Roxette

Roxette is a Swedish pop music duo, consisting of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle. They enjoyed worldwide success, from the late 1980s until the mid 1990s, gaining nineteen UK Top 40 hits and four US #1 singles with, "The Look", "Listen to Your Heart", "It Must Have Been Love" and "Joyride".title=Roxette's Billboard chart history Two further singles "Dangerous" and "Fading Like a Flower" hit #2.

After a hiatus in the mid-1990s, their popularity continued in other territories such as Europe and South America, where they earned various Gold and Platinum awards until the beginning of the new millennium. The duo took an extended hiatus from recording and touring, when in 2002, Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumor.title=BBC News: Roxette Star has brain tumor Roxette took to the stage together again for the first time in 8 years, in 2009, during Gessle's European Party Crasher tour.title=The Daily Roxette: Marie joins Per and band on stage in Amsterdam

Their songs continue to receive radio airplay. "It Must Have Been Love" and "Listen to Your Heart" have both recently received awards from BMI, with both songs achieving four million radio plays. They have sold an estimated 45 million albums and 25 million singles worldwide, with over 3.5 million record sales in the United Statestitle=Awards for Roxette from RIAA., achieving platinum for Joyride and Look Sharp! there.

History

1979–1986: Formation

Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson first met in Halmstad, Sweden, in the late 70s.title=Roxette's official website Gessle performed in one of Sweden's most popular bands of the time Gyllene Tider and Fredriksson in the less successful Strul and MaMas Barn (Mama's Children) before both embarked on solo careers

. In 1981, Fredriksson sang for the first time with Gyllene Tider on stage and was featured as a background vocalist for a Swedish-language album the band released in 1982. Gessle also worked with ex-ABBA singer Frida, for a song that appeared on her 1982 album ''Something's Going On, setting music to a Dorothy Parker poem.

While working on her first solo album, Het Vind (Hot Wind), Fredriksson performed more background vocals for Gyllene Tider's only album in English, The Heartland Café. According to Gessle, the group's first English-language release was in response to interest expressed by EMI's American label Capitol Records, in an attempt to reach into the lucrative American market. The 11-track Heartland Café was released in February 1984 and sold 45,000 copies in Sweden.title=The Heartland Café 1990 re-release CD liner notes Capitol took six of the tracks and released an extended play (EP) record in the United States with an abridged title, Heartland, but the company insisted on a different name for the band. Gessle and the other members of Gyllene Tider (Swedish for "Golden Times" or "Golden Age") chose the title of a 1975 Dr. Feelgood song, "Roxette".title=''Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! album liner notes

The newly-named Roxette issued one near-invisible release in the United States, "Teaser Japanese", whose video reached MTV's studio but received no rotation to speak of. It, and subsequent singles, fared better in Sweden, and Gyllene Tider briefly toured the country to support the album. However, "the album died soon enough and the international career died before it even started", Gessle wrote. "We decided to put Gyllene Tider to rest... until further notice."

Gessle then turned solo work, recording his second Swedish-language solo album, Scener, released in 1985 and again featuring Fredriksson on background vocals. While Fredriksson recorded her second solo album, Den sjunde vågen, and received in 1986, a Rockbjörnen award as Best Swedish Female Artist.

It was then that the Managing Director of EMI, Rolf Nygren, suggested that Gessle and Fredriksson should sing together.title=Gessle bio. on Sirus Satellite Radiotitle=Expressen's story of Roxette (part 1) Gessle translated a song called "Svarta glas" ("Black glasses") into English, which became their first single, "Neverending Love". It was released in late 1986 under the name "Roxette" and reached the Swedish Top 10, selling 50,000 copies.

cquote "I remember that Per had written a damn good song. I thought that Per and Marie would fit in as Per writes great music and Marie can sing a phone book and get it (to) sound good. Of course I’m a bit proud of getting the idea for Roxette".
— Rolf Nygren

