Roxette on Friday reached the top of the weekly MuchMusic video countdown chart, based in Argentina. Is the best position for Roxette since “Sleeping in My Car,” the first single from “Crash!Boom!Bang!.”

  Hundreds of fans, however, are wondering why “The Centre of the Heart” hasn’t appeared yet on the MTV Latin America airplay rotation.

Today Roxette went to #1 with TCOTH on Swedish national radio station P3’s “Trax” program. The host of the show said that it’s been decided that “Real Sugar” will be the next single.

A full-fledged website by EMI Austria and an updated Roxette artist page by EMI Canada are two new destinations on the Internet intended to promote sales of “Room Service” and generate interest in Roxette.

  EMI Austria is offering a Flash-enhanced site, with a look and feel quite similar to the site Fame Studios designed for the “Room Service” campaign at www.roxette.se. Apparently, there was some collaboration, but EMI Austria’s site was designed by a Vienna-based company called Motune. Fans looking for a German-language forum will find one on this site, along with other “fun” features. Marie and Per “sign in” on the blackboard when the Flash animation first begins.

  Meanwhile, in Canada, things are beginning to thaw out again, and EMI Canada has updated their Roxette artist page with a “Room Service” theme.

• EMI Austria’s Room Service site (In German)
• EMI Canada (Roxette link on home page)

STOCKHOLM - “Centre of the Heart” immediately entered the singles chart here at the #1 spot today, making this Roxette’s first #1 single since “Sleeping In My Car.”

  Per had hinted that Roxette would enter the Swedish singles sales charts at #1, and now that it’s happened, it becomes only their third song to top the Swedish sales chart. “Joyride”, in 1991, was the other. “Wish I Could Fly” peaked at #4 in 1999.

  With this news to celebrate, The NRJ-sponsored showcase concert here in this city Sunday at Café Opera should be all the more fun.

Thomas Evensson and Chris Oriet contributed to this story.

• Chart on Swedetown (Online retailer)
• Chart on Grammotex (Swedish recording industry site)

Roxette’s “showcase” concert at Sala Bikini in Barcelona, Spain was webcast live on the Internet Tuesday evening by los40.com. Two video streams were offered, but TDR readers report having experienced more difficulty watching this webcast than the one from Cologne, Germany on Monday. The concert was, in most respects, the same. The set list was duplicated, and Roxette’s performance again solicited rave reviews.

  The live video stream was saved and converted to an “on-demand” version. While Roxette’s Times Square concert was available online, that was audio only… and delayed by over a month. The availability of this concert, therefore, so soon after the event itself, is a “first” for Roxette and somewhat of a surprise. The link to the concert webcast will be available for the next month!

Webcast image captured by Pietro

• Los40.com Webcast (Concert video available on demand - Windows Media Player required)

Marie and Per will be guests on the ZDF-show “Die Nacht
der Stars” (“The Night of the Stars”) this Thursday at 8:15pm (CET). In 1999, they performed their single “Stars” on this show.

  Then, on Saturday, they are visiting the “Big Brother” show in Cologne, and performing “Centre of the Heart.” “Big Brother” is one of the most popular shows on German TV.

“Rox-ETTE! … Rox-ETTE! … Rox-ETTE!”

  It was a very appreciative, enthusiastic audience that greeted Roxette in Cologne, Germany today for the first of a series of “showcase” concerts. Fans and others in attendance were chanting “Rox-ETTE!” between almost every song during the fully-staged performance. Those not lucky enough to be there in person were able to watch the concert live over the Internet. A German portal site provided the streaming video webcast in three different resolutions.

  Roxette played “Dressed for Success,” “Centre Of The Heart,” “Listen to Your Heart,” “Real Sugar,” “Dangerous,” “Stars,” “Wish I Could Fly,” “Sleeping In My Car,” “The Look,” “It Must Have Been Love,” “Joyride,” and finished with “Perfect Day.”

  “Stars” was a vastly different version – “a special version” as Marie said – sung in a slow, almost ballad style.

 “It Must Have Been Love” featured Marie on the piano… and, of course, the crowd went wild!

