Despite everything else going on, unquestionably the biggest news of 2004 for the readers of this newspaper was, of course, Marie’s return from a two-year-long sick leave. She decided to keep herself away from the public, but released a new album, “The Change.” To the surprise of many, the album was partially created even before her illness. Still, many of the songs speak about recovering, about the second chance she feels she’s received.

  Another huge event was Gyllene Tider’s 25th anniversary tour. This long-awaited reunion took Sweden by storm. Almost half a million people saw the boys back on stage, performing their evergreen songs to sold-out arenas and a multitude of new fans. This was also a year of new (and recovered) Gyllene Tider releases. They released no less than four DVDs, a new album, a compilation CD (in two editions), a live CD, and two singles. They also re-released their first three albums. And since there are fans buying all that stuff, there’s at least one single, several re-re-releases and a DVD still in the pipeline. Read more…

HALMSTAD - In a fax message sent today to the TDR newsroom, Per wishes the readers of The Daily Roxette a splendid 2005…



He-he-hey!!!

Just a quickie from jolly Halmstad to wish y’all a splendid 2005!!


2004 made us very happy indeed with a great album from Marie as well as a quite successful album/tour from the old fellas in GeeTee. You can always rely on homecooking!


Hope all of you are making progress in life’s neverending goobledegook and that we might bump into each other some day soon. Who knows what 2005 will bring?


Lots of luv and happiness from

P.H. Gezzle

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Both Aftonbladet and Expressen have met Per Gessle to summarize 2004. In Aftonbladet Per says he will be back in 2006 with new material, “so everyone else should cancel that summer” he says laughing. Expressen writes that a new Gyllene Tider single will be released in January, and that the old albums possibly will be repackaged and put out again, without bonus tracks. Also the documentary DVD mentioned earlier, after that Gyllene Tider goes back to the back burner again. “Quite honestly I’m really sick of Gyllene Tider now and it’s good if that group gets some rest. I’m a solo or a duo man.”

  Per may instead record another solo album in English, as he needs to find a way to renew himself. “I’m sure an album will be out in 2005, I can’t rest much.”

  Per Gessle has never experienced a fever like 2004, he’s sold over 43 million albums, but nothing beats the tour this summer. “I’ve never seen a fever like this, not in any context. It’s totally unique and will be hard to beat, for all of us.” Per says.

  Update: The new single is “Jag borde förstås vetat bättre” with the b-sides being the T&A demos of “Speciell” and “Tuffa tider”. The sleeve will be something really special: a sun-bleached photo from 1966 of the Gessle family’s red brick house in Furet in Halmstad, with a little tyke standing in front of it wearing yellow pajamas “eagerly awaiting the Dumle lollipop of the day.”

• Expressen’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - A new Gyllene Tider documentary, “Gyllene Tider lite från insidan” (“GT, a little from the inside”), will be aired on Swedish TV4 on January 5th at 21:00 CET. The program is 55 minutes long, minus approximately 10 minutes of commercials. This documentary is presumed to be released on DVD later this winter.

  TV4 will rerun the chronicle on Feb 5th.

THE NORTH POLE - The Daily Roxette wants to wish Per, Marie and all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thank you all for being there another year. Visa will get back with his year in review, to summarize our fantastic 2004.

  Warm regards from Visa, Lars-Erik, Thomas and Judith!

STOCKHOLM - Marie Fredriksson is the celebrity that Swedes would most like to wish a Merry Christmas to.

  In a survey conducted by Telia, the Swedish telephone company, 10,500 Swedes were asked who they would must like to phone to wish a “God Jul.” Marie was the clear first choice with 23 percent of the vote.

  While popular across the country, Marie had an especially strong appeal with women and those who live in
Mälardalen and Västra Götaland.
  In the survey published on the Telia Sonera website, the company reveals that Henrik “Henke” Larsson comes second with 15% of the votes. This well-known first division soccer player has been signed with Fútbol Club Barcelona since the beginning of this season and suffered an injury in the field which will keep him from playing for some months.


  Other personalities in the list are His Majesty the King of Sweden (4th; 10%), the princess Madeleine (6th; 8%) and Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson (9th; 3%).


  Surely it is not only Swedes who wish to send Marie their best holiday wishes. The Daily Roxette, on behalf of all her fans, wish Marie and all her family all the best for this Christmas and for the new year.

Additional reporting by Judith Seuma.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

RIO DE JANEIRO - Marie’s new album “The Change” has been released in Brazil, and can be found in the Brazilian music shops. The album appears on the front page of EMI Brazil´s site and Marie has a place on the “artist” section of their site.

