Roxette has earned a mention in Billboard's look at the milestones in the history of its Hot 100 countdown. The group's name comes in the same breath as the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Madonna.

"Listen to Your Heart," the 706th song to ever hit number one on the famed chart, was the first chart topper to be available only as a cassette single. All prior number ones had been available for purchase on vinyl.

The nostalgic look back was prompted when Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" became the 1,000th number one in the chart's history.

NEW YORK - Citigroup, the U.S. banking conglomorate, has seized control of EMI Group Ltd. from troubled financier Guy Hands and his Terra Firma private equity firm, acquiring 100 % of the share capital on a restructuring that saw EMI's debt load cut to £1.2 billion from £3.4 billion.

The transaction reportedly ends a financial roller coaster ride that began with Hands's £4 billion buyout of the U.K.-based music group in 2007. That highly leveraged acquisition was financed with capital from Citigroup.

But declines in music industry revenue continued, and that coupled with the overall worldwide financial crisis left EMI struggling to meet their obligation. With Citigroup declining to renegotiate the debt, the conflict moved to a courtroom here in November. The jury decided Citi had not fooled Hands into paying too much for EMI.

"The recapitalization of EMI by Citi is an extremely positive step for the company," said Roger Faxon, EMI's chief executive, in a statement to the press. "It has given us one of the most robust balance sheets in the industry with a modest level of debt and substantial liquidity. With that solid footing, we are confident in our ability to drive our business forward," he added.

Besides Roxette, EMI is also home to a diverse roster of acts – from the Beatles to Katy Perry – and has a rich catalog of tunes to license. As a result, private-equity firms and rival music companies are reportedly jumping at the opportunity to buy some or all of it.  A Citigroup insider told Music Week the bank had little interest in keeping hold of EMI as a going concern. He said, "[Citi] has already been in talks with all the relevant majors about selling off the various parts of the company."

Additional reporting by Mathew James (onlywhenidream) in the U.K..

NEW YORK - According to an article appearing today on the website of Music Week, Roxette has signed a North American administration deal with Kobalt Music Group, a leading global independent music publisher with close ties to Sweden. Kobalt will manage – in North America where Roxette Recordings' contract with EMI Music Publishing does not apply – copyright administration and creative licensing services. Although it is not a record label deal, it would appear to be one more indication (in addition to Per's comment to TDR during our recent interview) that the USA might see a release of the new album Charm School. 

"The agreement is the first of the new year for the company and as part of the move the publisher will represent Roxette for sync in films, TV, gaming and ringtones. The deal will cover the release of the band’s new album which is set for release next month."

Rebekah Alperin, a senior vice president at Kobalt, tells TDR that they will be actively promoting Roxette's music for use in movie and TV soundtracks, and in television commercials. "That's what we do," she says.

DETROIT - WXYZ, a television station in Detroit, USA has teamed up with a local furniture store to offer up a $5,000 shopping spree (and bragging rights) in its annual "Art Van Cruisin' Idol" competition to the contestant who performs the best rendition of Roxette's "The Look."  Ten lucky finalists were selected to record their version of Per and Marie's first US number one, and the four singers who receive the most votes will compete for viewers' votes during a televised broadcast that will air across North America on Aug. 21st.  Check out some, uh, interesting interpretations of the Rox classic.

Thanks to Jen Verwey for tracking this fantastic story down!

LONDON - EMI Music, Roxette's record company since the very beginning, has made a good financial result after years of severe problems. The year 2008 was the first full year under the ownership of private equity group Terra Firma. Terra Firma's harsh cost-cutting program led to axing a third of EMI's workforce, but was also financially successful. EMI Music posted earnings of £163 million (183 million Euros) which more than tripled the earnings compared to the previous year.

The total sales went up 4%, thanks to EMI's biggest-selling artists Coldplay, Lily Allen and Katy Perry.

The Swedish group Scotts was very successful on a popular Swedish TV-show called "Dansbandskampen" fall of 2008. The group ended up in second place of the competition. This spring they participated in "Melodifestivalen" (Swedish outtakes for the Eurovision Song Contest). Scotts' first album "På vårt sätt" went  #1 on the Swedish album chart the first week of 2009. On the album they have included a cover of "It Must Have Been Love".

