NEW YORK - Sirius XM has put up two videos with Per Gessle being interviewed on Nordic Rox on YouTube. One where he talks about the Roxette reunion and one where he talks about the concert with Marie Fredriksson in Amsterdam.

And on June 13 the Roxette special with Per's gig in London and the performance of Marie Fredriksson in Stockholm will be rebroadcast at 9 PM ET.

For Dish Network subscribers in the US:  If your package is of 200 channels or more, chances you will find Sirius stations.  Spectrum - located on channel 6018 will turn into Nordic Rox on Sundays at 8pm EST and Wednesdays at 11pm EST although the station may not show up on the channel guide.

Jackie contributed to this article.

(Updated) - Per Gessle has joined Twitter. Follow the user @PartyPleaser for tour updates and other tidbits from the Man.

While at it, follow our own Twitter account, @dailyroxette!

And now Roxette have joined in the Twittering. Follow at @TheRealRoxette for updates

NEW YORK - The special broadcast of Nordic Rox on Sirius satellite radio last Sunday failed due to some glitch in the automated system. Per Gessle's concert from London was overlapped with other songs after two thirds of the concert, as well as drowning out parts of the interviews. Sirius apologizes and promises to fix it before the rebroadcast on Wednesday.

Marie Fredriksson had her 51st birthday yesterday. She was born as Gun-Marie Fredriksson in Össjö, Sweden on May 30, 1958.

Congratulations from the whole The Daily Roxette staff!

NEW YORK - A Roxette reunion special, hosted by Per, will air in the U.S. this Sunday, May 31, on Sirius XM satellite radio. 

The Nordic Rox show will broadcast the songs the duo recently performed together in Stockholm. Nordic Rox, which Per hosts regularly, airs weekly on Sunday nights at 8:00 pm EST.

During the Roxette reunion special, listeners will also hear a broadcast of Per's recent concert in London where he performed both solo songs as well as Roxette favorites.

Each week, Nordic Rox turns the spotlight on the quality and depth of Scandinavian music, expanding upon the success of established as well as up-and-coming artists ranging from ABBA and The Cardigans to The Hives and The Sounds among many others. The specialty program has become a destination for music fans in the U.S. to hear exciting new music emanating from the Nordic countries (See the following sidebar story). 

Additionally, every day between Monday, June 1 and Thursday, June 4, several channels will broadcast a edited versions of the special, including a conversation with Per discussing the group's reunion and their recent live performances.

Finally, the '90s on 9 channel will also celebrate Roxette's reunion by devoting the upcoming weekend to the "iconic group." Beginning tomorrow and throughout the weekend, listeners will be able to hear Per personally introduce and share stories about Roxette's biggest hits including "It Must Have Been Love" and "The Look."

Meanwhile, on Radio Sweden's P4 Music channel, the second of a two-part special "musical portrait" of Marie Fredriksson will be aired on Sunday, May 31, at 11:05 pm CET.  The program (in Swedish), put together by Lisa Wall, will spotlight Marie's career as part of Roxette while the first part focused on her career as a solo artist.  Both parts will be available on the station's website. 

Editor's Note: Additonal reporting by Paul Russell.

NEW YORK - Few Gyllene Tider/Roxette fans have been in a position to share their love of Per's music with others as much as Scott Greenstein, who as the Chief Content Officer of Sirius XM, is the one who approached Per with the idea for the program that was later named Nordic Rox. As a result of the success of the show in promoting Swedish music in North America, he was — just last week — awarded the insignia of Knight of the Royal Order of the Polar Star by Ambassador Ulf Hjertonsson, Consul General of Sweden in New York (acting on behalf of the King of Sweden), at a ceremony at the Swedish residence on Park Avenue.

Per, along with his wife Åsa and son Gabriel, were in New York and attended the event along with other guests who included actor and musician Steven Van Zandt (E-Street Band); director Lasse Hallström and actress Lena Olin; guitarist Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi); professional skateboarder Tony Hawk; singer Peter Jöback; Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers; celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson; and media host Martha Stewart.

With this distinction, Greenstein is recognized for the strides made by the Nordic Rox program in introducing Swedish music and popular culture to American audiences.

"Scott Greenstein has been instrumental in bringing a number of Swedish voices from the world of politics and culture to radio listeners across the U.S.," said Ambassador Hjertonsson. "His personal enthusiasm and professional dedication to Swedish music, in particular, led to the creation of the very popular radio channel Nordic Rox, a veritable gateway for Swedish music in North America."

"Yes, Scott Greenstein is the main man behind [Nordic Rox]," said Per to The Daily Roxette in an interview three years ago. "He is a huge fan (he even knows the "Leva Livet" lyrics by heart) and he approached me about a year ago about this."