1986–1987: Pearls of Passion

After the success of "Neverending Love" in Sweden, Gessle and Fredriksson quickly recorded a full length album, translating songs Gessle had written originally for his third solo album.title=Album booklet intoduction of 1997 re-release of Pearls of Passion With the release of Pearls of Passion in October 1986, Roxette became an even bigger success in Sweden with their next singles "Goodbye to You" and "Soul Deep". Some singles from Passion were released in other countries, including Canada, Italy, Japan, Australia and other European countries. Their international releases didn't emulate their Swedish success. Damas of Allmusic retrospectively wrote:

In early 1993, Roxette became the first non-native-English speaking artists to be featured on ''MTV's Unplugged series, though the songs from the performance were never released on an official Unplugged album. At home, Roxette won a Rockbjörnen Award for Best Swedish Group, the last Rockbjörnen the duo would receive, though there have been nominations in the years since. Also Roxette received their second ECHO Award nomination for the International Group of the Year.

It was also in 1993 when Roxette recorded and released "Almost Unreal", a song originally slated for the film Hocus Pocus starring Bette Midler. However, the song was moved to the soundtrack to the film based on the Nintendo video game Super Mario Bros. Supported by an expensive video and ultimately receiving respectable airplay, "Almost Unreal" managed to briefly reach the lower end of the Billboard Hot 100 but reached the Top 10 on the U.K. singles chart, the group's first time there since "Joyride" two years before. Roxette themselves were dismissive about the song, "Not one of our most inspired moments.", Fredriksson said. While Gessle stated: "I still like the song in a way... but if you wanted to make a parody of Roxette, it would probably sound something like this."

In the Autumn of 1993, a second re-issuing of "It Must Have Been Love" managed to reach the UK and Irish Top 10 singles charts, after the UK television premiere of the film Pretty Woman.

1994: Crash! Boom! Bang!

Roxette took a turn with the 1994 release of Crash! Boom! Bang!, "It all sounded so... perfectly grown up", Fredriksson described. Bryan Buss of Allmusic wrote, "To go from the painfully pretty "Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)" on Joyride to the apathetic "Vulnerable" to the haunting and powerful title track of the same name on this album shows a serious downward slide.... Though the two have an edge on this album, they almost seem to have become a bit bored."

Although Crash! Boom! Bang! saw some chart success, (#1 in Sweden, #2 in Germany & Australia, #3 in the UK), it was seen as a flop in comparison to previous albums.title=Expresson's article on Roxette's history (part 3) EMI America were reluctant to release the album, and it didn't sell well, despite a successful campaign by McDonald's, which advertised and sold a 10-track Favorites CD. The Favorites CD reportedly sold about 1 million copies. Crash! Boom! Bang! became the last Roxette release EMI would issue in the US.

The first single release from Crash! Boom! Bang! was "Sleeping in My Car". The distortion guitar-heavy pop song, born out of anger and frustation of the album's grown up nature, managed to grab some attention, reaching the Billboard Top 50 and the Top 15 in the UK, Australia and Germany, as well as returning Roxette to #1 in Sweden after several years. Subsequent releases, the title track "Crash! Boom! Bang!", "Fireworks", and "Run To You", were less successful but managed to reach the charts in some countries.

1995–1998: ''Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus! and Baladas En Español

Roxette then embarked on another, albeit scaled-down, worldwide tour, skipping North America in the process. It was during this tour that Roxette became the first Western band to be allowed to perform in China (Workers' Indoor Arena, Beijing) since Wham! in 1985. The procedure to get permission for this concert had taken years, and included self-censoring the lyrics.Citation needed
In October 1995, Roxette released their first "greatest hits" compilation ''Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!'', which reached the top 5 in many European countries including the UK, as well as the Top 10 in Australia. It featured four new songs, three were released as singles, including the ballad "You Don't Understand Me", co-written by Desmond Child. The song managed to hit the Swedish Top 10. The compilation gained high praise from Allmusic's Bryan Russ, saying, "This compilation exhibits what pop masters Gessle and Fredriksson are." Also that year, a compilation of demos, B-sides and remixes, alongside some of the 1993 MTV Unplugged material, was released in Japan and parts of South America under the title Rarities. Roxette received their third ECHO Award nomination for the International Group of the Year.

