ABBA: The Tour
| Tour by ABBA | |
Promotional poster for 1979 tour
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| Associated album |
Voulez-Vous Greatest Hits Vol. 2 |
|---|---|
| Start date | September 13, 1979 |
| End date | March 27, 1980 |
| Legs | 3 |
| No. of shows | 18 in North America 23 in Europe 11 in Asia 52 Total |
| ABBA concert chronology | |
ABBA: The Tour, later also labelled ABBA in Concert and ABBA: North American and European Tour 1979, was the third and final concert tour by the Swedish pop group, ABBA. Primarily visiting North America, Europe and Asia during 1979–1980, the tour supported the group's sixth studio album, Voulez-Vous. The tour opened in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on September 13, 1979, and closed in Tokyo, Japan on March 27, 1980, having performed 52 shows in 40 cities across 13 countries. As it was the group's final tour before unofficially disbanding in late 1982, it included the largest catalogue of hit songs performed on a tour.
Since forming in 1972, the group had only performed about 24 concert dates over eight years. For many years, the group had refused to tour because they wanted to be the headliner and not the opening act. Pressured to tour by their record company, the group had performed a brief tour in Europe and Australia in the summer of 1977. Upon the release of their sixth album, the group decided to tour North America for one month. Benny Andersson stated that the decision to tour was based on the need for the group to become more "present" to North American audiences. He further felt that the media would not consider ABBA to be a "real" group if they had not toured.
In January 1979, ABBA performed alongside the Bee Gees, John Denver and Earth, Wind & Fire at the "A Gift of Song—Music for UNICEF Concert" at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. The concert benefited the United Nations Children's Fund. Shortly after, it was revealed that members Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog had been separated for several months. Despite this, Agnetha assured the media that the group was united, stating, "Everyone feels very good at the moment. We are working well together and we still have something to give".
The tour was officially announced by WEA in May 1979, beginning in Canada and the United States before venturing into Europe. While promoting the album, the quartet began rehearsals for the tour in June 1979 at the in , Sweden. Agnetha and Anni-Frid began taking private vocal lessons while Benny and Björn organized the tour. In the United States, the tour was heavily promoted by various media outlets including Billboard magazine, where a 50-page mini-magazine about ABBA was included in its September 8, 1979 issue. The magazine provided a history of the group as well as outlining their success in over 40 countries worldwide. It also provided details of the upcoming tour, as well as personal interviews with each member of the quartet. During one of the interviews, Andersson and Ulvaeus remarked how important the tour was to the group, especially touring in new territory. They stated:
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