STOCKHOLM - Marie Fredriksson turns 50 May 30. Read her biography here at TDR and join us in celebrating her big big day!

Biography

Facts
Name: Gun-Marie Fredriksson Bolyos

Date of birth: May 30, 1958

Place of birth: Össjö

Starsign: Gemini

Family: Mikael Bolyos (husband), Inez Josefin (daughter), Oscar Mikael (son), Gösta (father, deceased in 1981), Inez (mother, deceased in 1998), Anna-Lisa (sister, deceased in 1966), Ulla-Britt (sister), Tina (sister), Sven-Arne (brother)

Home: Villa in Djursholm, Stockholm and a summerhouse in Haverdal, Halland

Bands: Renat, Strul, MaMas Barn, Marie Fredriksson Band, Spännande Ostar, Roxette

Swedish (solo) Grammy nominations:
“Female pop/rock artist of the year 1987″ (Efter stormen)
“Female pop/rock artist of the year 1992″ (Den ständiga resan)
“Songwriter of the year 1992″ (Den ständiga resan)
“Female pop/rock artist of the year 1996″ (I en tid som vår)

Swedish (solo) Grammy Awards:
“Female pop/rock artist of the year 1988″ (Den flygande holländaren)
“Artist of the year 1992″ (Den ständiga resan)

Please send your greetings to Marie!

Marie Fredriksson was born in a very small village called Össjö as the youngest of five siblings. The children of the family were raised to look out for themselves and each other. When Marie was young, her siblings would take care of her while their parents worked on their farm. In 1962, the family sold the farm and moved to Östra Ljungby. Her mother then got a job at a factory a few miles away from the family home and her father became a postman, delivering mail to the surrounding areas. Since there was no day-care center in the village, he often took Marie with him to work and during these trips he would sing to her to encourage her musical interest.

In Östra Ljungby, the children made many new friends. They all stuck together and played with each other every day. Marie started school in a joint first and second-class and after these first two years her class moved to a larger school.

When Marie was eight years old, she decided that she would become a singer in the future and at the age of ten, started her first group Renat. The group consisted of Marie and her friends, Björn and Mikael. They used fake instruments while performing songs on the pavement outside the Fredriksson villa.

Marie’s older sisters and their friends listened to The Beatles and, later on, to The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, but Marie and Tina (the youngest sisters in the family) were not allowed to join them. Instead, they had to sneak up on the older girls to listen in on the latest gossip and the records that they were playing. Marie’s own first record was a single called Valleri by The Monkees.

It was when Marie was eight that her oldest sister, Anna-Lisa, died in a car accident. This was the first big sorrow that she was to experience in life. Fortunately, Marie could share this sorrow with the rest of the family - bringing them closer together than ever before.

Marie was a shy little girl who was often teased by her school mates and it was quite easy to make her cry, because she was too small to fight back. Her main interest was the artistic subjects and she dreamed of working with theater or acting in the future, although music intrigued her the most. Marie and Tina took piano lessons and they often sat together by the piano, trying to play songs that were familiar to them. Marie even started to compose her own songs and music became increasingly more important to her. Music was part of the society during the 1960s and on TV there were reports about student uprising, protest marches, hippies with long hair and the murder of Martin Luther King. Marie understood that there was a dangerous world far away and could even hear it in the music - it sounded rebellious and wonderful at the same time. Marie felt that she, in some way, was a part of all that was happening, without being able to explain how. All she knew was that the world was changing and that she was a part of that change.

When Marie was eleven years old she tried a cigarette for the first time in her life. Unfortunately, a teacher happened to catch the girls smoking, and Marie got so scared that she ran away and accidently ran straight in to a low balcony and broke her nose. The teacher decided not to tell Marie’s parents about her smoking since she felt that the broken nose was enough punishment in itself. Marie came home, she told her mother that she broke her nose playing with friends!

