Don't Shut Me Down

This uptempo track hides a sad lyric that finds Agnetha Fältskog sitting alone on a park bench near to her former lover's apartment. As she watches the windows on the second floor, the lights go on and she knows her ex is there. Agnetha summons the courage to knock on the door of the home they once shared. When the man answers, he is surprised to see his former romantic partner, for it was she who'd walked out on him. As Agnetha stands in the hallway, she pleads her case, saying she's a changed woman and she still loves him. The song ends on a cliffhanger as we wait to see if he "shuts her down" or invites her in.

The writer and producers of this song are ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, who together wrote virtually all of the pop group's tracks. This tale of a woman trying to resurrect a broken romance is one of their story songs, like "Chiquitita," "Our Last Summer" and "The Day Before You Came."

"Don't Shut Me Down" was actually recorded (along with " I Still Have Faith In You") back in 2018. The original plan was for the songs to support a TV special produced by NBC and the BBC, but this was later changed to the "ABBAtar" tour. Because of technical delays and the COVID-19 pandemic, the quartet pushed the "ABBAtar" tour back to 2022. Both songs were finally released on September 2, 2021 as the lead singles from ABBA's Voyager album. They were ABBA's first singles since the May 1983 release of "Thank You for the Music."