  “I had been expecting some kind of accoustic thing, but it was really, really ’rocky’,” reported TDR reader Judith Seuma, who listened in Spain to the concert over the Internet. Another reader, Per Andrén in Sweden, reports that the sound quality of the webcast was “surprisingly good!” The picture quality however, according to other messages left in our SmallTalk section, was not nearly as good.


  Performing with Roxette were Pelle Alsing on drums;
Mats Persson, percussion and backing vocals; Christoffer Lundqvist, bass guitar and backing vocals; Jonas Isacsson, guitar; and Clarence Öfwerman, keyboards.   Photo courtesy OIRFC

The maxi-single for “The Centre of the Heart” will be released on April the 16th. The CD will contain six different versions of the song, with most of the remixes being provided by Stonebridge.

The “Room Service” promotional site at Roxette.se features video clips of Per and Marie commenting on each of the new album tracks. Here’s what’s said:

1. Real Sugar

A very simple song. That’s always the hardest to write. The idea was that they both should be singing it. It’s a classic 3-chord pop song which you can have a lot of fun with in the studio. You can do a lot of production to it, what we did. It begins like an old-fashioned home recording. It’s a pop song, one of those I love to write.


2. The Centre of the Heart

Was written five years ago. The first version was recorded in Spain for HAND. It was a totally different version, much slower. We made a disco song out of it. A little bit like Frankie goes to Hollywood meets G. Moroder. It’s fun.


3. Milk and Toast and Honey

Marie had a lot of problems to sing it. It’s so simple but you must deliver it from the heart. First she thought, it’s easy, but it wasn’t. She must find the magic lines. They’ve worked really hard on it and in the end, Marie says, she is very proud of the atmosphere and the voice in the song. Will be a single. Per says it’s probably the best song on the album. He had it in his head for six months, before writing it down and making a demo.


EDITOR’S NOTE: TDR reader T-Rox originally posted this to our SmallTalk forum. We thought it should be on our Front Page as well. Thanks T-Rox… and also to Charles (RML) who figured out the direct links to these video clips!   – LEO

• “Room Service” campaign site
• Real Sugar (Real Player required for all)
• Centre of the Heart
• Milk & Toast & Honey
• Jefferson
• Little Girl
• Looking for Jane
• Bringing Me Down To My Knees
• Make My Head Go Pop
• Try
• Fool
• It Takes You No Time To Get Here
• My World, My Love, My Life

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - EMI Sweden has transcribed the videotaped interview with Roxette, portions of which appear on the Roxette.se site, and made it available to the press.

  Here’s the full text:

Back In Business

Per Gessle: Well, we released the last album in the spring of ´99…
’Have
A Nice Day’ was the title, so we’ve actually been busy doing promotion
with that one, and we decided not to tour with it, just went straight
back into the studio, so we started working on this album in January
2000. So… That’s basically what we’ve been doing for the last two
years.
And prior to that of course we started to work on ’Have A Nice Day’. It
takes about a year to write an album.

Marie Fredriksson: It feels great. We always have a lot of fun together, and we know each other very well. And this album, the new album, ’Room Service’, both of us really like very much and there’s a couple of songs that are very much Roxette, they’re very… I think it’s a mix between
the
old days and how we sound today, so… I’m really looking forward to
promoting the album. Read more…

Roxette were in the TOPradio studio in Belgium this (Saturday) morning to promote their new album. The on-air, webcast-with-video interview lasted about half-an-hour.

  While Marie seemed to be a bit nervous, Per was relaxed and laughing all the time. He even started moving to a dance song upon entering the studio.

  They said they had left Edel and are looking for a new record company in the States to release Room Service, with promotion hopefully this autumn. Per said “Real Sugar” will be the next single, and that – as he’s said numerous times before – he checks the main Roxette sites every day. He thinks RoxAttaq is a very good idea. Marie said she wasn’t really aware of “RoxAttaq.”

  Mentioning the new Roxette.se site, Per said there might be some new interactive tools added.

  Amongst other comments, Per said that there will be a new DVD videobox released this year (including rare stuff). He also said there won’t be a Spanish version of this album.

  The radio station also played “The Look,” “Real Sugar” and a bit of “Milk And Toast And Honey.”

