STOCKHOLM - With “The Pop Hits” scheduled to be released on March 24th, in Sweden and in many other countries, the first single from the album (the “sister album” to “The Ballad Hits”) has been sent out to radio stations.

  According to Li Eriksson at Capitol Sweden, “the trend is clear - in Sweden radio producers go nuts and it is already the highest climber, the highest increase in plays and the highest increase in audience – jumping from #69 to #11 in the airplay chart.”

  Beginning this week, the video (done in animated cartoon style) is being played on Hot Rotation at MTV Nordic.

  The cover of the album, shown at right (courtesy Capitol/Roxette Recordings), fills in the popcorn star outline as expected, and adds some confetti and party glasses.

(daniel_alv, Roxmaniac and Judith Seuma contributed to this article.)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Marie Fredriksson is demanding half a million kronor in damages, and a public apology from the Swedish tabloid newspaper Expressen.

  Expressen’s speculations about her getting another tumor are demeaning and offensive, Marie feels.

  This January, Expressen wrote that “she is fighting another lump that is believed to be another tumor” and that the doctors suspected that this [tumor] was only one of several additional tumors.

  Leif Silbersky, a well-known celebrity laywer who is representing Marie, writes in a letter to Otto Sjöberg, publisher of Expressen, that she has reacted with anger and astonishment to the articles. According to Silbersky, the articles are a mixture of fact, speculation and pure lies which Marie regards as demeaning and repulsive.

  Silbersky also states in his letter that the speculations have “no root in reality”.

  Marie intends to sue Expressen, but if she gets a public apology on the front page and on the news bills, the newspaper can avoid a trial. She wants 500,000 kronor ($60,000) in damages, plus legal fees.

  The half million will go, in full, to Cancerfonden (The Cancer Foundation), according to Sjöberg’s letter.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)
• Journalisten (In Swedish)
• BBC

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - After several months of indecision and delay, “The Ballad Hits” will finally be released in the United States on Tuesday, April 22.

  Executives at Capitol USA have, apparently, been encouraged by the European and UK success of the album and the ability of the lead single, “A Thing About You,” to drive sales.

  “The Ballad Hits” has sold more than one million
copies already worldwide.

LONDON - Roxette’s “Ballad Hits” has rocketed to the dizzy heights of number 11 on the UK album charts. It’s a massive jump of 12 places from last week’s position.

  Most of this success is undoubtedly attributed to the successful Valentine’s Day promotion, which has seen love struck Britons flock en masse to their local music stores in search of that special gift for the special someone in their lives. Some credit also has to be awarded to EMI UK who has uncharacteristically re-invested confidence in the band, not to mention a sizeable amount of money on some very expensive prime-time television advertising. Whatever the reasons, it’s an impressive result, especially when you consider that Per & Marie understandably weren’t able to visit the country in order to assist with the promotion of their release.

  Whether any significant meaning can be drawn from all this is difficult to predict. It will at the very least, however, send all the right signals to the other EMI franchises in other Roxette-deprived countries. Especially coming from a country that is notoriously stubborn in welcoming back what it wrongly perceives to be stars of yesteryear.

GERMANY - The German website of EMI has now put links to snippets of the new songs from “Pop Hits” online on their website. The songs aren’t there yet though.

  It’s listed for March 24th and the new songs are previously known… And the site also refers to the CD as “limited edition”.

1. Opportunity Nox

15. Little Miss Sorrow (previously unreleased)

16. Stupid (from the movie “Spun”)

17. Makin´ Love To You (previously unreleased)

18. Better Off On Her Own (b-side “Stars”)

19. Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla (You Broke My Heart) (previously unreleased)

• Capitol Music Deutschland (In German)

BADEN-BADEN - Roxette’s latest single, “Opportunity Nox,” has hit the #1 spot at the radio chart of SWR 3, one of Germany’s biggest radio stations.

(Nik Schönberger contributed to this article.)

• SWR3 (In German)

BUENOS AIRES - Following the successful strategy that pushed ATAY to the #6 position on one of the most important radio charts here in Argentina, members of ¡Roxette Latino! personally delivered Roxette’s latest single to the major radio stations in Buenos Aires late last week.

  Product managers at EMI Argentinia think this is a great strategy to promote the group, rather than just send the promo CD via mail, because hopefully DJs and program directors pick up on the enthusiasm – as well as gain a little extra information – from those who know it all about Roxette: their fans!


  In a country where Roxette continues to be very popular, the program director of one of the radio stations visited went totally crazy when he heard new Roxette material had arrived – even postponing a meeting to listen to it immediately. And he agreed… the song is going to be a hit.


  “Opportunity Nox” hit the airwaves today, and the feeling at EMI is that “if it hits hard there [the targeted stations], it hits hard everywhere else.”


  In addition, the “ href="http://latinamerica.roxette.org/roxattaq.htm">
href=”http://latinamerica.roxette.org/roxattaq.htm”>Roxattaq” campaign is being relaunched hoping to get
Roxette to the top – one more time.

• Roxette Latino! (OIRFC Division)
• FM Hit
• La 100
• Radio Disney (All links in Spanish)

AMSTERDAM - “The Ballad Hits” has entered the Dutch album Top 10 at number nine this week, jumping from number 39 where the album entered the top 100 last week.


  EMI/Capitol has decided to re-release the single “A Thing About You” in The Netherlands in order to re-create interest in the ballads compilation. The record company also launched a big promotional campaign with commercials on radio and television. In addition, The Netherlands’ most popular radio station - Sky Radio - made “The Ballad Hits” this week’s “Album of the week”.


  The ninth place for “The Ballad Hits” is the best chart position Roxette reaches in The Netherlands since “Crash! Boom! Bang!” in 1994. All the other albums since failed to make the top 10. In November last year, “The Ballad Hits” was first released in The Netherlands but the album didn’t even make to the first 100 positions.

• Megatop100

LONDON - Roxette’s attempt to capitalize on the British’s love affair with Valentine’s Day has got off to an encouraging start. “The Ballad Hits” has entered the UK sales chart at a respectable #23. This is Roxette’s highest position on the chart since “Don’t Bore Us - Get To The Chorus!” went to #5 in November 1995.


  In addition, it is EMI/Capitol’s second highest new album entry and their third highest selling album last week.


  Continuing with the Valentine’s Day tie-in, the excitement continues tomorrow (Monday) with the UK release of the single “A Thing About You.”


(xarrrr and animalkingdom contributed to this article.)

• Album Sales Chart

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - The video for “Opportunity Nox” will be premiered exclusively online by the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet February 7th. It will be directed by Kristoffer Diös, under close surveillance by Jonas Åkerlund. “Per Gessle, Marie Fredriksson and I have a close relationship. This is the way I prefer to work, to return to the same artists over and over again,” Jonas says to Aftonbladet.


NOTE: Video is online now, follow the link below to watch it.

• Aftonbladet.se
• “Opportunity Nox” Video (Real Player needed)