Norwegian newspaper VG has published an article on Roxette today. There doesn’t seem to be anything really new in this interview. Per tells that Gabriel changed his life. Marie tells that she became more harmonic and happy after Roxette had some time off. There’s a picture of Roxette in Cannes.

• VG’s Norwegian article

Aftonbladet tells about the new video: “It’s a beautiful video. Calm and elegant. But with a blue, melancholy feeling. It’s night. Everybody and everything are asleep: the city, its people, the department store, the pubs, the streets. Only a black cat and Marie Fredriksson are awake and for a while - Per Gessle and his son.”

In the video Per stands by the window with his back to the camera. He has Gabriel on his arms. Gabriel looks over his shoulder straight to the camera. “Jonas [Åkerlund, the director] had an idea that I could stand and hold a baby… I can’t hold anyone else than Gabriel, no other child wants to be near me”, says Per laughing.

The video will be shown on TV4 Nordisk’s Nyhetsmorgon tomorrow.

• Aftonbladet’s Swedish article

A rumour has it that when Roxette plays at Miss Finland gala in February, their “band” (it will be a playback gig) will be as follows:

• Per & Marie, of course
  
• Clarence Öfwerman, keyboards
  
• Christer Jansson, drums
  
• Tomas Hultcranz, bass guitar
  
• plus 6 people playing the strings
  

They will be accompanied by Åsa Gessle, Lisa Därckert (for the make up) and Marie Dimberg (their manager).

I’ve also been told that it’s possible that they won’t give any interviews while they’re in Finland.

EMI Electrola has published an image of the “Have A Nice Day” album cover on their web site. Per told on Aftonbladet that they have to make a different cover for some countries (Dubai, for example) because there they can’t release a picture of a naked child. By the way, the child on the album cover isn’t Gabriel Gessle.

According to EMI Electrola Roxette is going to visit two German TV shows in March.

• Bravo Supershow (RTL2): February 27
  
• Verstehen Sie Spaß (ARD): March 13
  

• EMI Electrola

According to Rox Britannia, Roxette will be visiting at least these TV shows:

• January 28: VIVA Interaktiv (VIVA, 3pm CET)
  
• February 12: Tracks (ARTE, 7pm CET)
  
  (Roxette’s new video will be shown)
  
• February 15: Grammis gala, Sweden
  (Roxette’s going to play “Wish I Could Fly”)
  

According to a South African reader, “Have A Nice Day” will be released there on February 22. There won’t be a retail version of “Wish I Could Fly” single at all. It will be only released as a radio promo single.

Per tells on Roxworld’s interview that Roxette is going to release a remix single of “Wish I Could Fly”. The single contains 4 different remixes of the song, because the radio stations especially in the UK want more tempo to the song. “[…] it was at first planned to be released only in the UK, but then [we] thought like what a hell we can release it everywhere because they became really good”, says Per according to Roxworld.

• Roxworld

The largest music expo in the world, Midem, opens its doors tomorrow in Cannes, France. The expo is launched with Swedish music: Cardigans, Meja and many other Swedish stars perform at the opening ceremony. During the expo there will be also a conference with many famous speakers. Per Gessle is one of the panellists at “The Swede Sound of Success” conference on Sunday.

Roxette’s new video for “Wish I Could Fly” will probably have its premiere at Midem.

• Midem / The Swede Sound of Success

The Finnish media tell very mixed stories about Roxette’s record deal. According to Iltalehti the record deal is still just a rumour. Roxette denies that they would have signed a massive, 10-year contract with EMI. “The press exaggerated this whole thing. Most important is that we can continue working with our dear project”, says Marie.

“At the moment Roxette has work for many years. I’ll be already 50 then. You shouldn’t talk about money yet. I could tell, however, that this record deal is better than Abba had”, says Per with a grin.

Ilta-Sanomat says that Roxette has already renewed their contract with EMI. “It’s a deal of many albums and it will take 10 years to fulfil it - if we release albums with the same pace as we’ve done”, says Per. “We’re going to have many grey hairs before we have fulfiled the deal!”