STOCKHOLM - Not surprisingly, as it was the intention from the very beginning, EMI has now released Marie’s five remastered solo albums that were packaged together last year in the box set “Kärlekens Guld.”

  With stock on the previous back catalog diminished, these new CDs will replace the older versions of the same albums. The albums are to be sold as “mid-price” CDs.

• CD On (sales limited to Scandinavia/Netherlands)
• Skivhugget (International shipping available)

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 - 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.

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)

STOCKHOLM - Both Aftonbladet’s Per Bjurman and Expressen’s Anders Nunstedt give Roxette’s new single “Opportunity Nox” 4 out of 5 today. They are both notorious Roxette-bashers so these reviews are probably even better than they sound.

  “Seems all the angry Roxette fans were right and I was wrong. Roxette isn’t finished.” Bjurman states.

  While Bjurman describes “Nox” as the “…funnest, smartest, most attractive little pop tune…,” Nunstedt uses words like “…a sparkling hit…” and “…way better than anything up-tempo from ’Room Service…’”.

  Clear to The Daily Roxette is that they both truly like this. They both say this is the best song Roxette has put out since “Dangerous” (Bjurman) and “Joyride” (Nunstedt).

(Efra contributed to this article.)

• Aftonbladet’s review (In Swedish)
• Expressen’s review (In Swedish)

LONDON - It’s an event that rarely occurs in the UK and when it does, it typically happens with little or no publicity. But this time, not only is the UK getting a new Roxette CD… the record label appears to be willing to spend some money promoting it!

  British fans who are excitedly awaiting the release of Roxette’s “The Ballad Hits” tomorrow (Monday, February 3rd) were delighted this evening to witness a rare glimpse of prominent promotion.

  During the commercial break of one of the UK’s most popular TV shows, Coronation Street, a short commercial was aired announcing the release of the new album and indeed Roxette’s new single “A Thing About You.”

  The advertisement was repeated immediately after the program as well, mentioning that the album will be available from Tesco, HMV, Woolworths and Virgin.

STOCKHOLM - Here’s the interesting track listing for the upcoming “The Pop Hits” compilation CD. As Per Gessle told The Daily Roxette in our interview with him when “The Ballad Hits” was released, “Stupid” is indeed included as a bonus track. Furthermore, songs like “Little Miss Sorrow” and “Makin’ Love To You” (the titles of which were reported before) are included. The album will be released March 24th.

1. Opportunity Nox
2. The Look
3. Dressed for Success (Chris Lord-Alge mix)
4. Dangerous (single version)
5. Joyride (single version)
6. The Big L.
7. Church of Your Heart
8. How Do You Do!
9. Sleeping in My Car (single edit)
10. Run to You
11. June Afternoon
12. Stars
13. The Centre of the Heart
14. Real Sugar
15. Little Miss Sorrow

Bonus EP (Limited Edition):

1. Stupid
2. Makin’ Love to You
3. Better Off On Her Own
4. Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla (You Broke My Heart)

STOCKHOLM - German radio listeners will get a chance to hear the new Roxette single “Opportunity Nox” a week earlier than the rest of Europe as the song is being released for airplay in Germany tomorrow, January 27th.

  The Daily Roxette previously reported that the airdate for the other European countries is February 3rd.

STOCKHOLM - It’s raspberries and… popcorn! A star made of popcorn will adorn the covers of “The Pop Hits” CDs – joining the heart made of raspberries used for “The Ballad Hits” collection.

  With a star having played a central role in the cover art of many, if not most, of the previous Roxette releases, many Roxette fans expected that they would be seeing the star shape used for “The Pop Hits,” as a follow-up shape to the heart used for “The Ballad Hits.” And while blueberries were one of the options considered to make the star shape (raspberries and blueberries are often “partners,”), it was popcorn, with its obvious “pop” connection, that won out – even though “pop” as a musical term comes from the word “popular” (while popcorn gets its name from the popping sound; i.e., crash! boom! bang! pop!).

  Just as the “The Ballad Hits,” album as a filled-in heart, “The Pop Hits” will have a filled-in star, while the single, “Opportunity Nox,” has the star in an outline form (click on photo to enlarge).

  As an additional track, the single will contain a live version of “Fading Like a Flower,” recorded during the “Room Service” tour in Brussels.

(Thomas Evensson and i_jera contributed to this article.)

• Opportunity Nox: 30 sec. sound clip (OIRFC)

LONDON - Roxette’s “A Thing About You” single has hit the airwaves in the United Kingdom and the “The Ballad Hits” CD it is intended to promote is slated for a February 3rd release — just before Valentine’s Day on February 14th. The record company is hoping that the red raspberry heart featured on the cover will attract attention and help drive sales.

  The UK release will include the “limited edition” EP with four bonus tracks.

  ATAY has been added to the BBC’s P2 playlist, and serviced to other radio stations as well. It’s release is set for either February 3rd or 10th.


EDITOR’S NOTE: Meanwhile, in the United States, where the idea was also to take advantage of Valentine’s Day as a logical tie-in for both a song titled “A Thing About You” and album cover art that features the ubiquitous red heart, these same releases have become “a long story” according to a source at EMI Capitol, and have been postponed.

• BBC 2 Playlist