Marie started high school in Klippan, about 9 kilometers from where she lived. She got in touch with people from a different world, with different values in life. Marie managed to overcome her fear and it was not long before the other students accepted her. By now, Marie cared more about listening to records by groups such as Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin than studying. She loved music but still fantasized about theater in her dreams; there was either music or theater. That, she believed, was to be her life. Marie’s big idol in music was Joni Mitchell and she used to “tear her soul out” singing along while listening to her records in the bedroom. In senior high school, Marie started a two year financial course. She chose the course, as she was not able to get into the original course of her choice due to poor grades. She wasn’t the least bit interested and it turned out to be completely wrong for her. It felt like a prison and the only thing that kept her going was the school choir. After the first year, Marie got a summer job as a gardener’s apprentice, realizing that she wanted to have a creative job. She asked the school to help her apply to all existing music high schools throughout the whole of Sweden. A new music course at a school in Svalöv accepted her, even though she was just seventeen and the required age was eighteen. At this time, she changed her name from Gun-Marie to just Marie, because she had always hated her name and a new school seemed like a perfect opportunity to make the change. Life suddenly felt wonderful and Marie knew that she had come to the right place. She felt at home, although she was far away from her real home. Both the teachers and the other students noticed Marie’s extraordinary voice. It helped to boost her self-confidence and encouraged her to compose more. During Marie’s education in Svalöv, she started to listen to different types of music. Rather than just pop/rock, she now appreciated jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. Through jazz, a new world opened up for Marie - music you could improvise while performing. Marie started to sing jazz and when she did, she knew it was something she could do for real in the future.

It was during a Supertramp concert at Olympen, in Lund, that Marie was introduced to a guy from Halmstad named Stefan Dernbrandt. Stefan and Marie talked for hours on end that evening and realized that they had a lot in common. From that moment on, they kept in touch with each other during the rest of their education. When Marie mentioned that she did not know what to do after her graduation, Stefan suggested that she should move to Halmstad, but she was not sure if that was the right thing to do. Marie’s interest for theatre helped her to befriend the students in the drama class at the school she was attending. The drama students soon discovered that she could assist them in writing music for their plays. That was the reason why she happened to be at the right place at the right time when a director was looking for extras for a play he was setting up. After the last semester, she joined him on a tour that was to lead to all the way up to Stockholm. The first time in this city felt both terrifying and exciting for Marie. What an experience - to be where everything happens. Not to mention, being on a stage at the premiere of a play where the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was in the audience. At the close of the tour, she didn't feel like returning home, so she decided to move to Halmstad. She already knew Stefan there and it was quite close to her parents’ home in Östra Ljungby. Marie stayed with Stefan in his apartment and they soon became a couple. She was unemployed, had nothing to do while he was working, and became frustrated. Marie got a few temporary jobs, none of which lead to long-term employment. She had a lot of time on her hands and sitting around at home, she would write a lot of songs.

In the fall of 1978, the group Strulpojkarna was formed. The members were Martin Sternhufvud on electric guitar and vocals, Stefan Dernbrandt on drums, Lennart “Lelle” Nilsson on bass and occassionally Per Gessle and Mats “MP” Persson would reinforce them. Stefan once mentioned that his girlfriend, Marie, played keyboards and was a good singer. Martin had never heard her sing, so when he happened to hear her on a visit to Marie and Stefan’s apartment, he immediately realized that she would be a great asset to the group. Martin asked Stefan to bring Marie to the next rehearsal - they needed someone on keyboards and backing vocals. Although both Stefan and Martin continually asked her to play with them, nothing happened. Marie would sometimes come along to listen to the rehearsals, but that was it. Eventually, Marie found the courage to bring her electric piano to the rehearsal studio and place herself in front of a microphone. It was from that day that the group changed its name to Strul.

The first time Marie met Per Gessle was when he and Mats “MP” Persson made a guest appearance at one of Strul’s rehearsals. She had only met him briefly before but on this occasion she needed a ride back to town and Per had offered to take her in his car. On the way into town, Per mentioned that Kjell Andersson at EMI had called him to say that he was interested in Gyllene Tider. Marie and Per had no closer contact. She thought that he was a sissy; still living at home with his parents and that he did not dress cool enough. Whereas, Per thought that Marie’s voice was alright, although she did not look like Elizabeth Taylor and played the electric piano at an unbearably high volume.

Since Martin was also unemployed, he and Marie spent more and more time together. He pushed her to start writing her own songs for Strul. Her self-confidence grew - enough for her to write her own material, but it would take a lot more for her to step out from behind the safety of the electric piano and start singing lead vocals for the group. Martin wanted to have total control of the group, so they made an agreement that he would sing his songs, Marie would sing her songs and any songs they had written together, Martin would sing since, in his own opinion, he was the leader of the group. The one gig to be seen at was the annual alternative festival in the summer. Since they were unable to perform there, Martin suggested that they should start their own festival and after a while the others agreed. The first “Strul-Festival” took place on July 4, 1979, and was a success, despite the local newspaper Hallandsposten not thinking that it was any good. About two weeks later, Strul performed on the beach just outside of Falkenberg in the pouring rain in front of 40 people. It would have been just like any regular concert had it not been for an angry summerhouse owner, disturbed by the noise, causing him to lose his patience. He decided to cut the electrical wires. At first, the group were not aware of what had happened. It was only as they looked around and noticed a large amount of irritated people gathered around this one man with a gardening tool in his hand. The police arrested the man and the national newspapers even wrote about the incident the next day.

