STOCKHOLM - Aftonbladet's prestigious award Rockbjörnen is back for the 28th year. Once again you can vote for your favorite artists. The winners of this first selection will be presented Dec. 8.
The gala itself will be held Jan. 11 2007.

• Rockbjörnen

STOCKHOLM - According to Dinapengar.se Roxette has, as expected, appealed the tax evasion case since the German tour 1995 once more. This time to Regeringsrätten, the highest administrative court in Sweden. Mats Nilemar, Roxette's financial advisor says in the documents filed that this case should be tried once more as the previous court's ruling is based on "apparently serious disregard or a serious mistake."

• Dinapengar.se

LISBON - This week's VH1 Top 10 album chart shows Roxette's "Hits" as the highest new entry at #4. VH1 uses sales and airplay charts from throughout the European territories they serve, and puts Roxette just behind Justin Timberlake, the Scissor Sisters and Evanescence.

As if to confirm the lack of promotion for the single "One Wish," VH1 is playing "Listen To Your Heart" on the Album Chart show, which seems to indicate "One Wish" is being ignored by VH1 (part of the MTV networks). However, a footnote ticker was shown during the video broadcast refering to the new album being the first Roxette release since Marie's recovery from her brain tumor. Furthermore, it was mentioned that this release contains two new tracks, whose titles were given.

• VH1 Album Chart

STOCKHOLM - Marie Fredriksson has been selected by the Swedish womens' magazine Tara to receive their annual award given to a woman who has achieved something special in their life. This year, the prize goes to Marie because "her fantastic creativity doesn't let itself be stopped by anything." Tara, a magazine geared towards women over 40, is published by the Bonnier group.
This is the fifth year Tara has given out the award, and the article announcing it appears in the current edition of the magazine. Translated by The Daily Roxette, it is reprinted below with the kind permission of the magazine.

By Stina Abenius

It's not that I don't like the other four candidates nominated for the Tara-award this year, but seldom has a winner been more deserving. The fact that Marie Fredriksson, after her four-year fight against cancer releases both a solo album and does a mini-comeback with Roxette is admirable. The fact that, in addition, she published a book of her drawings a year ago, and even made an exhibition with these drawings is simply incredible. Her fantastic creativity doesn't let itself be stopped by anything.
I meet her at manager Marie Dimberg's office near Hötorget in Stockholm. She's sits and gets makeup for the photo session when I arrive. Photographer Kristian Pohl is setting up shop in the stairwell.
She is sluggish in her movements when she greets me and then walks to the photo session. It takes a little longer. Sometimes she searches for the right words. But when she's posing, one can see she's done it a thousand times before.
The last time I met her was 14 years ago, in the middle of the worst Roxette-hype. At that time, the most frequently asked question was "have you been together with Per Gessle?"
What is the most common question now I wonder later as we sit on a sofa in one of the offices and drink coffee
"What people tell me most often is that they are glad I made it, that I'm alive. People come to me and say this all the time. This happiness is wonderful," she says.
Marie is 48 years old this year, and therefore the same age as Tara's average reader. Therefore it's not that strange that we chose her and that we care about her. A lot. We have loved "Ännu doftar kärlek," danced to "The Look", cried to "It Must Have Been Love". She has been part of the soundtrack of our lives. She is one of us.
When Marie fell back home in Djursholm four years ago, and later was diagnosed with a brain tumor, many of us thought "it could have been me." And now that she is back so strongly we feel inspired by her courage.
She was 44 then. Her children Oscar and Josefin were six and nine. We wondered then how it would go. We didn't really know anything. Didn't hear very much either. Yes, in some newspapers we read that she was extremely protected. Secretly photographed outside of her home and on the way to the hospital. But she herself didn't speak, not then.
"Now it's different. It's not at all the same pressure. I live a completely different life and everything is calm around me. I am actually very happy being able to say this now. But yes, four years have passed by, where did the time go?," says Marie.
The tumor meant a turning point for Marie. After the operation everything became different.
"I thank God I'm alive, I really do. Today I live one day at the time. Stress is nonexistant. I've learned to recognize stress and when I do I stop. I had so much of it before. Some of it was fun, a positive stress, but I can't take it anymore. It's just now I feel I can relax."
Marie's treatment is finished. What she's doing now is a lot of training since after the tumor's removal, she's got problems with, among other things, learning.
"I have to learn new songs in a new way because I can't read, but I have a girl who helps me with this. But I'm so happy that I've found out that one can actually learn to do things in ways a little differerent to the way you were used to, and they work as good as the old ones.
"I am getting better and better at reading, but counting is still hard. But I don't really need to learn it because I can get help from my children, for example. And I can draw, there's no damage there," explains Marie.
She can still do everything she could do before the operation, she doesn't need to re-learn those things. It's everything new that's hard.

• Tara magazine's website (this article appears only in the magazine)

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - There’s going to be a special “Roxette Weekend” on Swedish radio station Rix FM this weekend. All of Roxette’s biggest hits will be aired, and Per will even announce the songs with personal anecdotes.