Per was last at the Swedish residence in September 2000, when then Consul General Olle Wästberg hosted a reception and buffet dinner for Roxette that was attended by the media and other Swedish celebrities in New York, including Crown Princess Victoria. Roxette was here at that time to promote the release of a U.S. Greatest Hits album, and had performed earlier in the day at the Virgin megastore in Times Square.

ARNHEM/NIJMEGEN - “After all those years, we deserve to have a little fun!”

UIT Magazine, a local Dutch lifestyle and entertainment magazine publishes an exclusive interview with Roxette in their June issue, with a large picture of Roxette on their front cover. The full page article deals with Roxette’s comeback and performance as headliner at the Night of the Proms concert later this year and mentions a few interesting facts.

Marie mentions that during the Christmas tour in Sweden she discovered she felt great again on stage. She loved being on stage again and decided it was time to continue with Roxette. Per says that when Marie indicated she was completely ready, they could start talking about a reunion. “It has been a rough and difficult time and I am glad it is behind me now. I feel great! I really want to start working with Per again and most of all have a lot of fun together,” says Marie. Per also emphasizes that a lot has happened in seven years; they both have changed. “Roxette used to be a part of the music industry, trying to be successful. That’s not our goal anymore, we now focus on the things that satisfy us,” says Per.

Per informs the reporter that they will enter the studio this summer. They will not record an entire album, but they will release something new. Per hopes they can release this to the public before the end of the year.

Read the full Dutch article (pages 14-15)

(Updated) - Editor's Note:  The Daily Roxette originally published this article over a month ago – on April 22 to be exact – announcing that Per and Marie were reuniting and would perform again as Roxette in Lativa this summer.  This article was published prior to our breaking the news on May 4 that Roxette would appear at the Night of the Proms concert series.  We're republishing it today, along with the previous comments.  While mention of Roxette has still not appeared on the event's own website, posters have been put up on the streets of Riga advertising Roxette as "special guests" at the opening of the New Wave festival and today, Per acknowledged the accuracy of our report via a Twitter message. 

Roxette are back together again! According to several published reports, the first of which appeared on Monday [April 20], the duo is set to perform for the opening of New Wave 2009 on July 28 in Jurmala, Latvia.  Some of the biggest newspapers of Latvia and their online news portals have reported that Roxette have already agreed to appear at the opening ceremony of this annual international young pop singers competition.

In an editorial published by The Daily Roxette just days ago, we addressed the speculation that Roxette might reunite, and since then there have been rumors of exactly when and how that might happen, with most centering around the Night of the Proms series of concerts in Europe towards the end of the summer.

From its beginnings in 2002, the New Wave competition has become a significant event not only in Russia and Latvia, but also in CIS and other countries for several years once television rights were sold. Millions of TV viewers watch and support the contestants, confirming the fact that New Wave has become a eagerly-anticipated annual European festival. TDR has learned that this this festival is very popular in Russia, as many of the participants come from post-Soviet countries and regions. We've also reported on this event previously, when in 2003 a contestant from Sweden sang "Sleeping in My Car."

Read more…

There's an article in today's edition of Aftonbladet about Diego Nuñez, a long-time Roxette fan who lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has never been able to afford a trip to Sweden to see a concert – let alone live there for any length of time – but he nevertheless has managed to learn to speak Swedish fluently, mostly by self-study.

When The Daily Roxette reached Diego by telephone this morning from New York, he wasn't aware that the Aftonbladet story had been published. "Wow, this is all very exciting," he said.  Victor Ginner, the Aftonbladet reporter, had called him only yesterday from Sweden.  How this reporter in Sweden found out about Diego is a bit complex.

"He found out about me because a documentary filmmaker had come to Buenos Aires looking to find people interested in Sweden, and the Swedish Institute here had put him in touch with me. They [the Swedish Institute] know about me because I hang out there sometimes reading books in their library." The filmmaker in turn let someone at Radio Sweden know that a young man in Argentina had learned to speak Swedish by listening to their programs, and they interviewed Diego about a week ago for their "Språket" language program. The Aftonbladet reporter had listened to that.

Diego is not alone, as there are other fans of Roxette from outside Sweden who have also – with varing degress of success  – learned to speak Swedish, because of their interest in Per and Marie.  Feel free to leave a comment and let us know about that.

Read more…

Have you ever heard people talking about getting certain songs stuck in their head – sometimes all day long? Maybe even experienced this yourself? Well, we were wondering if there's been a party going on in your head since attending one of the Party Crasher concerts (or viewing videos from the tour)… and if so, which songs have been getting kind of stuck there in your brain's own internal iPod.  We're conducting a survey to find out, and we'd love to have you participate! Results will be published in an upcoming edition of The Daily Roxette.