One of Strul’s earlier concerts took place in a sold out (400 people) school hall at Kattegattsskolan on May 8, 1980. Marie does not remember much of the performance, as she was very nervous. She sang so well that the audience gave her a standing ovation. The local newspaper, Hallands Nyheter, praised Marie the following day. The headline of the review read: “Strul did it - thanks to Marie Fredriksson”. Strul were on their way, but there were not enough gigs to play. The group started to dream about a record contract and a big break through. They sent demo tapes to every record company in Sweden that they knew of, but there was no response. They realized that they had to do something other than just sending cassettes out, so Marie and Martin (both still unemployed at this point) went to Stockholm with some newly recorded songs and delivered them personally to the record companies. Unfortunately, none of the people they met showed any interest in Strul’s music. They even got a contemptuous comment from Ola Håkansson (member of the group Secret Service) who was working at the record company Sonet at the time:

“What do you think you will become with this? Pop stars? Good luck!”

Strul got fewer and fewer gigs and the time between rehearsals became longer and longer. When they finally did rehearse, there would always be something that did not work and a lot of tension between the members of the group. They were slowly drifting apart. Eventually, Marie and Martin became more than just friends and Martin was terrified. He knew that the day Marie and Stefan broke up would be the end of Strul, but he could not control his feelings any longer. In December of 1980, the group went their separate ways and Marie and Martin became a couple. About three months later, Sveriges television called Martin and told him that they wanted Strul to participate in a TV-show called “Rockcirkus,” due for broadcast in the summer of 1981. Martin and Marie had a problem - they needed musicians to join them for the show. Whom could they ask? Both previous members of Strul, Stefan and Lelle, were out of the question. They approached Peter Nilsson (bass), Nils (”Nisse Noise”) von Mattern (drums) and Bo Söderström (electric guitar), who all agreed. They recorded the show, resulting in an offer for a second TV-show called “Fritt Fram”. The beginning of the summer saw the first and only single released by Strul. The group also obtained their own rehearsal studio next door to Gyllene Tider in the basement of Harplingeskolan. It seemed that everything they had dreamed of came true - almost all at once.

Earlier that year, in the spring of 1981, Marie’s father died of an unexpected heart attack. He would never experience what was to be her TV debut. It took quite some time for Marie to regain her joy and devotion, but life had to move on. Deep down she knew that her father would want her to continue her career within the music business.

Strul managed to get quite a few gigs. The record company CBS (who had previously rejected the group) wanted to hear some new material and the third “Strul-Festival” was arranged in the summer of 1981. During the festival performance, Marie took a giant step forward and stood alone with the microphone in front of a band for the first time in her life. Everything now seemed perfect, not musically though. Something felt wrong and Martin did not want the group to participate in the festival “Pop around the clock” arranged for September of the same year. The rest of the group did not want to turn down this opportunity. They disagreed with Martin and let him deal with it. The performance was a disaster. Afterwards, Martin came into the dressing room, shouting that they should not have participated. The worst thing was that the whole festival had been broadcast live on the local radio station. Once again, Strul was history, Marie and Martin now found themselves without musicians while, at the same time, the record company awaited more demo tapes from them. Their only option was to ask Anders Herrlin and Micke “Syd” Andersson from Gyllene Tider to help them record some new songs. Both Anders and Micke agreed. The name of the group was now “MaMas Barn” (the first part was made up of the names of Marie and Martin). The name change occured as the break of Strul coincided with the breakthrough of another Swedish group Tant Strul. They definitely wanted to avoid the mix up of the two groups.

When Marie arrived at the rehearsal studio one night in November of 1981, she found a hand written note and a cassette on her electric piano. Per Gessle had left them because he wanted Marie to sing together with Gyllene Tider on a song, which they would record for the Swedish magazine Schlager. The song was to be included on a special New Year's single, sent out to subscribers of the magazine. On December 1, 1981, they recorded the song Ingenting av vad du behöver at Studio 38 in Getinge. This was the first time that Per and Marie had sung together with, what they all felt was a very positive result.