  A photo of Per and Marie on the station’s website promoting the event has them saying “This weekend, we take over!”

  Rix FM streams their broadcast over the internet, so readers of this newspaper will be able to “tune in.”

  Per will be doing something very similar to this on Sirius satellite/internet radio in late December, to help promote the U.S. release.

• Rix FM

EDITOR’S NOTE - As you know, even though our online newspaper is called "The Daily Roxette," we try to cover everything related to Per and Marie. For a long time now, we've wanted to allow our readers to get to know Mikael Bolyos better, as he's played a major role with Marie Fredriksson's music both on and off the public stage. In this exclusive interview with TDR News Editor Judith Seuma, Mikael – better known as Micke – reveals much about his career with music and his working and personal relationship with his wife Marie.

VIENNA – Let's start with an introduction about Mikael as a musician. Mikael's recalls that his interest in music started when he heard The Platters' song "Only You" on the radio somewhere around 1963, and he knew he wanted to be a musician when his father asked him to take over his company one day. "He made plastic signs," explains Mikael. But he had considered other lines of work. "My dream was to become a gymnastics teacher," he says.
He started to learn the piano at the age of seven with "a private piano teacher, hated it and quit one year later, so I guess I still haven't learned to play it properly." He can also "play some chords on the guitar." Mikael wrote his first song at the age of 11. "The song was called 'Tell Me Why You Cry' and the lyrics were made up from different Beatles lyrics and titles," he says. The Beatles are one of his musical influences, together with Stevie Wonder and various '70s funk bands.

You compose, tour, play with other artists on albums, produce… Of these various facets of your career, what do you enjoy the most?
Today I'm not touring as much as I used to, but even then, when I used to, I was always happy in the studio. So, composing and recording must be my answer to that.

If you let your imagination run free for a moment (and assume that everyone is suddenly available), with whom would you like to work, that you've never had the opportunity to work with before?
I think it would be my new favorite artist and composer, Rufus Wainright.

How do you compose? For example, some artists rely on their inspiration and write music whenever it comes to them, others are more focused and prefer to schedule time for composing new material.
I wish I could be more scheduled in my work, but I'm quite a lazy guy and wait for the inspiration to come.

What is your prefered piano/keyboard? Do you have many of them in your studio? Do you prefer piano or keyboard?
A nice, well-tuned grand piano is always right. And synthesizers… [Micke goes into deep thought] Hmmm? My old favorites are the Mini Moog, Prophet 5 and the Jupiter 8. Yes I have some old synthesizers, but today you can buy so many good retro synths as plug-ins to your computer. I suppose piano.

What is the studio like in your home? Can you describe it to us?
In the control room we have a large mixing desk, racks of different effects and synths. And in the studio room where we record all the acoustic sounds we have a drum kit, some percussion and some real good microphones.

What do you do when you are not "Mikael the musician"? What other interests do you have?
Except from spending time with my family and friends I like cooking and to watch football.

What do you like to do "just for fun"?
I would be a liar if I didn't answer GOLF. Read more…

SÖDERHAMN (UPDATED) - After almost a week of downtime, Roxette.se and sister sites are back online. The sites are still not at full capacity and the forum is still down, but webmaster David J. Elfström Lilja promises that it also will be online this weekend.

  Transmit/Receive’s web server array went berzerk last Saturday and it has taken them a week to restore all data lost. Customers affected include Lena Philipsson, Mauro Scocco, Orup and Peter Jöback.

  Update: The forum is now up.

• Rox.se

STOCKHOLM - Swedish channel TV4 Bingolotto celebrates its 15th anniversary with a special program tonight, and Roxette joins the party with two performances: “The Look” and “One Wish.” Roxette’s performances are pre-recorded.


  The program starts at 21:00 CET and Roxette is expected, according to Expressen, at 21:02 (“The Look”) and 23:51 (“One Wish”).

• Article in Expressen
• Bingolotto
• TV4

(UPDATED) - According to CAPIF Argentina the new Roxette compilation “Hits!” enters at # 11 in Argentina.

  The “Hits!” album also entered the UK top 40 last week at #22, but lost eleven places to be at #33 this week, This has been expected by fans mostly due to lack of promotion, which this week came in the form as only one TV ad, which was shown at 23:00 GMT. “One Wish” has also been heard on a number of radio stations in the UK now, as reported by some fans.

  Sweden’s top 40 is a chart based on both airplay and single sales in Sweden, and “One Wish” is now at #2 on the chart. The Scissor Sisters are still #1 for the fifth week in a row with their “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’.” Topp40 is hosted by radio station RIX FM.

  In Austria “One Wish” climbs from #74 to #56 and “Hits!” enters the album chart at #8.

rox-kuryliw, Daniel Alvedahl and Klaus Binder contributed to this article.

• Capif
• Swedish Top 40
• Austria Top 75 (albums)
• Austria Top 75 (singles)