STOCKHOLM - Per Gessle killed all opposition when he collected no less than three Rockbjörnar (Rock Bears) tonight at Cirkus on Djurgården in Stockholm. The Rockbjörnen is Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet’s award and it turns 25 years this year.

  Per was nominated in the best male artist, best song and best album categories. “2003 was a fantastic year and 2004 has started off really well,” Per says to Aftonbladet. When receiving the grandest award of them all - best male artist - Per says “Sweet Jesus, thank you all again! See you this summer with Gyllene Tider!”

  Over the years Roxette has received six Bears, Marie Fredriksson five, Gyllene Tider two and now Per Gessle three.

  Last year’s record of 480,000 votes was broken with some margin; 760,000 votes this year!

• Aftonbladet’s story (In Swedish)

Per Gessle’s “Mazarin” solo album and the single “Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)” were major hits last year. You can see that clearly now when award nominations and yearly charts are announced.

  Today were the nominations for the Swedish Grammis awards revealed. Per is listed not less than seven times: artist of the year, male artist of the year, album of the year (“Mazarin”), song of the year (“Här kommer alla känslorna”), composer of the year, producer of the year (together with Clarence Öfwerman and Christoffer Lundquist) and lyricist of the year. The awards gala is on February 9 and it will be broadcast on TV4 the next day. News agency TT Spektra tried to contact Per for a comment, but “he was in Africa”.

  Other Per’s success stories were: 30 weeks on Svensktoppen charts with “Här kommer alla känslorna”, 22 weeks at #1; Most played song on the Swedish radio; Most sold album of the year (240,000 copies, four times platinum); Third most sold single; Second most sold DVD (“En mazarin, älskling?”).

  Daniel Alvedahl contributed to this story.

• Expressen’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - After preliminary voting by the readers of the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, Per Gessle’s name shows up as a final nominee in three categories for this year’s Rockbjörnen awards.

  Per is a finalist in all of the three categories that he could have been nominated in: Best Swedish Male Artist, Best Swedish Album (“Mazarin”) and Best Swedish Song (“Här kommer alla känslorna”).

  Update Dec. 20: The gala will be televised on Swedish TV3 with a two hour delay, at 21:00 CET. Artists performing include Broder Daniel, The Rasmus, Moneybrother and Per Gessle.

  Update Jan. 8: The gala is held at Cirkus in Stockholm Jan 18. The tickets are for sale on TicNet. Phone # +46-(0)771-707070.

• Aftonbladet’s “Rockbjörnen” site (In Swedish)
• BiljettDirekt/TicNet (Get your tickets here)

STOCKHOLM - Per answers some questions about 2003 from Aftonbladet’s Per Bjurman:



Best CD: The Cardigans “Long Gone Before Daylight”. Should’ve been number 1 all over the world… why wasn’t it?

Best song: Outkast “Hey Ya!” Although one’s getting tired of it now….

Best concert: The Stones at the Cirkus. Can anyone beat this?

Best retro: Polanski on DVD. Plus the fact that the 60s more and more seem like, believe it or not, UNDERESTIMATED….. art… literature… music… film….design…. cars…. clothes…. etc., etc., etc.!!!

Worst: The Britney-Madonna-single will probably not be historic. But if you mean something that isn’t really a “musical” experience one can mention that one gets terrified of that Michael Jackson district attorney…..help!

Best pastry: Muffins are nice too.

• Bjurman’s Column in Aftonbladet (In Swedish)

One of the highlights of Swedish TV4’s New Year’s Day program is a shortened version of Per’s Gothenburg concert from this summer. The full concert was released on the “En mazarin, älskling?” DVD in November. The hour-long broadcast starts at 19:00 CET.

• Program info page at TV4.se

STOCKHOLM - The Swedish Salvation Army has started selling a book named “Vårt dagliga bröd” (Our Daily Bread), which contains recipies of “25 famous faces’ best bread”. Among those faces are Per Gessle and super athlete Carolina Klüft, who each have given their best recipes for bread.

  The book can be ordered via the Salvation Army’s web shop. The price is 100 Swedish kronor. ($13)

  Robert Thorselius contributed to this article.

• Swedish Salvation Army (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Per Gessle has been nominated in two categories for Sweden’s national radio’s “P3 Guld” awards. He has the opportunity to be awarded for the album of the year by a male artist with “Mazarin” and for the song of the year with “Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)”.

  Rather surprisingly, Per wasn’t nominated for a “Guldmicken” (“Golden Microphone”) which is given for the best live performance of the year. Gyllene Tider won in this category in 1996. The awards gala will be held at Storan in Gothenburg on January 23 and will be broadcast live on Swedish Radio from 20:00 CET to 22:00 CET.

• P3 Guld
• P3 Guld - Vote for your favorite (requires registration with Swedish ID number)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - On January 25 2004 Radio NRJ have their annual NRJ Radio Awards where they give prices to the best artists of the year. The Awards gala is held at Johanneshov (Hovet) stadium in Stockholm. Tickets are available via TicNet.

  Per Gessle is nominated as Best Swedish Male Artist and Best Nordic Artist, and “Här kommer alla känslorna” also got double nominations - Best Swedish/Nordic Song.

  Per, Evanescence and rapper 50 Cent all got four nominations. Kylie Minogue, Beyoncé and Black Eyed Peas are each nominated in three categories.

  Tickets are 275 SEK ($36). The show starts at 19:00 CET. It will be televised, live, on Kanal5. Confirmed artists performing at the show are Kylie Minogue, Blue, Dido and Sugababes.

  Update Dec. 16: Per Gessle and Lisa Miskovsky confirmed today that they will attend the gala. They will “of course perform live” according to Radio NRJ.

• Metro (Page 13, in Swedish)
• Radio NRJ (In Swedish)
• TicNet/BiljettDirekt (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Per Gessle will be among the celebrities donating artwork to an auction that will be held on December 1, International AIDS Awareness Day, at Folkoperan in Stockholm.

  Per, along with such other Swedish celebrities as Carolina Klüft, Ainbusk Singers, and the painter Ardy Strüwer will donate paintings. The theme of their paintings is safety.

The money raised will go to the AIDS programs at the Red Cross. Prior to the auction, the paintings can be viewed at Art Gallery on Hornsgatan in Stockholm.

  Update: Tuesday, December 2, the bidding closed. The final bid on Per’s painting was 30,000 SEK ($4,000). Click the image of the painting to see it bigger

• Aftonbladet’s story (In Swedish)
• Art Gallery
• The bids
• Aftonbladet, follow-up (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Per Gessle visited the morning show “Nyhetsmorgon” (News Morning) on Swedish TV4 today. They started with showing a full song (Sommartider) from “Sommar-Mazarin” just to show the frenzy at the gigs. The clip was in widescreen so that bodes well for the upcoming DVD. TV4 will air about one hour of goodies from the Gothenburg show on January 1.

  Per’s interview revealed not so much new. Roxette will not do anything actively during 2004, they’ll wait to see how Marie feels. Gyllene Tider’s possible tour will be decided during December. “What speaks against a tour is that ’Återtåget’ still is the biggest tour in Sweden ever, so it’s a big fall for us…” Per smiled. He added that he very much would like to tour with his old friends, There will at any rate not be another solo tour next year.

  Otherwise, Per is in the process of writing new material. And he has also painted a painting for Art Against AIDS, as previously reported.

  Per Andren, Daniel Alvedahl and Dominik Rzepka contributed to this article.