By this stage, the new group MaMas Barn had signed a contract with CBS. Unfortunately, they could not agree on which song should be the first single. Marie and Martin found the whole situation a little depressing. Later on, the record company WEA-Metronome Records AB (which actually rejected the group in November 1979) bought the contract from CBS and in the spring of 1982, MaMas Barn recorded a complete album in a studio in Stockholm. Marie and Martin were not entirely satisfied with the result and Martin thought that his was because they were far too anxious to please the record company. He finally managed to convince them to remix six of the songs on the album. Both Marie and Martin felt that the songs they had already recorded for CBS would have made a much better album than the album Barn som barn, but they needed to make some compromises. The summer of 1982 saw the release of the single Mammas barn (not many copies were sold) and in November the album was released. It still received good reviews, having only sold 1,000 copies.

Marie decided to finish her relationship with Martin in the spring of 1983 and got her own apartment in another part of Halmstad. She wanted to become more independent and take control of her own life. She worried about the future - realizing that she could not continue to party and live life from day to day. It was time for her to grow up and behave like an adult. The break from both Martin and the group would give her time to concentrate on a solo career. Almost a year passed before they heard from one another again. Marie made the first move, contacting Martin to ask if he would like to write a song for her first solo album. Het vind, which she was recording at that time. Martin wrote the song Jag ska ge allt and it became his biggest success ever.

EMI Svenska AB offered Marie a contract in the summer of 1983 and it was Lasse Lindbom’s idea from the beginning. He previously recorded the song Så nära nu (as a duet with Marie), included on his album Romantisk blackout and thought she had an exceptional voice. He convinced the record company to offer Marie a record contract. At first, Marie was hesitant about signing the contract, because she had always been part of a group and was not sure if she would be able to make it without her friends. Marie called her sister Ulla-Britt to seek her advice, who told Marie she should take this important step in her career. Before signing the contract, Rolf Nygren (the managing director at EMI Svenska AB) needed to negotiate with Anders Burman (the Managing Director at WEA-Metronome Records AB) in order to terminate the existing conctract with MaMas Barn. Marie recorded her first solo album Het vind at EMI Studios in Stockholm with Lasse Lindbom as the producer. The recording started in December of 1983 and was completed in the summer of 1984. The first single taken from the album, Ännu doftar kärlek, was played frequently on Swedish radio stations and became a hit in the summer of 1984.

At the end of September, 1984, about one week after the release of Het vind, Marie started her first major tour together with Lasse Lindbom Band. The reason for doing so was that she was still quite new to the music business and did not dare to venture out alone on a solo tour. Marie and Lasse became a couple during this period and she felt safe and relaxed when sharing the stage with him, thinking that the focus would not be entirely on herself, even though they each performed their own material separately, with an occasional duet together. During the show in Halmstad, someone yelled at Marie to leave the stage but she refused. The show ended disastrously after somebody in the crowd threw a beer glass on the stage. The glass hit Marie on the head and she needed rushing to the hospital by ambulance. The tour was not affected by the unpleasant event that took place in her hometown as it ran only on weekends. She spent the days in between recovering and was soon back on the road, continuing the tour with some new concerts in Malmö and Alingsås the next weekend.

Marie started her first solo tour - alone this time - in the spring of 1985. Indoor concerts took place in the north of Sweden in the middle of March, travelling further south finally ending with a few outdoor shows at the end of May/beginning of June. During this tour, Marie performed three concerts in Finland and this was the first time that she experienced what it was like to perform in front of an audience in a foreign country. Something she would be more used to in the future!

Marie and Lasse took a trip to the Canary Islands in the winter of 1985 in order to combine vacation with writing songs for Marie’s second album. During the vacation, Marie finished reading the book Papillion by the author Henri Charriére. This inspired her idea for the title Den sjunde vågen, as mentioned in the book; waves come in a series of seven - the last being the biggest and the strongest. While recording the album, Marie and Lasse’s personal relationship finished and for a short period, it was uncertain if the same would apply for the album, as Lasse was the producer. Luckily, they both decided to remain good friends, completing the recording of the album in the fall of 1985. When the album was released in February the following year, it was huge success. This marked the definite breakthrough for Marie as a solo artist. Generally, the album received good reviews in the newspapers, but some of the critics wrote that it was just another divorce album, which Marie denied. In fact, only one song, När du såg på mej, relates to the subject. With the album being such a success, Marie started her second solo tour in the spring of 1986. The last show of the tour was scheduled for the end of April, but was extended by another month due to popular demand.