COLOGNE - Roxette’s showcase concert here on Monday, March 26th will be webcast live using streaming video on Germany’s largest internet portal site.

  The party that night begins at 8pm CET, with Roxette scheduled to take the stage at 9:30. T-Online plans to have streaming video available for those who log onto their site.

  Then, the following Saturday, March 31st, they’ve scheduled what presumably will be a half-hour live chat with Roxette.

• T-Online’s Roxette section (In German)

According to EMI Music Canada, they will be releasing “Room Service” on May 15th. Marie Dimberg, Roxette’s manager, said “we have a very strong fan base there, as they are more influenced by Europe than the U.S.” Roxette and EMI are hoping that “Room Service” will do well in Canada.

  There had been some confusion at EMI in Toronto regarding Roxette. Whether accurate or not, they thought Edel had the distribution rights, and this accounts for the delay from the April 2nd “worldwide” release date.

• EMI Canada

Marie Fredriksson sings a duet with Totta Näslund, 55, a well-known blues artist in Sweden, on his new album due out on Monday. It’s called “Duetterna” (“Duets”).

  Marie is Totta’s partner in a new arrangement of a song written by Ulf Lundell entitled “Sommarens Sista Servitris” (Summer’s Last Waitress) – the only song on the album that was not written especially for this project.

  Other female member’s of Sweden’s so-call “pop elite” that appear on the album include Josefin Nilsson, Louise Hoffsten, Kajsa Grytt, Jenny Öhlund, Sara Isaksson, Sanne Salomonsen and Charlotte Berg (from the musical group Charlie’s Magazine). The first single will be “Utan Dig” (“Without You”), that he sings with Sharon Dyall.

  “The idea behind the project is to blend Totta’s special voice with different women,” says Dan Hylander who produced the album and wrote some of its songs.

  As for the duet with Marie, an EMI spokesperson told TDR that “it’s damn good!” Totta told Aftonbladet that Marie was “very easy to work with.”

  Amongst other online retailers, the album can be ordered from Swedetown.com, a site that specializes in exporting Swedish music.

• Aftonbladet article (In Swedish)
• Expressen article (In Swedish)

On April 2nd, Roxette’s new album, “Room Service,” will be released in most parts of the world. But for two days now, it’s been possible to download the entire CD from the controversial, legally-embattled Napster file-sharing service.

  This fact has been the subject of discussion in our SmallTalk forum and on the Roxette Mailing List. Today, it hit the pages of the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

  “There’s not much that can be done about it. It was the same for Madonna and U2,” said Roxette’s manager Marie Dimberg to Aftonbladet. “We can hope that the majority of Roxette fans will want the real album with the booklet and packaging” she said.

  “It’s sad that this has happened,” said Li Eriksson of EMI, who, along with Per and Marie, has their attorney attempting to remove the files from Napster. As to how they got there in the first place… well, the list of potential suspects is large. While the Aftonbladet article mentions a possible theft from the factory, Eriksson told TDR that “of course there is a possibility that someone from the media put it there - journalists get listening copies of the album before interviewing Per & Marie. Also, retailers get copies to listen to before hand.”

  Yet to be determined, of course, is how damaging this will be to the overall success of the “Room Service” project. Legal and monetary issues aside, the fear is that it will hurt sales – and therefore chart positions. Other fans cite industry figures that CD sales are up, and feel that that the impact will be negligible.

  So far, there has been no direct comment from Per or Marie, who are in rehearsals for the upcoming showcase concerts.

• Aftonbladet article (In Swedish)

MTV Nordic has started showing Roxette’s new “The Centre Of The Heart” video. As we reported earlier, one of the scenes in the video has been cut away.

  The video features a news ticker recently introduced by MTV Nordic. The ticker is shown during some music videos and it contains a news flash relevant to the artist. During “The Centre Of The Heart” video, MTV tells that a “recent Roxette song” will be featured on a Brazilian soap opera. The most interesting thing here is that MTV has apparently got the news from The Daily Roxette, as they also quote a comment posted by our reader nimbus.

