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

“Wish I Could Fly” single is now available at the official fan club’s fanshop. The price is 10 NLG (single) or 12,50 NLG (maxi). The order comes with a free postcard and a sticker. MasterCards and Visa cards are accepted.

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!”

Per tells about his birthday party on Ilta-Sanomat. “Marie sang me a very beautiful song and Gyllene Tider played five songs. We had a little circus performing, good food and a lot of drunken people!”

“It was a very pleasant day, but also a long and tiring one. It continued non-stop till 6 AM.” Per doesn’t think the age matters. “It’s a big misunderstanding that rock and pop are teenagers’ priviledge. That’s just a cliché. Bob Dylan is soon 60 and I find him still interesting. It’s about the work process and development, which happen despite the age.”

Finnish reporters interviewed Marie and Per on Wednesday. Today at least Iltalehti and Ilta-Sanomat published an article about the duo. MTV3’s morning TV broadcast showed more of the interview, but unfortunately I missed most of it. I called MTV3 and they gave me the interview on a video tape. However, there wasn’t anything really interesting in the interview.

Per and Marie told that it’s fun to come to Finland again. They visited Finland last time in 1994 when they launched the Crash! Boom! Bang! tour in Helsinki. Per and Marie say on Iltalehti that Roxette is going to have a world tour in a couple of years. “It’s possible that we start in Helsinki again”, they say.

In Finland they are going to perform “Wish I Could Fly” at Miss Finland finals, probably playback. Per and Marie are also going to visit a new TV show called Dynamo which is produced by Finland’s Swedish television FST. Roxette is going to spend altogether a couple of days in Finland.

Per and Marie visited Radio RIX’s morning show today. RIX’s web site has a couple of pictures from the studio.

Roxette’s 10-year contract with EMI was one the news headlines on today’s 10 o’clock news on MTV3 channel in Finland. This contract is the largest record deal in Scandivia ever. Per was interviewed briefly and parts of “How Do You Do!” video were shown between Per’s statements. Per told that Roxette has always been a band that surfs between different styles of music. There was no mention of the new album.

MTV3’s 10 o’clock news is the most popular news broadcast in Finland. It is watched by a million people (a fifth of Finland’s population) every night.

According to HMV record store chain “Wish I Could Fly” will be released on March 8 and “Have A Nice Day” on March 15. These dates are not confirmed by EMI, but they should be pretty accurate.

There’s not going to be one single with the same track listing as the Swedish 3-track version (no CD 1/2 as it often has been in the UK).

“Wish I Could Fly” single is going to be released in Australia on February 17. No news about the album yet.

Earlier this month Karin Häggblom of EMI Svenska told me that the Australian release dates are going to be the same as in Sweden…

According to Rox Britannia EMI Holland has told that the release of the video for “Wish I Could Fly” has been delayed. It will be out in the middle of next week.