After the tour “Rock Runt Riket” with Roxette, it was time for Marie to record a new solo album. Once again, she worked together with Lasse Lindbom, both as a producer and as a songwriter. Per was unhappy about the plans for a new Marie album and even asked her to postpone the recording of it. He realized that a new solo album would also mean a new solo tour. Per was hoping, instead, that he and Marie might use this time to improve the Roxette situation, but Marie had already made up her mind. The new album went ahead and was recorded over two sessions, one in May and the other in September, 1987. The expectations from the fans and media were much higher this time than before with the release of her previous solo albums. Marie was worried that her new album would be a total flop but Efter stormen was an instant success! It sold more than 50,000 copies in as little as two weeks after its release in October 1987. These sales took it straight to a number one position on the Swedish charts for Marie - her first! Marie received so many fan letters after the release of the album that she actually hired a helping hand - somebody to reply to everyone, with her autograph included. The new album was followed by another solo tour, but this time the songs were performed in a more acoustic way than before, creating a whole new atmosphere, making it more in accordance with her slow and melancholy songs.

In February of 1989, Marie released a new single. There would be no solo album to accompany it this time. Instead, it was linked to the Swedish TV series “Sparvöga”. The song Sparvöga was specifically written by Marie as the main theme for this TV series and the single sold quite well, managing to enter the top ten on the Swedish single charts.

In the beginning of 1991 the album Joyride was released by Roxette and was a huge success all over the world, which meant that Per and Marie had to do a lot of promotion during the spring. The album was later followed by a worldwide tour and it was during this year that Marie went through a personal crisis. She found it difficult to maintain relationships because of her career and the constant travelling. She seemed happy on the outside, but inside she was miserable. While she was working or performing she had total control, but when she was alone in a hotel room or at home, she fell apart. Her boyfriend Johan Kinde was having trouble dealing with the fame - he was famous in Sweden but he could not handle the fact that Marie was more successful than he was. He often told Marie to stop wearing sexy clothes on stage and he was angry when she had to travel without him. Johan even wrote a song called Telefonsvarare (the Swedish word for answering machine) where he describes that their relationship only survived on the answering machine messages they left for each other. Marie and Johan were engaged to be married, but the relationship ended because the pressure became too much. After the breakup with Johan, she began a short romance with the director Mats Bärtilsson, but this relationship did not last long. Marie now decided to concentrate on her career and she threw herself into working hard to take her mind off the unsuccessful relationships. She became very depressed at this time and began going to therapy, which really helped her. Towards the end of the first leg of the “Join the Joyride” tour, Marie met Mikael Bolyos. Mikael was a Swedish musician travelling around Australia on a trip he had saved up for. Since he knew some members of the Roxette band, he came to visit them one day. Marie and Mikael had met before, but this time it was love at first sight and they were soon engaged. Meeting Mikael changed a lot in Marie’s life, it helped to get her life together and she was now very happy and content.

At the end of 1991, during a Christmas break of the “Join the Joyride” tour, Marie managed to record for her fourth solo album Den ständiga resan. The album documentated the crisis she had been going through over the past few years, particularly the breakup with Johan. Den ständiga resan was Marie’s musical self-portrait and was written like a diary, containing very personal songs about her life, feelings and relationships. The song Ett enda liv was written about a good friend of Marie’s who committed suicide. When a close friend of Marie’s heard the album, his comment was that it sounded as though she wanted to kill herself. Marie admitted that the thoughts of suicide had gone through her head at times and assured him that she was not suicidal. Marie wrote both the lyrics and the music herself and even produced the album with Anders Herrlin, as a co-producer. In association with this release, the record company invited media to a release party where Marie and Margareta Andersson made a special acoustic performance of some of the songs taken from the album. A short solo tour would succeed the release of Den ständiga resan, the first time that Marie performed live together with her future husband Mikael Bolyos.

On August 14, 1992, a concert for the environment was held in Borggården at the Royal Castle in Stockholm. Marie, Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad (former member of the group ABBA) and some other Swedish artists performed in front of an audience, which included the Royal family of Sweden.

Marie and Mikael had been together for less than a year when she became pregnant. Even though they had not been together very long, the pregnancy was planned and very much wanted. Inez Josefin Bolyos was born on April 29, 1993, about two weeks earlier than expected. She was named after Marie’s mother, but she is always called Josefin. Before the first photograph of the baby was printed in newspapers at the beginning of June, almost no Swedish newspaper or magazine had published any articles about the happy event.

