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RoxetteDangerousFading Like A FlowerHow Do You Do!It Must Have Been LoveJoyrideListen To Your HeartShe's Got Nothing OnSpending My TimeThe Look
After the release of Don't Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!, a greatest hits record, the duo took a hiatus in the mid-1990s. With the release of Have a Nice Day (1999) and Room Service (2001) they continued to chart in other territories such as Europe and South America, where they earned various Gold and Platinum awards until the beginning of the new millennium. In 2002 the duo took a break from recording and touring when Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumour.[3] Roxette took to the stage together again for the first time in 8 years, in 2009, during Gessle's European Party Crasher tour.[4] Their songs "It Must Have
Been Love" and "Listen to Your Heart" continue to receive radio airplay, with both singles recently receiving awards
from BMI for achieving four million radio plays.[5][6] They have
sold an estimated 60 million records worldwide,[7][8] with over
3.5 million record sales in the United States,[9][10][11] achieving
platinum for Joyride and Look Sharp! there.[9] Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson first met in Halmstad, Sweden, in the late 70s.[12][13] 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.[14] 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.[15] 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".[15][16] "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". 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."[15] 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. It was then that the Managing Director of EMI,
Rolf Nygren, suggested that Gessle and Fredriksson should sing
together.[17][18] Gessle translated a song called "Svarta glas" ("Black glasses") into English, which became their first single, "Neverending Love". It was released in the summer of 1986 under the name "Roxette" and reached the Swedish Top 10, selling 50,000 copies.[17] 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.[19]
With the release of Pearls of Passion in October 1986, Roxette
maintained their commercial momentum in Sweden with their next
singles "Goodbye to You" and "Soul Deep". Some singles from Passion were released in other countries, including Canada,
Italy,[19] Japan, Australia and other European countries.[17] Their
international releases didn't emulate their Swedish success. Damas
of Allmusic retrospectively wrote:
In 1987, Fredriksson released and publicised her
third solo album Efter Stormen. Meanwhile, Roxette released the
single "I Want You" in collaboration with Eva Dahlgren and Ratata. Later in the year, they released "It Must Have Been Love (Christmas For the Broken Hearted)", a holiday themed song that received some attention as Roxette prepared their
next album, though EMI Germany decided against releasing the single.
Pearls of Passion was re-released internationally in 1997, and
included "It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted)" as a bonus track. In native Sweden, "Dressed
for Success" and "Listen to Your Heart" were chosen as the first two singles from their second album Look Sharp!, as
Gessle and EMI Sweden chose to highlight Fredriksson's singing.
Gessle said "I always thought we should promote the songs Marie sang. Me being a lead singer
wasn't part of the plan, not for me anyway."[16] Both singles reached the Top 10 of the Swedish singles chart, while the
album, which was released in Sweden in October 1988, held the No.
1 position for seven weeks.[21] Music critic Måns Ivarsson was
underwhelmed by the album, "To consist of two such original persons as Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle,
the album sounds unbelievably conventional. Most striking are the
lyrics. Gessle's once so subtle Swedish lyrics have became desolate
English nonsense"[17] When the third single from Look Sharp, "The Look" became another Top 10 single in their home country, Roxette were still unknown internationally. It was while studying in Sweden, that an American exchange student from Minneapolis, Dean Cushman, heard "The Look", and brought a copy of Look Sharp! home for the 1988 holiday break. He gave the album to a Minneapolis radio station, KDWB 101.3 FM. The station started playing "The Look" and based on positive caller feedback, the song became very popular, and quickly spread to other radio stations. The song became a radio hit before any Roxette product had been commercially released or promoted in the US market. The story was covered by radio, newspapers and TV in the US and in Sweden, with Gessle recently telling this as the story which highlighted the beginning of their international success.