The glitter balls are spinning all around the world as the ultimate gay icon Cher announces her 26th album to be released next month on the 28th September and it is an ABBA tribute.
Five years after her hugely successful 2013 Closer To The Truth album with its hit lead single ‘A Woman’s Work’ we get Cher’s 26th album released on digital, CD and even vinyl if you want it. The album will be called Dancing Queen and features 10 previously unreleased Cher versions of ABBA’s greatest hits all very different from the originals.
Following on from the massive success of Mamma Mia Here We Go Again the movie which is on target to out-gross the original. In its first three weeks has made $243 million from a budget of just $70 million which of course stars Cher and includes two new songs by her.
In the film, Cher duets with Andy Garcia on her current top 40 hit ‘Fernando’ and also closes the movie and album out with ‘Super Trouper’. The soundtrack is holding steady at number one in the album charts holding the likes of Drake and George Ezra off comfortably.
Dancing Queen, Cher’s new album does contain a different version of ‘Fernando’ to the one from the film. The lead single, released digitally this week is ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight)’ and it has instantly leapt our gay goddess to number six on the iTunes’ charts (up from 93) likely to go number one next week. See the full new CD track listing at the bottom.
Cher spoke about the project on The Today Show, “After filming Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, I was reminded again of what great and timeless songs they (ABBA) wrote and started thinking, ‘Why not do an album of their music?’ The songs were harder to sing than I imagined but I’m so happy with how the music came out. I’m really excited for people to hear it. It’s a perfect time. I have always liked ABBA and saw the original Mamma Mia musical on Broadway three times”. She added, “It’s not what you think of when you think ‘ABBA,’ because I did it in a different way.”
Of course, that is an understatement that many agree with who have heard her new great version of ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’.
As she previously announced on The Graham Norton Show she is doing an Australia and New Zealand only tour, titled the ‘Here We Go Again Tour’ which is now being rebranded the ”Dancing Queen tour, in support of the new album, is set to launch on September 21, 2018, in Auckland, New Zealand. She is planning on doing six of the below Abba numbers in that show and of course promoters worldwide are now trying to pin her down do extend the tour to Asia, Europe and North America as the demand created by the film, soundtrack and predicted pre-orders of the tribute album make her hotter than at any time since ‘Believe’, maybe hotter as she is now a triple threat.
After the disappointment of her only other movie musical to date Burlesque in 2010 she decided to move away from acting in 2012 and concentrate on her music career which was a very wise move indeed as it is turning out. Due to the success of the new movie talks with theatre producers are now underway to bring Here We Go Again to the world’s stages to play alongside the original massively successful Mamma Mia musical which is not likely to be leaving any stages soon as ticket sales are back through the roof again and the original 2008 soundtrack is also back in the Top 5 itself with ABBA Gold the original artist compilation just three places lower (making 3 ABBA-inspired albums in the Top 10).
ABBA is coming back soon!!!
If that is not enough excitement for ABBA fans then we are now just 12 short weeks from the release in November of their first new material for 36 years when in 1982 they put out their final song ‘The Day Before You Came’ (In 1983 they recorded ‘Put On Your White Sombrero’ for single release but withdrew it for it later to turn up only on a box set). The new song ‘I still Have Faith In You’ is currently the bookmaker’s favourite to be the Christmas Number One 2018 which would be their first ever Xmas chartopper and 10th number one in the UK. All four members of Abba 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 had only been away on a short holiday. An extremely joyful experience!“
It resulted in two new songs and one of them, ‘I Still Have Faith In You’, will be performed by our digital selves in a TV special produced by NBC and the BBC aimed for broadcasting in December.
“We may have come of age, but the song is new. And it feels good
The full track listing of the new Cher album available to pre-order now is :-
Dancing Queen
1. Dancing Queen
2. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (a Man After Midnight)
3. The Name of the Game
4. SOS
5. Waterloo
6. Mamma Mia
7. Chiquitita
8. Fernando
9. The Winner Takes It All
10. One of Us