In 1996, Roxette took instrumental masters of many of its ballads and recorded translated Spanish lyrics over them, released on the album Baladas En Español, which sold well in Argentina, Chile and other parts of South America, reaching platinum in Spain.
Per Gessle released a solo English-language album, The World According to Gessle, in 1997. One song "I'll Be Alright", featured Fredriksson singing backing vocals.

1999–2000: Have a Nice Day

Gessle and Fredriksson reunited in 1998 to record material for a new Roxette album, Have a Nice Day, which was released in March 1999 and gave Roxette a successful comeback in continental Europe.

Containing elements of techno and house music, Have a Nice Day produced singles that returned Roxette to European charts. The first single, "Wish I Could Fly", became their highest charting UK single since 1993, while in Sweden, it charted at #4, the best position since "Sleeping in My Car". Although the second single, "Anyone", didn't chart well in Europe, "Stars", the third single, charted well in Scandinavian countries.

NME's review called Have a Nice Day "...another clever-clever bastard of an album which defies Doctor Rock". Damas of Allmusic called the album "an effort to encapsulate Roxette's trademark sound with Brit-pop and electronica, and, by gosh, it works." He called one of the tracks, "You Can't Put Your Arms Around What's Already Gone", "quite possibly the best song (Gessle has) ever written." Sales were brisk in South America as well, but there was no U.S. release of Have a Nice Day.title=Rolling Stone article: Roxette Back in the U.S.A.

In 2000, Fredriksson released Äntligen (At Last). The greatest-hits compilation, titled after one of her songs, is composed of material from her Swedish solo career. It went on to be a big seller in Sweden, peaking at #1 for three weeks, and resulted in a successful tour. Meanwhile, Roxette signed a U.S. distribution deal with Edel Music, which re-released ''Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!, replacing some non-U.S. hits with songs from Have a Nice Day. It resulted in the most recent chart action for Roxette in US: the single "Wish I Could Fly" included in the album reached #27 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and #40 on the Adult Top 40 tally.

2001: Room Service

Roxette in a 2001 concert in Spain.
Room Service followed in 2001 to a mixed response from critics. "Probably the best Roxette album since Joyride", wrote Leslie Mathew of Allmusic. Room Service is an exciting, immediate, high-gloss pop gem that contains very little filler indeed." While Per Bjurman, from Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet, bluntly put "It (the album) is not very good.", and thought the album was not original, "Many songs sound like covers of old Roxette material. Perhaps inevitable when you return to 'roots', but a little more imagination may be required." He did praise the three singles, "Real Sugar", "The Centre of the Heart" and "Milk and Toast and Honey", which he called "Roxette's strongest ballad since "It Must Have Been Love" and "Listen to Your Heart"", but ended the review with "Roxette is not finished. But soon, I suspect."

The album topped the Swedish charts and reached #3 in Germany, but received little attention in the U.K. The first single, "The Centre of the Heart", emerged, hitting #1 in Sweden, and making the Top 20 in such countries as Finland, Latvia and Argentina. The second release and the album's opening track was "Real Sugar". It was followed by "Milk and Toast and Honey", which was the only single from the album to be released in the U.K. It did not chart well there, but it did reach the Swedish and Swiss Top 30. Roxette again went on a successful tour, this time in Europe only, as concerts planned in South Africa were cancelled after the September 11 terrorist attacks. On reviewing one of their concerts, Per Bjurman from Aftonbladet said "Roxette succeed in all cases, to never leave the 80s." Criticising Roxette's playlist which consisted of some of their early hits.

While the album wasn't released in the United States, it did peak at #2 on CNN's Worldbeat album chart. "We'd love to release the album there (US), but currently no-one’s interested." Gessle exclaimed.

