NEW YORK -

Director Tomas Alfredson receives a cash prize of $25,000 and extra marketing power for his coming-of-age film "Let the Right One In" by winning the Founder's Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival that concluded here in New York City this past weekend.

The film, which features a song recorded by Per Gessle, will not be released in Sweden until October. "The distributors in Sweden felt that this was not a 'summer film'… that the mood matched a colder time of year," he told The Daily Roxette.

During a question-and-answer session, we asked Alfredson about the Gessle song "Kvar i min bil," which – as Per had told TDR – is given a prominent place in the film. In one scene, the lead actor is shown putting the the 45rpm single on a record player so as to listen to it.

"Do you know Roxette?," he asked us (obviously not knowing what newspaper we represented). He then proceeded to explain that the male half of that group (Per) had had a popular group (Gyllene Tider) back in the '80s, the time period in which this movie is set. Looking for a song that fit that era, but not wanting to use an instantly recognizable song, he asked Per (who he said he was an acquaintance of), if he could write a new song in the same style as those earlier GT hits.

Novelist John Ajvide Lindquist adapted his best-seller for the screen to tell the beautifully touching tale of the first romance of 12-year-old Oskar and the girl next door, Eli (who also happens to be a vampire). The Tribeca jury commented that the film was exceptional "for its mesmerizing exploration of loneliness and alienation through a masterful reexamination of the vampire myth."

The film already has North American distribution in place.

Variety also writes that a US version is in the works. Horror film company Hammer Films and indie company Spitfire Pictures have bought the rights.

SANTIAGO (Updated) - Vanilla Ninja, the Estonian power pop trio formed by Lenna Kuurmaa (vocals), Piret Järvis (guitar) and Katrin Siska (keyboards), a rocking girl band that is a well known act in the Central European scene, and now in Latin America, after participating successfully in the biggest summer Festival in Latin America, the Festival of Viña del Mar, this past February.

Before the girls will go on tour next June in the Baltic states, and their second visit to several countries in Latin America in July - August, they want to release a single to warm up the audience. After discussing this issue with Hector Faune, their manager/promoter for Latin America, Hector proposed to get in touch with Per Gessle from Roxette to have a possible song co-operation, as he feels Vanilla Ninja's music has lots of similarities to Roxette's uptempo and power ballad style.

When Per was approached for a co-operation he sent over two demos; "T-t-t-take it!" and "Every Day Outside My Window" but the girls felt these particular songs didn't suit them; "Per kindly sent us two songs, and we picked one to use for the next release" says Lenna, vocalist in Vanilla Ninja. The song, "Crashing Through The Doors," is composed by Per Gessle, with original lyrics from Piret Järvis and Lenna Kuurmaa. Readers of The Daily Roxette will be pleased to know this is an English version of Per Gessle's "Spegelboll" from the highly successful "Mazarin" album released in 2003.

"The girls are in the studio working hard to get a cool version out of it," Hector Faune says to The Daily Roxette.

On the question if this will be the start of a bigger co-operation with Per, Lenna replies: "Probably. I hope so. He himself was also very interested in it, but unfortunately a person who's as famous as him, his calendar is planned for a year or two."

The song will be released on May 9 to radio stations, firstly in Estonia, and a little later in the Central European Countries, as well in Latin America.

Download a sample. 

SÖDERHAMN - Snippets of some of the new songs are now available on gessle.com. The remastered and extended version of "The World According to Gessle" will be released May 14.

Gessle.com, thru Bengans, is taking orders for the remastered and extended version of "The World According to Gessle." Swedes can pay via invoice - 169 SEK, or credit card - 159 SEK, foreigners via credit card only. Shipping to Sweden is 29 SEK, EU 45 SEK and the rest of the world 55 SEK.

STOCKHOLM (Updated) - Per writes us:

Jeezus - no order in the bedroom! This morning I found a very early demo of "Wish you the best" called "Drum", which we just have to use on new TWATG-release!!! So… WYTB is left out in the cold… the album release is set for early May. that's the most recent whisper in the EMI corridors…

Update:  Release date is May 14. Still no word on where it's being released besides Sweden.