[13][22][23][24][25] Fredriksson dismissed rumours that Cushman was paid to take the record to the radio station.[13] EMI had previously rejected Roxette as unsuitable for the American market,[13] but after the popularity of "The Look" in the U.S. EMI officials made the decision to release and market the single worldwide. "The Look" and pressed copies of Look Sharp! were issued in early 1989 to record stores and radio stations. "The Look" became their first No. 1 in the U.S. on April 8, 1989, where it remained for one week. At the end of the year, Billboard named "The Look" one of the 20 biggest Hot 100 singles of the year. The breakthrough for Roxette became international when "The Look" also topped the charts in 25 other countries.[12] "The Big Bad Ballad. This is us trying
to recreate that overblown American FM-rock sound to the point
where it almost becomes absurd. We really wanted to see how far
we could take it. When it hit big in the States we suddenly found
ourselves lumped together with bands like Heart and Starship, which
wasn't the intention behind Roxette at all. But we got out of that
one... I hope." "Dressed for Success", featuring Fredriksson on lead with Gessle singing short parts for accentuating, was the second international single. The single peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100 as well as at No. 3 in Australia and No. 2 in Japan. "Listen to Your Heart" was released thereafter. The song differed from previous singles and instead resembled the guitar-heavy ballads of Heart. "Listen to Your Heart" spent a single week at No. 1 in the US in November 1989 and reached the Top 10 in most territories. "Listen to Your Heart" bore the distinction of being the first US Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 to be not commercially available on 7-inch vinyl.[26][27] A fourth single, "Dangerous", was released at the end of the year, entering into the Hot 100 at the end of December. The single, a duet between Gessle and Fredriksson, spent two weeks at No. 2 on the Hot 100 in February 1990, and again becoming a worldwide success by reaching the Top 10 in important music markets such as Germany and Australia. "Dangerous" was released as a double A-sided single in the UK with "Listen to Your Heart". Look Sharp! won Gessle his first Swedish Grammis
award in the category Best Composer.[28] Roxette received two Rockbjörnen
awards for Best Swedish Album and Best Swedish Group. It was around this time that Touchstone Pictures approached EMI and Roxette about contributing a song to the soundtrack of an upcoming film, Pretty Woman, starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.[29] Gessle has claimed that "It Must Have Been Love", by then a 2-year-old recording, was chosen because Roxette didn't have time to compose and record a new song.[29] The film's producers turned it down, asking for another song, but Gessle declined to produce another song.[29] Some weeks later after re-editing the film before release, the producers re-requested "It Must Have Been Love", but Roxette had to remove the Christmas lyrics.[29] Gessle and producer Clarence Öfwerman then took the old recording, had Fredriksson replace a single Christmas-referenced line in the song and added some instrumentation and background vocal overlays. Though not the first single released from the soundtrack, "It Must Have Been Love" would prove to be Roxette's most successful single release. The song spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in June 1990, three months after the film's release, and stayed for two additional weeks at No. 2, spending a total of seventeen weeks in the Top 40. Billboard named "It Must Have Been Love" the No. 2 Hot 100 single of the year behind Wilson Phillips' "Hold On".[30] The song also topped the charts in more than 20 other countries (including Australia and Japan) around the world. In Germany the single spent 9 months in the Top 75, and peaked at No. 3 in the United Kingdom, the duo's highest singles chart position there. The soundtrack went on to be certified three times platinum by the RIAA.[31] In Sweden, Roxette collected their second Rockbjörnen