2002–2008: Compilations, solo albums & hiatus

In 2001, at the Grammis ceremony, Roxette received a Music Export Prize from the Swedish Government. After that came a set of compilations, The Ballad Hits in late 2002 and The Pop Hits in early 2003. Each set contained a separate CD with material previously available and never heard before tracks. The single "A Thing About You" was released as the lead single from The Ballad Hits. The album was released in the UK on February 14, 2003, to coincide with Valentines day and entered the charts there at #23 before climbing to its peak position of #11 a week later. It also peaked in the Top 10 in Germany and The Netherlands. The single "Opportunity Nox" was released from The Pop Hits in 2003. The Ballad Hits which sold over a million copies within a year, helped the duo win a World Music Award as the Best selling Scandinavian artist in October 2003.title=Billboard's list of 2003 World Music Award winners In that year, Roxette were also awarded with achievement medals by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden "for appreciated achievements in Sweden and internationally".

Fredriksson's illness

In September 2002, after a fainting spell, Marie Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which was later successfully removed in surgery. Four months later, Swedish newspaper Expressen reported Fredriksson had been diagnosed with a second tumor. This turned out to be false, and Fredriksson later sued the newspaper for 500,000 kronor.

It was during her recovery that she wrote and compiled songs for her first-ever English-language solo album, The Change, which was released October 2004. Inspired by Fredriksson's brush with mortality and made mostly in partnership with her husband, Mikael Bolyos, the album entered the Swedish album chart at #1, and quickly gained Gold status from the IFPI.title=IFPI Sweden

With Fredriksson's illness and rehabilition, the duo took a hiatus, allowing Gessle to release Mazarin (Cupcake) in 2003, his first Swedish-language solo album in 18 years. The album ended up solidifying Gessle's legacy in his home country. It reached #1 on the Swedish album chart, became five times platinum, and brought Gessle numerous Swedish awards. One of the tracks, "På promenad genom stan" ("Strolling Through the Town"), featured Fredriksson singing back-up.

In 2004, Gessle and Gyllene Tider reunited for a 25th-anniversary celebration that included the band's first album in 20 years, Finn 5 fel!, and another successful tour in Sweden. They beat the Ullevi attendance record, previously held by Bruce Springsteen, and the band played to almost half a million fans. As a result, the group was honored with four awards in Sweden.

In 2005, Belgian dance group D.H.T.'s trance-cover of "Listen to Your Heart" became a worldwide club hit. Originally released in Belgium in 2003, the various mixes of the song reached U.S. clubs in late 2004. By the mid 2005, the song reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, and was certified gold in October by the RIAA. Throughout 2005, several songs were released as re-mixes and covers. Among them: two prominent versions of "Fading Like a Flower", one a trance cover by German group Mysterio and one a sampling by Dancing DJs that reached the UK's dance chart. Also, there was a white label (independent, unauthorized) release, "Joyride 2005", which clubs in the United Kingdom played.

On November 23, 2005, Per Gessle released his first English-language solo album in eight years, titled Son of a Plumber. He was in the middle of publicizing for the album when, on November 29, 2005, Gessle and Fredriksson appeared at the Dorchester Hotel in London for an awards presentation by Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI). Gessle received an award for "It Must Have Been Love", which, by 2005, had been played on U.S. radio more than 4 million times. He and co-songwriter Mats Persson also received an award for Dance Song of the Year for D.H.T.'s cover of "Listen to Your Heart". The ceremony marked the first time Gessle and Fredriksson had appeared in public together since before the onset of Fredriksson's brain tumor and subsequent surgery in 2002. When asked by an Aftonbladet reporter if there would be a Roxette reunion, Gessle replied, "We haven't decided yet. No doors are closed. We're still young".

Marie returned in 2006 with an album of Swedish cover songs, titled Min bäste vän (My Best Friend). Min bäste vän was a cover album with songs from the 1960s and 1970s from Marie's childhood.

20th anniversary & The Rox Box

In mid 2006, Roxette released to radio "The Rox Medley" to promote the forthcoming "20th Anniversary package". The medley includes six Roxette hit singles: "The Look", "Joyride", "Listen to Your Heart", "Dangerous", "It Must Have Been Love" and "Fading Like a Flower (Everytime You Leave)". It was eventually released as b-side to the single "One Wish" and was also available to download.

