LONDON (UPDATED) - BMI is once again giving awards to Per Gessle and Mats “MP” Persson as their song “Listen to Your Heart” has now reached its 3 millionth broadcast on American radio. It took nine years to reach two million – and eight years more to reach three million (total playing time non-stop: 27 years.) Recently, the pace was increased as D.H.T. released a succesful dance cover of the song. Per Gessle comments to Aftonbladet “This award means a lot to me as it clearly shows what an impact this song has had!”

  Per also mentions that the Americans were “duly impressed” by the video as they thought Roxette had built Borgholm’s Castle ruin just for the video.

Update Oct. 6: “Listen to Your Heart,” written by Per Gessle and Mats “MP” Persson, and published by Jimmy Fun Music (all STIM), was named Song of the Year and received one of the organization’s [BMI] highest accolades; the Robert S. Musel Award. “I’ve never heard of this Robert dude. The sculpture was very big and very ugly!” comments Per. He also tells TDR that he thinks this is an amazing award, “…the last and the best of the night!”

  Recorded by Belgium-based duo D.H.T., the song was originally a #1 hit for Roxette in 1989 and received the BMI Dance Award at last year’s ceremony.



Dan Kroll contributed to this article.

• BMI
• Aftonbladet (In Swedish)

VIENNA - German music channel VIVA will premiere “One Wish” video tonight in their program “NEU.” The program runs between 22:00 and 22:59 CEST and will be re-run on Saturday at 14:00 and Sunday at 09:00.


Sille-Rox contributed to this article.

• VIVA.tv

BADEN-BADEN - Roxette’s brand new single “One Wish” entered the German radio station SWR3 TOP 33 charts at #2 last Sunday, and as such the highest entry last week.


  SWR3 is one of the most important stations in the south of Germany and the Top 33 chart is built weekly with the votes the radio station receives from listeners via the Internet.

• SWR3 Top 33 charts

MADRID - Promotion for Roxette’s new single “One Wish” has already started in Spain and, in fact, is in high gear at the moment.


  Commuters travelling to work this morning were greeted with a big, full-color Roxette picture on the cover of one of Spain’s most-read newspapers, the free 20 Minutos (which is distributed for free in a similar fashion to Metro in many countries or Heute in Austria).

  An article inside reports about Roxette’s new release and comeback, and invites readers to visit the newspaper’s website today and tomorrow to view the video version of Roxette’s new single “One Wish.”


  The newspaper is read by an average of two million people daily and can be picked up at subway stations and universities.


  The single also started to be heard on the main radio stations last week and, as some TDR readers have reported, was sold out in some stores.

• 20 Minutos article
• Today’s edition as PDF

PHILADELPHIA - The American television broadcast network, ABC, is using Roxette’s chart-topping single “The Look” in commercial spots promoting their new series “Ugly Betty.”

  ”Ugly Betty,” based on the Colombian telenovella “Yo Soy Betty La Fea,” is pegged by critics to be one of the biggest hits of the new fall TV season here. American Roxette fans hope that the use of the song in such a prominent way could draw some additional attention to the possible US release of the new “Collection of Roxette Hits ’86-’06” release.

  ”Ugly Betty” debuts Thursday, September 28th at 8 pm on ABC.

STOCKHOLM - The Daily Roxette received the following press release this morning:

  Roxette celebrates 20th Anniversary with a new single, a greatest hits and the definitive box set.



  In the spring of 1986, Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson decided to record the dance pop single “Neverending Love.” They called themselves Roxette, and it was the beginning of a fantastic career which now spans 20 years - and this has to be celebrated!


  Roxette has sold over 45 million albums and 25 million singles since the international debut in 1989.


  During extensive worldwide tours, Roxette has visited every corner of the world, performing to more than two million people.


  Roxette’s singles have topped every chart in the world including the Billboard Hot 100, where they’ve had four #1’s: “The Look”, “Listen To Your Heart”, “It Must Have Been Love” and “Joyride”. Furthermore, two of their songs reached #2 on the same chart: “Dangerous” and “Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)”.