STOCKHOLM - Fame Studios, along with EMI and Roxette Recordings, launched the official “Room Service” site located at www.roxette.se today. The site – as expected – relies heavily on Macromedia’s Flash animation software. Users with less than broadband access to the Internet can expect to be frustrated by long load times. There are even reports from some fans that the site has crashed their computer.

  Fans can download screensavers and desktop wallpaper, watch videos, listen to music, ask Roxette questions and participate in a competition. The prize for the current one is an autographed album and a Roxette “Room Service” bathrobe.

  The graphically intense site was developed by Fame Studios, a company that has Per Gessle as an Associate Partner and Marie Dimberg, Roxette’s manager, on the Board of Directors.

• Roxette’s “Room Service” site (Registration required for most functions)

Per and Marie will be appear as guests on the Swedish TV4 program “Malou möter…” (“Malou meets…”) this Monday evening at 8:30 pm. The host of the show is Malou von Siwers. She interviewed Marie on the show a couple of years ago.

(Lissie contibuted to this article)

TCOTH has climbed to #1 on the official German airplayc harts. Entering at #3, it only took two weeks to top the charts. Just put a German radiostation on and zap - you’ll hear TCOTH.

• Chart Listing

Roxette’s first “concert” in Sweden in five years will be on Sunday, April 1st at Café Opera in Stockholm. It’s a promotional event held in conjunction with the Swedish all-hit radio network “NRJ”.

  Beginning March 24, listeners will have a chance to win a pair of the exclusive tickets.

  Located next to Kungstradsgården and across the river from the Royal Palace, the Café Opera restaurant/nightclub is part of the first-class Operakällaren (The Opera Cellar) restaurant complex. The most recent restoration of the entire Opera House building was completed in 1961, and ever since Stockholmers have considered this to be a “hot” (and expensive) nightspot.

• NRJ Radio Network

As a part of the promo tour, Roxette will be in the Top Radio studios in Vilvoorde, Belgium, this Saturday (March 24th) – the same day as their performance at the Radio Donna birthday party.

  They’ll take part in a half-hour interview that will be broadcast live on TV in Belgium and on the internet via the Top Radio website. The interview is expected to start at 10:30 CET.

  People having questions for Roxette may forward them to [email protected] (also include your name and contact information as some people will get the chance to ask their questions directly to Per and Marie over the phone). It’s not the first time Marie and Per have visited the dance-oriented radio station. Two years ago they also did an interview and a chat session for Top Radio.

Webcam (requires Media Player 6.4 for audio-only and version 7 for both audio and video): http://www.topradio.be/windowsmedia/topavlo.asx

• Top Radio

EMI Austria just recently relaunched their company’s website with many upgraded features. Apparently, there was still some money left over in their Internet budget, as they’ve now created a fresh, Flash-enhanced site, specifically for Roxette! With a “retro” look-and-feel that ties into the album’s design, the site offers an opt-in newsletter (in German) via e-mail, and there will be more about Roxette and “Room Service” soon.

• EMI Austria’s Roxette site (In German)
• EMI Austria (In German)

One of the most popular primetime television soap operas in Brazil, “Um Anjo Caiu do Céu” (“Down to Earth”), will feature the new “Room Service” ballad “Milk and Toast and Honey” on their soundtrack.

  According to EMI Brazil, “Center of the Heart” will not be the lead single (commercial singles are not usually released in Brazil). “Milk and Toast and Honey” will instead be included on the soundtrack of this Globo TV novela about an angel (pictured) that comes to earth to help a father with his problems.

  Soap operas are extremely popular in Brazil and therefore, the fans in Brazil are excited as they think this means a guaranteed “hit” for Roxette in Brazil. “If it’s on the soundtrack, then that means it’s going to be a hit,” said one.

— Kimie Shimabukuro and Eliel Costa, Jr. contributed to this article.

MADRID - Roxette is going to go to Spain for promotion… not once, but twice!

  First, Roxette will be in Barcelona. On March 27th they’ll be appearing in a private showcase performance arranged by EMI. RoxSpain has been given some tickets to distribute to fans. Then, on March 28th, Per and Marie will appear on the TeleCinco program “Cronicas Marcianas.”

  On April 3rd, Roxette will be here to appear on the program “Musica Si.” As the studios are located outside of the Madrid city center, there will be charter buses available to transport fans there. On April 4th, there will be a signing session at Corte Inglés in Pl. Sol at about 7 pm.