as Best Swedish Group. As 1990 wound down, Roxette completed its tour and returned to Sweden to record its follow-up to Look Sharp! The 14-track collection, titled Joyride, which was released in March 1991, became a worldwide hit, topping the charts in a number of countries and became Roxette's best selling album. Their record company EMI invested almost 2 million dollars on promotion for the album,[22] which stayed at No. 1 in Germany for 13 weeks, while staying on the US album chart for over a year.[32] J.D. Considine of Rolling Stone magazine reviewed Joyride: "By emphasizing its sense of personality, Roxette delivers more than just well-constructed hooks; this music has heart, something that makes even the catchiest melody more appealing."[33] "Joyride" the single became Roxette's first No. 1 in their home country.[21] It also topped the charts in more than 25 countries around the world, including Germany, Australia and the United States, becoming their 4th and last U.S. No. 1. The single also reached No. 4 in the U.K. and achieved success in Canada which resulted in Roxette being nominated in 1992 for a Juno Award in the category, Best Selling Single by a Foreign Artist.[34] Its follow-up, "Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)", a power ballad similar to "Listen to Your Heart", with Fredriksson on lead, spent a week at No. 2 in the U.S. in July and was a major hit in other big markets as well, peaking in the Top 5 in Australia, Germany and Sweden. "Fading Like a Flower" became Roxette's last U.S. Top 10 single. "Roxette seems to have learned staging
through careful mimicry of MTV. On a set painted in a Piet Mondrian
primary colors, Miss Fredriksson struts, leans on the other band
members, makes symmetrical arm motions, pouts and straps on a guitar
to take a few chords; she took off her leather jacket and later
her long sleeves, like a G-rated stripper." It was then that Roxette embarked on an ambitious Worldwide tour.[36][37] The Join The Joyride! World Tour 1991/92 tour eventually reached more than 1.5 million fans in 107 concerts around the world,[38] including a few dates in the United States. On reviewing their Universal Amphitheater performance, Dennis Hunt of the LA Times said, "Fredriksson is squandering her talents in pop's low-rent district. She's clearly superior to Roxette's uncomplicated, hook-crammed material..."[39] It was at this time that EMI's American subsidiary made personnel changes that resulted in a downturn in the publicity for Roxette. Though Joyride was certified platinum[9] and made impressive worldwide sales, subsequent singles from the album, the ballad "Spending My Time" and "Church of Your Heart", failed to reach the heights of previous singles in the U.S. charts. Gessle said of the situation, "I believed this ("Spending My Time") was going to be our biggest hit ever, which might have happened if not our American record company had fired a lot of...ah, never mind."[16] Music tastes in the USA were changing, with the
emergence of new genres such as new jack swing, grunge, harder-core
rap and hip-hop. As William Ruhlmann of Allmusic later wrote, "Americans probably lost interest (in Roxette) at about the time that Nirvana
came roaring in from the Northwest."[40] In a 2009 interview with the BBC News, Gessle highlighted Nirvana and grunge
music as part of the cause which contributed in Roxette's downturn
of success.[24] Although Roxette's commercial momentum in America
was slowing down dramatically, elsewhere, singles from the Joyride
album continued to become hits when "Spending My Time" reached the Top 10 in Germany and Canada, while guitar pop tune "The Big L." made the Japanese and Swedish Top 10 as well as the Top 15 in most European
countries. Roxette continued the Join the Joyride tour through into 1992. It was during this tour that most of the material for Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places was recorded. Instead of releasing an album of brand-new material, Gessle and Fredriksson re-mastered older recordings, including several slated for but not included on Look Sharp! and Joyride. They also recorded some of their live performances, recorded a country music inspired version of "It Must Have Been Love" in a Los Angeles studio, and recorded new material in various locations around the world — an empty dance club, a hotel room — and compiled everything on to the album. Released in October 1992, Tourism was meant to "capture the energy within the band", Gessle & Fredriksson said.[38] The first single off the album was "How Do You Do!" followed by the ballad "Queen of Rain" and an electrified version of the song "Fingertips", originally recorded acoustically for the album and re-titled "Fingertips '93" for single release. Singles from Tourism barely dented American radio and record stores but in the rest of the world, the first single "How Do You Do!", hit the Top 5 in most European and South American countries. The album Tourism also charted well outside of the USA, reaching No. 1 in Germany and Sweden, No. 2 in the UK as well as peaking at No. 5 in Australia. It was also in 1992, that the group's European
and Australian success reflected in Germany's ECHO Award (the equivalent
of the Grammy) nomination for the International Group of the Year.