The "20th Anniversary package" better known as The Rox Box/Roxette 86-06 was released on October 18, 2006. Spanning over 4 CDs and single DVD, it included two new singles, "One Wish" and "Reveal". The Rox Box was released to commemorate Roxette's successful 20 years in the music industry. A new standard greatest hits album, A Collection of Roxette Hits - Their 20 Greatest Songs!, was released at the same time as The Rox Box. "One Wish" and "Reveal" were also included onto the CD.

"One Wish" was released internationally on October 6, and features both Fredriksson and Gessle singing lead. It was their first new song in 4 years and was recorded in May 2006 especially for The Rox Box. On February 14, 2007 the second single "Reveal", was released, not internationally, but "here and there". Following rumours that Per Gessle was unhappy with the album version of "Reveal" a special "single version" was created and released to radio.

In a radio interview on Vancouver Island's CKWV-FM "The Wave", Gessle shared information about the Roxette single, "One Wish" and The Rox Box. "It's four CDs, a DVD, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, outtakes and demos and stuff. It's like a coffee table thing, and it's really, really big an 80-page booklet and stuff."title=Gessle interviewed on CKWV-FM "The Wave" conducted by the radio's Producer, Ian Seggie.

Gessle also shared his feelings about working with Fredriksson again:

"It was, in fact, wonderful, and emotional of course. But also ... it took about an hour, and then we were back in the groove. It was the same jokes, the same... everything was like the same. So, even though time has gone by, it feels as if time has stood still for a bit so... It's not like it was before because, you know, Marie is somewhat a changed person because of all that she's gone through. But nevertheless, she still sings very well and, you know, it's just been a pleasure to be able to record these songs. If you had asked me like 2 years ago if this would ever happen, I would definitely would never believed it to have happened. I'm really pleased that we actually could do it."

2009: The Reunion of Roxette

On 5 May 2009 an announcement was made that "Roxette would re-unite after 8 years and play for the first time on the Night of the Proms in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany". The tour started on Friday, 23 October in the Antwerp Sportpaleis.title=NOTP official website Roxette were due to play the Night of the Proms back in 2002, but fredriksson's illness meant they had to pull out.

Despite the Night of the Proms announcement, the first appearance of Roxette after 8 years was on 6 May 2009, during Per Gessle's concert in Amsterdam as part of his Party Crasher tour. Almost at the end of the concert, Gessle said: "I’d like you all to welcome an old friend of mine: Marie Fredriksson", then she joined the band to perform "It Must Have Been Love" and "The Look". Later she also appeared on stage with him in Stockholm, at the last concert of his solo tour, 9 May 2009. Later in July 2009 they took part in the New Wave festival in Latvia.

On 28 September 2009, Roxette re-released remastered versions of all seven of their studio albums, Pearls of Passion, Look Sharp!, Joyride, Tourism, Crash! Boom! Bang!, Have a Nice Day and Room Service. All physical copies of the albums will feature three previously released bonus tracks except for Tourism, which only included two. More previously released bonus tracks featured on the iTunes release. No previously unreleased material was planned for these releases.

Musical style

The band plays various styles such as: pop, rock, pop rocktitle=Roxette's page on Allmusic, Soft rock, europop, Swedish pop and Adult contemporary.
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Awards

1991 Swedish Grammis – Pop Group of the Year
1992 Juno Award nomination – Best Selling Single by a Foreign Artist
2000 WMA – Best selling Scandinavian artist
2003 WMA – Best selling Scandinavian artist

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Discography

1986: Pearls of Passion
1988: Look Sharp!
1991: Joyride
1992: Tourism
1994: Crash! Boom! Bang!
1999: Have a Nice Day
2001: Room Service

Tours

Rock runt riket Swedish Tour (with Eva Dahlgren and Ratata) (1987) title=List of Roxette's toursDead link

Copyright Citations
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