Per GessleToday the album "Per Gessle" turns 25 years old! The album, which was at first supposed to be called "Syrenernas tid" ("Age of the Lilacs"), was released 25 years ago today, on April 8, 1983.

Per tells us that he started recording this album right after "Puls" when the other four in Gyllene Tider were drafted for the army. "I remember I didn't really get along with my high voice so I set all the songs in keys too low (to get a 'deeper' voice). This is/was a big mistake. Some songs, for example 'Syrenernas tid' would have been much better with some sharper vocals."

Per isn't really happy with the sleeve either. It was shot at Tylösand and at the suite at the Hallandia Hotel in Halmstad. "I never liked the sleeve, much too 'grown up' for a 24 year old… but maybe that happened to show a different side of me than the one in GT…"

The album generated one single; "Om du har lust" with the flip side "Överallt" and "Man varnade för halka." The single is quite hard to find. EMI even claimed it was never released.

Some sources claim that the singer Anne-Lie Rydé loved "Segla på ett moln" so much that she "stole" it (convinced Per she could have it,) but that's not how it went down. Anne-Lie got it because it was a left-over.

"Per Gessle" was released on CD in the box set "På väg" July 1 1992, this time with three bonus tracks. "Segla på ett moln," performed together with Marie Fredriksson, ended up on the album "Demos 1982-86."

STOCKHOLM - Art is not just short for Arthur it seems after all. In the footsteps of Marie Fredriksson, Per will open an art exhibition of his own in May, coincidentally with the re-release of "The World According to Gessle." We have previously seen Per's drawings in the "Mazarin" album booklet and he even created a painting for an auction in 2003, but this exhibition will be something completely different. It's entitled, "The Art According to Gessle."

"I've always liked the classic Greek statues. Michelangelo's David and all that, you know. I even have a couple of antique statues in my house," Per says to The Daily Roxette. "So I thought, what the heck, why shouldn't I get my hands dirty and try to re-create that magnificient style. It's not that popular these days, but I don't think I need to worry about that, do I?" Per says with a crooked smile.

Per has transformed a room in his house in Halmstad into a studio where he works exclusively with Ferrara marble imported from Italy. Like all the great masters, he actually has an assistant doing much of the actual sculpting. Per provides direct supervision and instruction.

Per will be interviewed about these new works on Kulturnyheterna on SVT2 at 19:00 CET today. The program is also broadcast on SVT Play on the Internet.

Editor's Note: As many of you guessed from the Dateline… this was indeed our April Fool's joke. Thanks to Jastrow for the photo!  – LEO

After some weeks working on it, Marie Fredriksson's new website is now online. The website features a news page, discography, biography, a gallery and a forum.

The company responsible for the design is Transmit/Receive, owned by David J. Elfström, who also manages Per Gessle's websites.

See you there!

STOCKHOLM -

you should know it by now but… movies are in my blood! there's a brand new track of mine included in the brand new excellent (trust me, i've seen it!!!) swedish movie LÅT DEN RÄTTE KOMMA IN [Let Me In], based on the book of the same name. opening in the autumn but it has already won 2 heavy awards. my song is called KVAR I MIN BIL [Left in My Car] and is featured 3 times in the movie (including a short whistling version…). it was recorded during the en händig man-sessions and is a somewhat bluesy ditty with a great snappy guitar-hook. and it's under 3 minutes!

A vote has been taking place on The Daily Roxette's forum the last weeks. All the votes have now been counted and checked and the winner of The Quest to find the best Roxette song EVER is:

LISTEN TO YOUR HEART!

It was a closely run final, with many songs ending up very close. Ultimately though, DANGEROUS finished in second place.

Over 500 votes have been received, over the last 2-3 weeks, so a BIG thank you to everyone who has voted.

As promised here are the results of the 3 favorite songs from each album:

Pearls of Passion:
1 – Surrender
2 – So Far Away
3 – Like Lovers Do

Look Sharp!
1 – Listen To Your Heart
2 – Dangerous
3 – The Look

Joyride
1 – Joyride
2 – Spending My Time
3 – Fading Like A Flower
Read more…