They also won two Rockbjörnens: Best Swedish Album and Best Swedish
Group. In October 1992, Fredriksson released her first solo album
in Swedish in five years, titled Den ständiga resan (The Eternal
Journey). In early 1993, Roxette became the first non-native-English speaking artists to be featured on MTV's Unplugged series,[12] 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.[16] However, the song was moved to the soundtrack to the film based on the Nintendo video game Super Mario Bros.[16] 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 UK 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.",[16] 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."[16] 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.[41] Roxette took a turn with the 1994 release of Crash! Boom! Bang!, "It all sounded so... perfectly grown up",[16] 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" 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."[42] Although Crash! Boom! Bang! saw chart success (No. 1 in Sweden, No. 2 in Germany & Australia, No. 3 in the UK), it didn't sell as many as their previous albums.[43] EMI America were reluctant to release the album,[43] which sold 46,000 copies[10] despite a promotion by McDonald's, which advertised and sold a 10-track Favorites CD. The Favorites CD reportedly sold about 1 million copies.[43][44] It was noted by journalists that the McDonalds promotion CD and other CDs by Tina Turner, Garth Brooks and Elton John, led to US music retailers of the time being unhappy with the promotion which bypassed established music stores. The retailers were upset on several fronts including the low price of the items; some stores refused to sell the album, with one major chain protesting by temporarily pulling all products from CEMA (EMI's distribution wing) out of its sales and ad campaigns.[45][46][47] 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 frustration of
the album's grown up nature,[16] reached No. 2 in Canada, as well
as the Top 10 in 7 European countries (including No. 1 in Sweden)
as well as the Top 15 in the UK, Australia and Germany. However
in the US it was less successful, reaching only the Billboard Top
50. 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. Roxette then embarked on another, albeit scaled-down, worldwide tour, skipping North America in the process.[48] 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.[18][49] The procedure to get permission for this concert had taken over a year, and included self-censoring the lyrics.[50] The band did re-write some of their lyrics but used the original lyrics after all during the concert.[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. 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[citation needed] and Argentina.[51] Also in 1996, Marie Fredriksson released another solo Swedish-language album, I en tid som vår (In a Time Like Ours). Meanwhile, Gessle reunited with Gyllene Tider for what turned out to be a successful tour, that brought the band three awards in Sweden. 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. 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 comeback in continental Europe. It entered at No. 1 in Sweden and No. 2 in Germany. 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 (#11), while in Sweden, it charted at No. 4, their 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 and German speaking countries. NME's review called Have a Nice Day "...another clever-clever bastard of an album which defies Doctor Rock".[52] Damas of Allmusic called the album "an effort to encapsulate Roxette's trademark sound with Brit-pop and electronica, and, by gosh, it works."[53] Sales were brisk in South America as well, but there was no U.S. release of Have a Nice Day.[54] 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 No. 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.[54] The single "Wish I Could Fly" included in the album reached No. 27 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart
and No. 40 on the Adult Top 40 tally.[55] 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."[56] Per Bjurman from Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet was critical of the album, "It is not very good." he wrote. He did praise the three singles, "Real Sugar", "The Centre of the Heart" and "Milk and Toast and Honey", but ended the review with "Roxette is not finished. But soon, I suspect."[57] The album topped the Swedish charts and reached
No. 3 in Germany, but received little attention in the UK and wasn't
released at all in the United States, though it did peak at No.
2 on CNN's Worldbeat album chart.[58] The first single, "The Centre of the Heart" topped the charts in Sweden,[21] and made the Top 10 in Spain, Top 15 in Finland.
The other singles, "Real Sugar", the album's opening track and "Milk and Toast and Honey" were less successful. Roxette again went on tour, this time in Europe only,
as concerts planned in South Africa were cancelled after the September
11 terrorist attacks.[59] On reviewing their Löfbergs Lila Arena
concert, Bjurman from Aftonbladet said "Roxette succeed in all cases, to never leave the 80s.",[60] criticising Roxette's playlist which consisted of some of their early hits.
Johan Lindqvist from Göteborgs-Posten was more positive, scoring
their Munich concert four stars.[61] 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 No. 23 before climbing to its peak
position of No. 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,[62] helped the duo win a World Music Award
as the Best selling Scandinavian artist in October 2003.[63] In
that year, Roxette were also awarded with achievement medals by
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden "for appreciated achievements in Sweden and internationally".[64] In September 2002, after a fainting spell, Marie Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumor,[3] which was later successfully removed in surgery.[65] Four months later, Swedish newspaper Expressen reported Fredriksson had been diagnosed with a second tumor. This turned out to be false,[66] and Fredriksson later sued the newspaper for 500,000 kronor.[67] 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 No. 1,[21] and quickly gained Gold status from the IFPI.[68] 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 reached No. 1 on the Swedish album chart,[21] became five times platinum,[68] 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,[69] and the band played to almost half a million fans. As a result, the group was honoured 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.[70] Also that year, 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".[71] On November 23, 2005, 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.[6]
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".[72] 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".[73] Fredriksson returned in 2006 with an album of Swedish cover songs, titled
Min bäste vän (My Best Friend). "They were a legitimately popular band,
but they don’t fit neatly into the story of American pop music.