  Many fans around the country who intended to buy it for Christmas have told The Daily Roxette that they are having some difficulties finding the CD in the shops until now and only one internet retailer (CD Point) has it listed.

  Several stores located in shopping malls, when questioned by TDR’s Lars-Erik Olson, who was vacationing in Brazil, said that they expected their copies to be delivered soon. A chain called “CD|Company” had multiple copies available in several of their locations with a price of R$26.90 (about $10 USD).

• EMI Brazil (In Portuguese)
• Brazilian Fan Site (RoxOn.org) (In Portuguese)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - The Grammis nominees have been revealed and are as follows: Popgroup of the Year: Gyllene Tider, Composer of the Year: Per Gessle, Artist of the Year: Gyllene Tider, Song of the Year: Gyllene Tider: “Tuffa tider/En sten vid en sjö i en skog”, in total four nominations.

  You may view the list, in full, at Aftonbladet.se.

  The Grammis Award show will be held at the China Theater in Stockholm February 7. The following party will be held at Bern’s Salons, next to the China Theater. TV4 will air the show “live”.

• Aftonbladet.se (In Swedish)
• Ifpi

HALMSTAD - New Gyllene Tider material and Christmas atmosphere - these things attracted a group of Czech fans to travel to a charming Swedish tree-hearted town - Halmstad.

  A lot of people have seen Summer-Halmstad, but also during winter this gorgeous town is turning to a small wonder. We want to approximate you the fascinating time of Christmas. You may enjoy it in the photos.

  And their feelings? One night at Hotel Tylösand, a party at the club Leif’s Lounge, shopping for the new Gyllene Tider DVDs and CDs and fantastic memories are the reasons why they will always travel to Halmstad!

  The fans wish to thank Ralph at Skivhugget, and give a message to a “Swedish guy”: Enjoy Becherovka (it tastes best with tonic.)

• More pictures

STOCKHOLM - Aftonbladet’s award Rockbjörnen (The Rock Bear) finalists have been selected. Among them are Marie Fredriksson (Best Female), Gyllene Tider (Best Album, Best Group and Best Song [Tuffa tider]) and Per Gessle (Best Male).

  Aftonbladet’s Per Bjurman reveals his favorites and tips in a column: Gyllene Tider should receive all three awards, while Lena Philipsson should get Best Female. Bjurman thinks that Magnus Uggla will get Best Male as Per hasn’t done anything solo this year (except those “three minutes at every concert”.)

  Rockbjörnen 2004 is the 26th Rockbjörn ever. Marie Fredriksson has received five awards during the years, Per Gessle three, Gyllene Tider two and Roxette six.

• Rockbjörnen site (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - “No more mr. Nice Guy,” Anders Nunstedt, columnist at Expressen writes. This week he stabs the most overrated albums of the year in the back. He doesn’t mean anything bad with it, really, it’s just that the most overrated albums of this year must be selected…

  Gyllene Tider’s “Finn 5 fel!” tops his list. Anders comments “Oddly enough the weakest tracks of the album, “Tuffa tider” and “Solsken” became the singles, and that makes the album bleaker. A quarter million copies sold are, in spite of the pop craftsmanship, unreasonably many.”



  Anders Nunstedt’s list in full:



1. Gyllene Tider: “Finn 5 fel!”

2. The Libertines: “The Libertines”

3. Mattias Alkberg BD: “Tunaskolan”

4. Jens Lekman: “When I Said I Wanted to be Your Dog”

5. Dizzee Rascal: “Showtime”

6. Usher: “Confessions”

7. Joss Stone: “Mind, Body & Soul”

8. Nerd: “Fly or Die”

9. Di Leva: “Tiden faller”

10. Loretta Lynn: “Van Lear Rose”

• Nunstedt’s column (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Earlier this fall Per Gessle opened a door toward participating in the Swedish leg of the Eurovision Song Contest. “Why not,” he said, “that may be fun now that I’m older!” Swedish Television were overjoyed at the possibility of getting the world famous star as one of four jokers in the contest.

  Now Per has changed his mind and closed the door. “No I’m not interested. What if I write a song and don’t win? I don’t need that kind of stress,” he says to Aftonbladet. “It’s like Michael Schumacher joined a go-cart race. And lost! Everybody would think ’damn, what a loser!’.”

