After 40 years of absence, ABBA reaches new heights in England and France

Swedish pop group ABBA rose to the top of the British and French charts with

, the quartet's first studio album since 1981. In France, this new album sold 38,598 copies during the week of November 5 to 12. , the National Union of Phonographic Publishing (SNEP) announced on Twitter on Friday.

overtakes Jul, Niska and Ed Sheeran, three sales heavyweights.

In detail, 30,124 CDs have passed, 5,858 vinyl records, the rest being streaming.

According to

, the Swedish group achieves the fourth start of the year in France, behind

des Enfoirés (118,000 sales),

of SCH (63,000 sales) and

de Booba (39,000 sales).

In the UK,

has achieved 204,000 sales in seven days since its launch on Friday, the strongest album launch in four years since

British pop star Ed Sheeran's

album

.

Read alsoFifty years later, ABBA and Diana Ross are still at the head of the bill

Voyage

is their 10th album to reach number one in the UK: only seven other bands or artists - The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie - have more.

The best selling vinyl of the century for a first week

Since their separation at the end of 1982, a year after their last album

, Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid (acronym ABBA) had not released any more songs.

"

" the group commented in a statement.

“

” they added.

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The 204,000 sales made include 90% of physical albums, including 29,900 vinyls, making it the strongest vinyl launch of the 21st century in terms of sales over one week.

The previous record was held by

British rock band Arctic Monkeys'

, which sold 24,500 vinyl records in one week in 2018.

SEE ALSO

- "It's true to Abba but not nostalgic": Abba's new album is out