The Swedish duo wasn’t a boy band like New Kids on the Block, they
weren’t glammy enough to be hair metal, and vocalist Marie Fredriksson
didn’t have the outsize personality to be a diva like Whitney Houston,
Mariah Carey, or Janet Jackson. They were far from the only guitar-based
pop act on the airwaves in the ‘80s, but they came too late to
be mentioned alongside Journey, Survivor, or REO Speedwagon, and
they didn’t have the rock legacy of Heart or Starship." In mid 2006, Roxette released to radio "The Rox Medley" to promote a 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 to commemorate Roxette's 20 years in the music industry. Spanning over 4 CDs and single DVD, it included two new singles, "One Wish" and "Reveal". 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", which was their first new song in four years, was released internationally on October 6, and features both Fredriksson and Gessle singing lead. On February 14, 2007 the second single "Reveal", was released. 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 [with an] 80-page booklet and stuff."[75] Rumours started of a Roxette reunion when Gessle was interviewed by the BBC in April 2009. "Yeah, we've talked about it. It's really up to Marie." Gessle said.[24] Online news sites picked up on the story, furthering the rumours.[76][77] 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 Sportpaleis Antwerp.[12][78] Roxette were due to play the Night of the Proms back in 2002, but Fredriksson's illness meant they had to pull out.[78] 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",[4] 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.[12] Later in July 2009 they took part in the New Wave festival in Latvia.[12] On 28 September 2009, Roxette re-released remastered versions of all seven of their studio albums; all of the albums featured previously released bonus tracks.[12] In January 2010 a concert at The Race Legends event in Sweden on 14 August was announced,[79] followed by confirmation of other concerts in Russia, Denmark and Norway which took place during August and September 2010. On 18 June 2010, Roxette performed a one off set at Stockholm Concert Hall, performing "The Look" in front of the Swedish Crown Princess Victoria during the gala concert on the day before her wedding.[80] On 4 August 2010 Roxette played a 2 hour secret
gig at Leifs Lounge, Hotel Tylösand, just outside Halmstad. This
was seen as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming European tour.[81]
On 31 December 2010 Roxette performed in Poland at New Year's Eve
concert, transmitted live from Warsaw internationally. On October 23, 2009, the Swedish newspaper Expressen
reported that Roxette were recording new songs. Per stated that
he had been working on new material for an upcoming album since
May 2009.[82] In early November 2010, it was announced that the band would undertake their first world tour since 1995. Their eighth studio album, Charm School, was released in Europe on February 11, 2011 and peaked within the top 20 of eleven European album charts. The set also became their first since 1992's Tourism to reach No. 1 on the German album chart,[83] where it was certified gold for shipments in excess of 100,000 units.[84] The album was preceded by the single "She's Got Nothing On (But the Radio)" on January 10, 2011, which became Roxettes' biggest hit in the German market since "How Do You Do!", and for several weeks was the fourth most-played song on radio in the world.[85] Charm School was also the first Roxette album since Have A Nice Day to receive a full commercial release in South America, debuting at No. 1 on the Argentinian album chart.[86] The Neverending World Tour, their first in 15 years, started on February 28, 2011 in Kazan, Russia and is expected to comprise up to 130 concerts[87] and run until October 2012,[85] with the band performing to over 800,000 people in the 79 concerts held in 2011 alone.[85][88] On November 15, Roxette played their first UK gig in 17 years at London's Wembley Arena. They will undertake a full UK tour in 2012, with dates confirmed in Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham. On November 27, 2011, Gessle confirmed through
his official Twitter account that recording for Roxette's ninth
studio album, titled T2, – an abbreviation of Tourism 2 – had been
completed and anticipated a hopeful release date of "late March" for the set.[89] Per later noted on his Facebook account, "We have about 18-20 songs in the can. 9 [are] brand new. 2-3-4 are live ones.
Some are from hotelrooms. Some are from soundchecks. Guess the
album will hold 14-15 tracks when we're done."[90] Rock Runt Riket Swedish Tour (with Eva Dahlgren
and Ratata) (1987) [98]
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