. The other, we could’ve written in 1972.”
“I think so,” Ulvaeus agreed. “It certainly sounds ABBA very much. If I were to listen to the British Top 10 today, I’d have no idea what’s going on.”
Last week, it was announced that a David Bowie themed cocktail bar would also be coming to London. Named ‘Ziggy’s’, in honour of the star’s much-loved persona Ziggy Stardust, it launches on September 20 at the Hotel Café Royal.
The ABBA themed restaurant is the latest venture for the Swedish band, who won the Eurovision Song Contest with ‘Waterloo’ in 1974. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again – the sequel to the original Mamma Mia! film opened last month. It has so far taken approximately £270 million at the box office.
Tickets for MAMMA MIA! THE PARTY go on sale this autumn and are available here.