FORT MYERS - Written by Mark Marymont for NewsPress.com, Southwest Florida.

Roxette "Their 20 Greatest Songs" (Capitol/EMI)

This Swedish duo scored more than a dozen international hits between 1989 and '99. Featuring the strong vocals of Marie Fredriksson and the writing, producing and singing skills of Per Gessle, they specialized in glossy, danceable pop. This two-disc set includes 18 of their most popular songs — i.e. "The Look," "Joyride," "Listen To Your Heart" — and a couple of new works on one CD. An accompanying DVD sports 18 stylish videos. It's all a bit dated, but still a strong chronicle of their hit-making acumen.

Roxwriter contributed to this article.

HELSINGBORG - A reminder: The Rotary club of Helsingborg Landborgen has received a generous gift consisting of the following Gyllene Tider and Roxette album collections:

Gyllene Tider
Moderna Tider
Puls
The Heartland Café
Återtåget '96
Konstpaus
Finn 5 fel!
GT25 - Samtliga hits!
GT Live.

Pearls of Passion
Look Sharp!
Joyride
Tourism
Crash! Boom! Bang!
Have a Nice Day
Room Service
Roxette Hits!
The Rox Box

All records have been signed by Per, and in Roxette's case, also by Marie.
These two collections will be auctioned off by Helsingborgs auktionsverk March 11, 2007 on behalf of Rotary's doctors bank. The doctors bank ships out Nordic doctors and dentists for one to two months' unpaid work in Africa - so far more than 160 people! The organization is totally non-profit and the money needed is raised by sponsorships and different kinds of fund-raisers, this being one of them.

Bids can be made via telephone (+46-42-244 344), fax (+46-42-128 633) or the Internet.

CLEVELAND - Roxette's "One Wish" video has been playing quite frequently on the U.S.'s only gay network, named Logo. It has been in the channel's Top 10 (called the "Click List") for several weeks now. It is one of 50 videos in rotation at the channel.

This week it is at #2!

1. Josh Zuckerman - Out From Under
2. Roxette - One Wish
3. Mona Chatterjee - Move With Me
4. Brian Kent - I'm Not Crazy
5. Deadlee - Good Soldier II
6. Gwen Stefani - The Great Escape
7. The Cliks - Oh Yeah
8. Mika - Grace Kelly
9. Cascada - Miracle
10. Lily Allen - Smile

Vote for Roxette. It is, however, unclear to The Daily Roxette if this station has any impact outside the gay community in the US, or even if their site is up to date.

In Sweden, Roxette's latest single, "Reveal" entered the Swedish top 60 at #59 this week and the Swiss chart at #18!

STOCKHOLM -

According to Swedish newspaper Expressen Per Gessle is planning another Swedish summer tour. Their source claims that Per will play Örjans vall in Halmstad at the end of June, beginning of July. The tour will consist of Gyllene Tider and solo material, with musicians like Clarence Öfwerman, MP Persson and Anders Herrlin. Expressen's columnist Anders Nunstedt wonders what lies behind this, but hopes that a new album is in the works.

Per Gessle and Marie Dimberg have not been reached for a comment, but The Daily Roxette considers the rumor very likely to be true.

STOCKHOLM - Helena Josefsson, the girl from Per Gessle's "Mazarin," the girl from Son of a Plumber, the girl from behind The Ark, Andreas Johnson, from her own band Sandy Mouche and many others, is back. With her new debut album "Dynamo." "Dynamo" will be released February 28 on EMI Elevator Entertainment, Per Gessle's own label. Helena's first single from the album, "By Your Side," does well on the charts in Sweden. The follow-up "Never Never (My Dynamo)" was released to radio February 14. Helena will do lots of radio and TV for the release. Per Gessle himself sponsors her album and claims it will be a world hit, according to Expressen.

