We're fully in the grip of Eurovision fever and all hopes are now pinned on Mae Muller to bring home the win for the UK.
But just a train journey away from Liverpool, arguably Eurovision's most famous export is staging a show that has to be seen to be believed. Already an established act in their native Sweden, ABBA stormed to global stardom after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974.
The supergroup's star blazed for just 10 years, before members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad decided to call it a day in 1982. But in those ten years the band released some of the biggest and best selling records of all time.
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After years of turning down offers to reform in person, ABBA Voyage - a virtual concert - opened last year, giving fans of all ages the chance to experience a 'live' show by the band in its heyday.
We jumped the train at Lime Street and just a few hours later were in Stratford, home to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the purpose built ABBA Arena. A five minute walk from the tube station was the Hyatt Regency London Stratford, nestled among the shops and restaurants of bustling Westfield Stratford Park.
Our room was on the eight floor, offering views out across the bustling and vibrant complex below and towards London Stadium. As it was late afternoon, we dropped off our bags and wandered back down to the hotel's Elondi Restaurant, Bar and Terrace for a few drinks before venturing out for a bite to eat.
Selecting a couple of delicious cocktails from the extensive menu, we sat back and took in the elegant Art Deco surroundings of the bar, a calm oasis in which you could instantly feel the tensions of the week evaporating. Refreshed, we ventured out of the hotel to find something to eat at one of the dozens of restaurants outside.
The ABBA Arena sits within the Olympic Park, and a 15 minute walk from the hotel. It was purpose built to house the show and seats just 3,000 people, making the concert feel like an incredible intimate performance.
Tickets scanned, we made our way to the bar, the gathering audience - some in ABBA themed fancy dress - buzzing with excitement. We'd purposely not looked up anything about the concert, just knowing that the band would be appearing virtually as 'ABBAtars'.
Taking our seats at the heart of the arena, the more hardy fans began to fill the dance floor at the front of the stage, the array of glittering jackets and feather bowers glinting under the soft arena lights.
It's not long before the projected forest which fills the screens before us gives way to pulsing neon lights which strobe around the arena, and suddenly there they are - ABBA - standing in front of us.
Except they're not, and even though I know they're not really in the arena, my brain refuses to believe that Anni-Frida and Agnetha aren't singing and dancing live on stage - the sequins of their boots and cloaks even seem to glisten as they twirl under the lights.
The audience however doesn't care and the 3D band is given a rapturous welcome, even more so than the actual live band which stands to the left of the stage and which accompanies the ABBAtars throughout the show.
What follows is a dazzling, mind-bending extravaganza which takes guests through an eclectic mix of the band's greatest hits.
It builds slowly, the lesser known The Visitors and 1977's Hole in Your Soul playing before delivering back-to-back classics SOS and Knowing Me, Knowing You. Mama Mia and Fernando play in the second act interspersed with Chiquitita and Does Your Mother Know.
There's a brief interlude for 'an outfit change', the crowd kept entertained by a Studio Ghibli-style animation that plays out to Eagle. It shouldn't work, yet somehow it really does.
Then ABBA are back, donning the TRON-esque costumes seen on the show's posters. Delivering hit after hit alongside some of the most jaw-dropping effects, strings of lights descending from the ceiling making the show feel even more immersive.
After a third and final costume change, we're into the home straight and the big hitters are out - Thank You For The Music, Waterloo, and Dancing Queen, which has the arena on its feet.
ABBA were always considered to be trailblazers, and everything about this show feels groundbreaking. Yes, there have been hologram performances from late legends like Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson, but this £140million production goes far beyond even those accomplishments.
I know that what I watched was the extraordinary work of 1,000 animators, who painstakingly motion captured the four band members and created a digitised performance that was projected onto a 65m pixel screen.
But as we left the arena into the cold London night, my brain still refused to believe that we hadn't just sat through a live concert. A truly mesmerizing and emotional experience.
ABBA Voyage runs at the ABBA Arena until January 2024.
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