  On the 5th, a TV special about Roxette will be recorded and again, fans can be part of the audience and bus transportation is available.

  Further information is available from the RoxSpain website.

• RoxSpain (recently redesigned)

Marie and Per paid a visit today to the German radio/TV station VIVA. They answered several questions from Roxette fans and said that the “Room Service” album might be released in America this autumn after some preparations have been made. “Formerly,” Per said, “we had problems with the record company in the U.S., now the problem is that we can’t promote everywhere (at the same time).”

  Roxette indicated they have plans to release at least four of the “Room Service” songs as singles. They also said that they will visit Vienna, Austria for promotion.

  When asked about their favorite Roxette song, Marie answered “’Perfect Day’… great song. By the way, it is very difficult to name one song as the best, but ’Perfect Day’ I like a lot.” “’The Look,’” said Per. “Great to have such a song… and ’Stars,’ many people said it is not good, too much techno etc., but I like it.”

  After the VIVA music channel visit, Roxette continued on to the “Top of the Pops” RTL television studio where they guest hosted the show. On Saturday, Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera and some other very famous stars will visit TOTP - so Roxette is in good company. TOTP is one of the most watched TV music programs after VIVA.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Per also mentioned on the show that the new site at roxette.se will include a chat room, a forum, and a section where fans can “Ask Roxette.”
TDR reporter Steffen Foellmer also contributed to this article. - LEO

UPDATED - According to the online music store CDON, a five-track Maxi CD will be released - at least in Sweden - with all tracks being remixes of “Centre of the Heart”. While the site does not list the names of the remixes, or identify who was hired to do them, EMI Sweden has since provided additional details. Once again, Roxette has turned to StoneBridge to produce remixed versions.

  The info from EMI indicates six tracks: 1) The Centre Of The Heart (album version); 2) StoneBridge Club Mix Edit; 3) StoneBridge Club Mix; 4) Yoga Remix; 5) StoneBridge Peak Hour Dub; 6) StoneBridge More Vox Dub.

  The release date has yet to be announced. The site also lists the two-track CD single.

• CDON
• TCOTH remix single @ CDON

EMI Australia has announced Monday, April 23rd, as the date that “Centre of the Heart” will be released in Oz. To help promote that, they’ve added the video to their website.

  April 30th has been set as the release date for the “Room Service” album.

• EMI Australia’s “Hive” (Roxette page)

Per and Marie are special guests at the German TV station Viva on Wednesday, March 14th from 3pm to 5pm (CET, UTC+1). Their new video for “The Centre Of The Heart” will have its German premiere during their visit. Viva is the most popular music TV station in Germany.

• Viva

EMI Germany has offered 150 tickets to the OIRFC for the 45-minute showcase concert to be held in Cologne on March 26th. The fanclub intends to distribute these by conducting a ticket raffle, using a system that gives its members an automatic double-entry.

  To enter the contest, send an e-mail with
your name, membership number if you have one, number of tickets requested (1 or 2) and complete postal address to [email protected]..

  The deadline for entries is midnight, March 14th. Winners will be notified on March 15th.

On March 27th, Roxette will give a mini-concert in Barcelona where they will perform some new songs from Room Service along with older hits. It will be an exclusive showcase with only a limited audience. Clickx.be and EMI Belgium have launched an online contest where nine people (presumably from Belgium) have the chance to win a trip-for-two to Barcelona to enjoy the concert (including airfare from Virgin Express, concert tickets, transfers, diner, overnight stay at a hotel, etc.). Clickx is a very popular weekly internet magazine with over 40,000 readers.

• Clickx.be Contest Info (In Dutch)

Argentinian television program “Musica Total” will air the new Roxette video tomorrow (Saturday) at 1:30 pm on Channel 13 in Buenos Aires – which is believed to be the first such broadcast in Latin America. The song continues to climb the charts on Argentinian radio stations.

  Meanwhile down under in Australia, the program “Video Hits” intends to start showing the video this weekend.