"'What do you want to be when you grow up?' 'Either a troll or an artist' I replied to that question in the "My friends" books one had in elementary school. Being an artist or a songwriter is probably one of few lifestyles where you can be a troll at the same time?
When you think about it, a troll and an artist have a lot in common. What I wanted, and still want, is the feeling of freedom, to be a part of nature, to have a place in a city, to find a good spot for picking mushrooms. To be OK to be like you are and still get loved at the same time!" Helena says.
"Once when I was a kid my mom got angry with me and then I made myself a sad song as comfort. Since then it has always been like that. Just that the songs have been about other things: love, revenge, to be afraid of everything, consideration, to feel inadequate, longing, then, now, later.
The music my mom played at home was a mix of Kate Bush, the '80s David Bowie, The Temptations, Enya, all the soul queens, Bruce [Springsteen] and a record that was on heavy rotation for 15 years was Jane Fonda's aerobics vinyl with everything from The Jacksons' 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' in a disco-soul version and Jane cheering on. It never gets old!
I've always sung, if I am to describe my music it sounds like my maternal grandparents were Kate Bush and Michael Jackson, and my paternal grandparents were Madonna and Nick Drake!" she continues.

The album is recorded in Christoffer Lundquist's studio the Aerosol Grey Machine using hand picked musicians like Martin Josefsson (Sandy Mouche,) Erik Hjärpe (Damn! Timbuktu) and Jens Jansson (Brainpool). "My goal with the recording was to get the contrast between glowing hot and icy cold, plastic and wood, between the most beautifully beautiful and the ugliest ugly. Like an enchanting siren of the woods with a black soggy hole in her back!" says Helena, who has written all the material herself.

Check out Helena's MySpace and also her own website.

STOCKHOLM - According to EMI Sweden Roxette's "Hits!" has now reached gold in Sweden, which means 30,000 delivered copies, as per usual.

STOCKHOLM - US magazine Blender gives Roxette's "Hits!" four stars out of five in their March issue meaning it is "great."

Another look at Sweden's #2 mixed-gender pop act.
If ABBA remain the Beatles of European bubblegum, then Roxette, their Swedish compatriots, are the genre's Zombies - hook-crazed followers whose fleeting U.S. chart success merely hints at their knack for embedding conflicting emotions and complex harmonies within ostensibly simple pop. Remembered for Prince-ly knicknack "The Look" and 1990's sweet teardrop "It Must Have Been Love" Roxette still score hits worldwide as their influence lingers (Kelly Clarkson's Swede-crafted "Since U Been Gone" resembles a Roxette ballad sung over a Roxette rocker.) Per Gessle's settings on this 18-year retrospective swing from the Ennio Morricone melodrama of "Crash! Boom! Bang!" to the kiddie-techno sing-along of "Stars" while Marie Fredriksson's secret melancholy substantiates the duo's sheen with a particularly Scandinavian sorrow.
Barry Walters

On a side note the "One Wish" video is placed at #2 on the LOGO channel's video chart.
NewNowNext is LOGO's weekly video show spotlighting brand-new videos by artists of interest to the LOGO community, as well as videos by emerging artists, gay and lesbian artists and videos that react with the audience.

NewNowNext premieres a new episode each Sunday at midnight.

See the chart here, and vote by all means.

STOCKHOLM - "The RoxBox/Roxette 86-06" didn't get a Grammis in the awards ceremony yesterday evening. Roxette's 20th anniversary release was nominated in the open category with five other compilations. The winner was "Samtliga grammofoninspelningar 1921-1970," a compilation of old Evert Taube-recordings.

STOCKHOLM (Updated) - The next single off of "Hits!" is "Reveal" as The Daily Roxette revealed a while ago. We can now present the tracklist and sleeve for you. It seems EMI and Roxette decided to use the Kleerup remix after all. Kleerup has worked with Robyn, among others, but also does music on his own.

While the Kleerup remix is a slower, heavy with drums and strings, dance mix, The Attic remake is a poppy ditty that reminds one of early Depeche Mode.

01: Reveal (The Attic remake) 3:29
02: Reveal (Kleerup remix) 3:41
03: Reveal (single version) 3:43
04: One Wish Video

The confirmed release date is February 14. Click the titles for snippets.

Read more…

The Daily Roxette team wishes you happy birthday!

Visa, Thomas, Judith, Lars-Erik & Colin