Marie Fredriksson and Mikael Bolyos were married in Östra Ljungy kyrka on May 21, 1994, in the presence of only 40 invited guests. Marie and Mikael decided to have a small wedding, which meant that they wanted only very close relatives to attend. Not even Marie’s musical partner Per Gessle and his wife, Åsa, were invited. The reason for this was that Marie and Mikael wanted to have a family celebration and boundaries had to be made somewhere.

Marie recorded her fifth solo album I en tid som vår at Vinden Studios, the newly built studio at her house in Djursholm, Stockholm, between February and September of 1996. The album was released in the beginning of November the same year but this time there was no solo tour connected with the release. The main reason for this was, of course, that Marie gave birth to her second child, Oscar Mikael Bolyos on November 26, 1996.

Marie’s mother Inez died sometime during 1998, however this was not published outside of Sweden and many fans did not know until a few years later when it was mentioned in an interview with Marie. Inez had been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease for many years and Marie used to speak to her almost every day on the telephone.

In the spring of 2000, Marie released a greatest hits album including two new songs, both which were released as singles. The album Äntligen - Marie Fredrikssons bästa 1984-2000 sold extremely well, entered the Swedish album charts at number one and remained at the top for several weeks. It turned out to be the best selling Swedish album of the year and because of the enourmous success Swedish newspapers speculated about a tour by Marie. The Fan Club even started a campaign on the Internet, persuading her to perform live. Finally, Marie decided to go on her first solo tour in eight years and the majority of the reviews on the opening show were positive. Two very special guests made an appearance at the end of Marie’s performance in Halmstad - Per Gessle and Mats “MP” Persson came on stage to perform Kung av sand together with Marie and her band. Later on, Per and Marie played an acoustic version of Listen to Your Heart. The audience was lucky enough to hear Gyllene Tider and Roxette live, as well as Marie at that concert! Towards the close of the tour it was time to visit Stockholm for a concert and this time Patrik Isaksson joined Marie on stage to perform the song Det som var nu as a duet. Many international fans travelled to Sweden to see Marie perform live and it was then that she realized just how big her solo music was outside of Sweden.

On September 11 2002, Marie fell in her bathroom in her villa in Djursholm hitting her head and she had to be taken to the Karolinska hospital in Stockholm. First she was diagnosed with a severe concussion but a couple of days later it was announced that Marie had a small brain tumor in the back of her head. The tumor was removed at the end of September and she started a long period of treatments. Roxette was to appear in the “Night of the Proms” tour sponsored by Nokia but due to the operation the tour had to be cancelled.

In January 2003 both Per and Marie received a medal from His Majesty the King of Sweden for their success with Roxette all over the world at a gala in Stockholm. This was Marie’s first appearance in public since she was diagnosed with the tumor and operated.

In the summer of 2003 Per Gessle released a solo album titled Mazarin, which featured a song with Marie doing the backing vocals, På promenad genom stan. Marie had already recorded a Roxette song after the operation: Opportunity Nox, released in the beginning of 2003 on Roxette’s The Pop Hits.

After two years of treatment Marie released a brand new album in October 2004: The Change. The recordings started a year before Marie was diagnosed with cancer and went on afterwards when Marie felt strong enough for it. This was Marie’s first album in English and it was released internationally. A documentary, En andra chans, with images from the recordings, home in Djursholm and Marie performing some of the songs included in The Change was broadcast on the Swedish TV channel TV4 by the end of November and in other countries some months later.

In May 2005 Marie released a third single off The Change: A Table in the Sun. Later in October Marie announced that she had won the fight against cancer, and exhibited her artwork in gallery Doktor Glas, Stockholm, under the title After The Change. Together with the exhibition a book with the same title was published. The book features the 24 drawings that were shown in the exhibition, as well as some pictures of Marie drawing. In December Marie also signed the book in NK department store in Stockholm.

In some interviews Marie gave in October/November she revealed that she has been in the studio recording some new songs, so the future will tell if there will be a new solo album by Marie soon…

Marie released her cover compilation album Min bäste vän in June 2006. The album spawned two singles. Marie also did som TV for this.

In 2007 her latest ballad compilation was released.

And in 2008 she had another exhibition Ett bord i solen which was accompanied by another artbook. Marie has mentioned that she would love to do something with Roxette.

Biography up to 2000 © Robert Thorselius.