  Thomas Hall, project manager at SVT, is still hopeful: “I can see how he feels he has done enough this year, but maybe another year?”

  Photo: Thomas Evensson for TDR.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

STUTTGART - Marie Fredriksson’s song “2:nd Chance”, which hasn’t been officially released as a single in Germany, entered the listener’s charts of SWR3 at #10 tonight, being this the highest entry of the week.


  “2:nd Chance” was introduced to the listeners last Sunday and these have had time to vote for the song via Internet the whole week. SWR3, one of the biggest radio stations in Germany, presents the 33 songs that get the most votes during the week on Sundays from 19.00 to 22.00 CET.


  In addition, “2:nd Chance” entered at #3 in Jump Radio listener’s chart last week and moved up to #2 this week.


  Kiwein1 contributed to this article

• Jump
• SWR3

STOCKHOLM - The Gessle-penned song “Varmt igen” – released for the first time on Peter Jöback’s album “Jag kommer hem igen till jul” in 2002, and later included on Per’s “Mazarin” album – is featured on Jöback’s new live DVD “Jag kommer hem igen till jul - live från Cirkus.” His performance was recorded last December at the Cirkus theatre in Stockholm.


  Besides “Varmt igen”, the DVD – which is out now – features various tracks from Jöback’s album, such as the duet with Eva Dahlgren “Jag tror på dig”, and classic Christmas songs like “Ave Maria” and “O Helga Natt” (“O Holy Night”); as well as a “Disney Medley.”

• Peter Jöback’s official website
• Eva Dahlgren website

STOCKHOLM - A week after the documentary about Marie was broadcast on Swedish channel TV4, “The Change” climbs to #5 from #17 in the official Swedish album charts and sells gold.


  On the other hand, Gyllene Tider’s live DVD “GT25 Live! - En scen vid en plats i en stan” goes straight to #1 (on the music DVD chart, “only” #9 on the normal DVD chart) while the “GT25 Live!” CD enters at #28.


  Kiwein1 and daniel_alv contributed to this article

• Hitlistan.se

HELSINKI - Mats “MP” Persson, the guitarist of Gyllene Tider and a music producer, has once again managed to get one of his songs into the Finnish leg of the Eurovision song contest, as reported before. The song is written together with a Finnish songwriter, Patrick Linman, just like the song the year before.

  This year’s song, titled “Everything But Still Nothing,” will be performed by 23-year old Christian Forss. Forss became popular as a result of having been on TV’s “Idol” contest, in which he came in fourth.

  In the same contest, another male contestant, Antti Tuisku, performed “Spending My Time” which was later released on a CD. Forss rendered Bon Jovi’s “Living On A Prayer.”

  Mari contributed to this article.

• Introduction to the song (in Finnish)

“A Second Chance”, a documentary about Marie and her illness, was aired last week in Sweden and Finland. In the documentary, Marie and her husband Micke Bolyos are interviewed in their home and video clips shot by Micke are shown. The documentary also shows Marie in September performing songs from her new album live in a small club.

  Marie talks a lot about God in the interview. Her sister Anna-Lisa died in a car crash some years ago. “It took a long time before God and I were friends again,” Marie says. She also tells how God helped her to write the song “The Change”. “I wrote the song and the lyrics very quickly. Later it felt like someone else had written the song,” she said.

  “The Change” is a very important song to Micke, too. “There’s one song on the album I haven’t been able to listen to, and that’s the version of ’The Change’ with the symphony orchestra. The lyrics tell exactly how I felt after Marie’s illness was discovered,” he says.

  Marie is holding back tears when she thinks back to the events of September 11, 2002. “First I noticed losing vision in my right eye. The next thing I remember was Micke’s moaning voice. I had had an epileptic fit and hit my head very severely. Then I was on my way to hospital in an ambulance and the rest of the story you know already,” Marie explains.

  “The hardest thing was that I had to relearn to write and count. For a moment I thought I could never sing again, but fortunately that didn’t happen,” Marie says.

  The topic of the documentary is dark and Marie’s story is sad, but there is light. Marie says she has found strength from music, God and laughter.

  In perhaps the funniest part of the documentary, Marie’s seven-year-old son Oscar and his friend sing Per’s “Här kommer alla känslorna” in Marie’s home studio.

STOCKHOLM - In the sleeve of the triple platinum selling album “Finn 5 fel!” there was a contest, and now the winner has been selected. Cecilia Gyllin from Kungälv is the happy winner, who received her very own platinum award yesterday at a dinner with Gyllene Tider!