Taken from http://www.zeigeist.eu/:

"During the past years, we have put more and more love into Zeigeist, fed her like the Queen she have been. At the end of the day, she has demanded all love within us. We have our personal reasons to kill her.

The release of our next single/EP, "Neverending Love," a cover of Roxette's first single, our first cover, will be moved to tomorrow (5th Feb). The EP also contains "Chasing your shadow all around the world" and a remix of "Humanitarianism" by the Twelves. With this EP, we call it a day. This is the end of Zeigeist. The Queen is dead.

So we raise our glasses, make a toast, a toast in your honor, and tell you this: The search continues. We're going to find out about the Never. Ending. Love.

With thanks to all our fans

ZEIGEIST"

The tracklist: 

1. Neverending Love
2. Chasing Your Shadows All Around the World
3. Humanitarianism (The Twelves Remix)

STOCKHOLM - Swedish newspaper Musikindustrin reports that EMI boss Roffe Nygren sadly has passed away.

Rolf Nygren, one of Sweden's legendary record company bosses, passed away last Monday. Roffe, who was 68 years old, was hired by EMI back in 1966. At first he was a sales assistant, but later became the manager for the sub-label Music For Pleasure. He was CEO of EMI Finland between 1973 and '75.
Between 1976 and 1998 Nygren was the CEO of EMI Sweden. From 1987 he was also the Scandinavian manager. During Roffe's era EMI became the leading company for Swedish music with artists such as Gyllene Tider, Ulf Lundell and Roxette. Roffe was also the chairman of Swedish ifpi for many years.

Per Gessle: "It was Roffe who tied Gyllene Tider to EMI 1979. Along the way he's been a great supporter and inspiration to our common Roxette successes. A journey we all thought impossible. He was a "hitpicker" with perfect aim and always a creative idea bouncer. He was also a very dear friend of mine and my family's. We miss him enormously."

Marie Dimberg: "To me Rolf was a strong personality with a great curiosity and love for the music. A safe, equal, engaged, low prestigious and a very encouraging boss who always gave freedom under responsibility. He was a positive pessimist with a large and warm heart. Rolf was my door opener to the music business and an always present mentor and my mainstay.
Life will be very empty without him."

The staff of The Daily Roxette offers our sympathy.

Few talk about the "Swedish musical wonder" anymore, which was strongly connected to successful Swedish artists, but Swedish music is still popular outside of Sweden. Swedish songwriters still hold the fort.
"Sweden is a small country, but Swedish music is big abroad. The foreign proceeds are a receipt showing that Swedish songwriters are of high international class" says Margita Ljungberg, senior adviser at STIM.
"I'm happy that ABBA does so well! " Per Gessle comments to The Daily Roxette.

The most played songs by Swedish composers outside of Sweden 2007:

1. Listen To Your Heart
Per Gessle/Mats MP Persson
2. Dancing Queen
Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra)/Stig Anderson
3. Since U Been Gone
Max Martin/Lukasz Gottwald (Ascap)
4. Hung Up
Madonna (Ascap)/Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra), Stuart
Price (BMI)
5. Who Knew
Max Martin/Lukasz Gottwald (Ascap)
6. Behind These Hazel Eyes
Max Martin/Lukasz Gottwald (Ascap)/Kelly Clarkson (Ascap)
7. It Must Have Been Love
Per Gessle
8. Mamma Mia
Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra)/Stig Anderson
9. Gimme Gimme Gimme
Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra)
10. The One
Max Martin/Brian Littrell (Ascap)

Up to 2,000 jobs at EMI – more than one in three of the workforce – are at risk under a radical restructuring of the music group drawn up by private-equity boss Guy Hands. Thousands of artists will also go from EMI’s 14,000-strong roster. Little is known which artists will have to go at this point.

Robbie Williams is refusing to release his next album until he knows what kind of service an artist of his magnitude could expect from his record company. Williams' manager says that EMI's new CEO, said Guy Hands, is behaving like a plantation owner. Coldplay is also considering leaving EMI while Radiohead and Paul McCartney have already left.