STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - The artwork that will appear on the cover of Marie Fredriksson’s forthcoming album, “The Change,” was revealed today by Capitol Records, who will be releasing the album on Oct. 27 in Sweden.


  The lead single off “The Change” is “2:nd Chance” which hit the stores in Sweden this week. “It feels like a victory having made ’The Change’,” Marie comments.

  The documentary The Daily Roxette mentioned previously will be aired on TV4 November 24 at 21:00 CET. The one-hour long documentary, produced by Anette Beijer, will show images of the recording of the album in her studio at home, private recordings shot by Micke Bolyos, exclusive performances of some of the new tracks, as well as an interview with Marie done in late summer, where Marie explains, among other things, how much her life has changed since she was diagnosed with cancer.



  The tracklist of “The Change”:



1. The Change

2. 2:nd Chance

3. All You’ve Gotta Do Is Feel

4. April Snow

5. Love 2 Live

6. Mother

7. Many Times

8. All About You

9. The Good Life

10. Bad Moon

11. A Table in the Sun

12. The Change (orchestral version)



Judith contributed to this article.

STOCKHOLM - Reading yesterday’s Aftonbladet made Thomas Hall, project leader for Melodifestivalen song contest at SVT, bounce with excitement. “It would be a breach of duty not calling Gessle,” Hall says to Aftonbladet. Gessle’s song would in that case be one of the four “jokers” - songs that don’t have to be selected by the jury.

  “It’s important to point out that the song is the crucial thing, not the fame of the songwriter,” Hall states. “We will contact Per and have a constructive meeting. It would certainly be a feather in our cap to have him participate.”

• Aftonbladet article (In Swedish)
• Eurovision Song Contest

GÖTEBORG - “Maybe the concert at Ullevi wasn’t our best one, but it had everything else: a complete experience, a fantastic audience. With some distance now, and having monitored the editing of the film, I start realizing… how big that was,” Gessle says in an inteview with Göteborgsposten.


  “We’ve found some old, very funny, odd and unique footage – like from the recordings of Teaser Japanese, for instance,” says Gessle. This will be added to the DVD.
The fans don’t have to wait until spring. One of the big TV channels will show part of the documentary (about 30 minutes worth) around Christmas/New Year’s Eve.


  Asked if there will be a live-CD, Gessle says: “There are different points of views. I think that people would like that, but not everybody owns a DVD-player. Other people say that it’s old-fashioned to release a live CD. But hey… we are old. Don’t rule it out though.”


  Over the last couple of months, Per has followed the work of his Roxette colleague Marie Fredriksson. “Her solo album sounds extremely good. Marie is a fighter. I am glad that she is active again, I know that it means much to her after all this cruelty.”
  But he can’t say what her comeback means for the future of Roxette. “Marie and I are very good friends. Roxette is our little baby. Nothing is happening at the moment and we will see if something is going to happen in the future.”

  Next year will be a quiet one for Per Gessle. “I continue to write songs, but there will be no recordings. I mean, you have to stay away for a while to be missed. So, we will see… maybe a ’Mazarin II’ in summer of 2006?”

• Göteborgsposten’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - According to an interview with Aftonbladet, Per Gessle might be interested in writing a song for next year’s Swedish leg of the Eurovision Song Contest. “Have them [SVT] call me and we’ll work something out,” Per grins. Per has changed his mind about the Song Contest as it’s more pop now, before it was just strange, Per thinks.


  Also, Per is currently working on not one, but two Gyllene Tider DVDs! The first DVD is a live recording from this year’s summer tour and it will be released in the beginning of December. The second DVD is a documentary about Gyllene Tider’s tours and it will be released in January, 2005.


  Aftonbladet meets Per at his studio/office in Stockholm. They notice that the door to Per’s apartment is barred by a locked gate. “We had to do that because German Roxette fans slept here,” Per says. He mentions that he’s writing new material, in English, and that Roxette may well use these songs if possible. “It’s all up to Marie, I don’t know if she has what it takes anymore, or if she wants to. It’s a big machine releasing an album abroad. We haven’t discussed it.”

• Aftonbladet article (In Swedish)

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - Gyllene Tider was the second biggest act in Europe this summer. 492,252 people saw Gyllene, which makes 23,440 per concert. Gyllene Tider surpassed artists like Madonna, Eros Ramazotti and Shania Twain, who - to be fair - didn’t play as many gigs as Gyllene.

  The only act to outperform Gyllene Tider was the Italian rock singer Vasco Rossi who reached the phenomenal number of 973,709 (!) people on his summertour.

• ST (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - The award season hasn’t even really started yet and Per Gessle still can add two more nominations to his ever-growing list: one as “Lyricist and/or Composer of the year” at the Musikförläggarnas Pris (Music Publishers Prize) and another as “Best Nordic Male Artist” at the first Swedish version of the popular Kids Choice Awards.

  Both awards will be given out in Stockholm within less than a week of each other, on October 28th and November 1st, respectively. The Kids Choice Awards program will be shown on both Swedish TV4 and Nickelodeon.

Daniel Alvedahl contributed to this article

• Kids Choice Awards (in Swedish)
• Swedish Music Publishers Association (in Swedish)

GOTHENBURG - According to an article published today in Göteborgs Posten (GP), the production company Titan Media will produce an exclusive film about Marie Fredriksson for TV.


  This will be the only interview Marie will give together with the release of her new album “The Change.” It is still unknown what kind of film it will result in. “It can be an interview or a documentary. We are looking at different possibilities,” explains Marie’s manager Marie Dimberg to GP.

• Göteborgs Posten article (in Swedish)
• Titan Television
• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - On Monday evening, October 4, Per Gessle will receive the unique STIM-Guitar award. For the first time ever, the award will be presented with a platinum finish.

  STIM, the Swedish Performing Rights Society, protects the interests of authors and publishers of music in Sweden. The award will be presented by STIM’s CEO Kenth Muldin.


  The platinum STIM-Guitar is presented to Per Gessle due to the exceptionally successful Gyllene Tider summer tour where Gessle has composed the majority of the material performed.

Starrox contributed to this article.

• STIM

The “B-side” of the new “2:nd Chance” single by Marie Fredriksson will be called “All You’ve Gotta Do Is Feel.” The song, which is described as having a “jazzy/bluesy” style, is written by Micke Bolyos.

LONDON - The compact disc has at least another five years as the most popular music format before online downloads chip away at its dominance, a new study said on Tuesday.

  Technology consultancy Jupiter Research said in its annual report that in 2009 European music fans will buy 836 million euros ($1 billion USD) worth of music in the form of digital downloads and subscriptions to internet radio services.

  At that level, digital music revenues will account for roughly 8 percent of Europe’s estimated 10.2 billion euro music market. The study does not take into account the surprisingly successful market for mobile-phone ring tones. Read more…