Roxette will be visiting a radio show called “Ketchup Fanclub” on Swedish radio station P3 tomorrow (Saturday) and chatting with Henrik Olsson, the host. The program runs from 11 am to 12 noon (Stockholm time) and is also available as a webcast. (Martin Kinnunen)

• Swedish Radio P3 (Click on “Lysnna Live”)

UPDATED - MTV considers Roxette’s new video, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, too vulgar for their viewers. MTV’s chief Mats Jankell, speaking to the Swedish newspaper Expressen, says that the scene where a man putts a golf ball between a woman’s naked legs humiliates women. If the video is left uncensored, it will be only shown between 9pm and 6am.

  “Jonas Åkerlund is known for doing daring things. This time he really has stretched the limits and tried to see how far he can go,” Jankell says.

  “The Centre Of The Heart” is Åkerlund’s 14th video for Roxette, including Per and Marie’s solo videos. This is not the first time his work has been censored. “Wish I Could Fly” (nudity), “Anyone” (suicide) and Gessle’s “Kix” (person pushed under a train) have all been censored by MTV.

  Update: Aftonbladet has also put up an article. Nothing new there. Åkerlund says that he doesn’t feel worried after so many of his videos have been re-edited for MTV. “They edit almost every video, not only mine,” he says in Aftonbladet.

  (Thanks to Mikael.)

• Expressen’s Swedish article
• TCOTH video (better quality, Real Player required)

On March 24th, Roxette will perform at the Radio Donna birthday party in Belgium. Radio Donna celebrates its 9th anniversary with a big party at Expo Hallen in Kortrijk (about 90 kilometres from Brussels). Many artists from Belgium will perform as well as some international top acts, such as Roxette and Emilia.

  Performances are spread over three stages and the show will start at 21:00, followed by a dance party called “Donna’s Dansfolie” starting around 23:00.

  Tickets cost 400 BEF (10 EUR) and can be ordered by calling +32 900 288 18. People have to be quick as there are only a limited number of tickets available (around 8,000). Last year, all the tickets were sold a month before the event.

  Radio Donna is the biggest radio station in Belgium and is very Roxette-friendly: two years ago Marie and Per were invited to the birthday party and performed “Wish I Could Fly” and “The Look”.

  The Belgian fanclub is planning a get-together
after the party. Further information is available by writing to [email protected]

• Radio Donna
• Birthday party TV commercial (Real Player required)

Roxette’s new official site for promoting their album “Room Service” has been opened. However, the “door” to the site is still closed with a “Do not disturb” sign hanging on the door knob. On the site, visitors can already subscribe to a newsletter so that they will be informed via email when the site is fully public.

  (Thanks to Nitehawk and others.)

• Roxette.se

UPDATED - The Official Roxette Fanclub has removed the cover pictures of “Room Service” album and “The Centre Of The Heart” single from their website on request by Roxette’s management. The Daily Roxette has not received such request and thus we still have the album and single covers online. According to the fanclub’s website, the reason for removing the pictures is that “it’s not the final version yet and the artwork is not yet approved.”

  Interestingly enough, EMI Electrola, Roxette’s record company in Germany, has the same, unapproved single cover on their website.

  Update 3/7/2001: The fanclub has now returned the images on their website. While they seem to be exactly the same pictures as before, the shield logo has been altered so as to be less transparent.

STOCKHOLM - EMI Sweden’s preliminary publicity information for “Room Service” now includes a 12-song track listing for the album. The tracks, in order of appearance, are:

1. “Real Sugar”
   
2. “The Centre Of The Heart (Is A Suburb To The Brain)”
   
3. “Milk and Toast and Honey”
   
4. “Jefferson”
   
5. “Little Girl”
   
6. “Looking For Jane”
   
7. “Bringing Me Down To My Knees”
   
8. “Make My Head Go Pop”
   
9. “Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)”
   
10. “Fool”
    
11. “It Takes You No Time To Get Here”
    
12. “My World, My Love, My Life”.
    

(Thanks to RoxSpain for the cover pic.)

STOCKHOLM - Roxette are guests on the RIX Morning Zoo program here tomorrow (Friday) morning. The program is broadcast from 6-10 a.m. over the RIX network of radio stations throughout Sweden, and via the internet.

• RIX-FM