  In 2005, Per Gessle was honored by the American music publishing organisation BMI with an award for four million airplays of “It Must Have Been Love” from the classic movie “Pretty Woman.” Four million spins, on US radio alone, equals 36 years of nonstop airplay. Statistics show that the song is still so popular that there are always at least two American radio stations playing “It Must Have Been Love” around the clock. It’s hard to find a better definition of the word evergreen.


  “Listen To Your Heart” is also moving into the finer parlors. This fall, Per will receive another prestigious BMI Award for more than 3 million airplays of “Listen To Your Heart.”


  In 2002 Roxette was struck by tragedy when Marie Fredriksson was diagnosed with cancer. After extensive treatment and re-habilitation, Marie is now fully recovered and slowly getting back to recording and performing again.


  To celebrate their 20th Anniversary, “Roxette Hits!” will be released on October 18. The album features all their major hits and two brand new songs, which were recorded in Summer 2006, “One Wish” and “Reveal”. On October 4, “One Wish” is released as the first single from the album. The song starts its airplay on September 20.


  “It was great to work with Marie again! We had three fantastic days down in Skåne and we are very happy with the result. Everything was very easy, Clarence played keyboards, Marie prepared some coffee and Christoffer and I played hockey. I won,” comments Per.


  The successful collaboration between Jonas Åkerlund and Roxette goes on and in the next days Jonas will start the shooting of the video for “One Wish.”


  Roxette’s 20th Anniversary is also highlighted with the release of “The RoxBox ’86-’06,” a special treat for true fans who thought “they had everything [in their collections].”


  “The RoxBox ’86-’06” includes 4CDs featuring all the hit singles and best album tracks, two new songs, rare recordings, demos, and much more. Included in the box set is also a 3-hour plus DVD with all Roxette’s video hits and the previously unreleased complete Roxette MTV Unplugged TV show.

  The first promotion picture - which you can see to the right - has also been published. Taken by Jonas Linell at the video shoot for “One Wish.” Click on it to enlarge!

According to different online sources, Roxette’s new album and The Rox-Box will be released on October 18.


  The single will hit the stores in Sweden approximately a month earlier, on September 20. The release date in Germany, Switzerland and Austria is September 22. Dates for other countries are still unknown. Nothing has been confirmed by either EMI or d&d yet.

  The sleeve is taken from an EMI promo folder and may or may not be the real sleeve.

Per Gessle has left a new message on official Son Of A Plumber website where he comments about the recording of the new Roxette songs, which will included in the greatest hits Roxette will release this fall as part of the band’s 20th Anniversary celebration.

“Marie and I (together with Christoffer, Clarence and Jens) spent a couple of days (and nights) in the Aerosol Grey Machine-studio recently recording two new tracks for the upcoming Rox hits-collection. It really sounds fantastic! Marie is in good shape, Christoffer is laughing all the time and Clarence has grown a beard!


I’ll let you know the song titles shortly. I know you’re curious, my neighbour is….


Also, we did a great photoshoot with our old pal Jonas Linell the other day in a bowling alley. Strike!

  You’ll find the full message on the official website following the link below.

• Sonofaplumber.com

Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad published the following article today, including a new picture of Per in it’s print edition.

By Stefan Raatgever

AMSTERDAM - With Roxette collegue Marie Fredriksson having recovered from a brain tumor, singer Per Gessle prepares for a reunion of the Swedish pop duo However, he is presently occupied with his nostalgic solo project “Son of a Plumber.”

  The metamorphosis of his appearance is noticeable, especially for people who haven’t seen Per Gessle in a long while. His ’coupe-de-exploded hairdryer’, with which Gessle and his colleague Marie Fredriksson gave their hits “Joyride,” “It Must Have Been Love” and “Listen To Your Heart” some extra volume in the nineties, has disappeared. Gessle has a hip haircut now, wears Prada shoes and looks a lot younger than his age of 47.

  Roxette has been on hold since Fredriksson’s (48) brain tumor, but this will soon change according to Gessle. The two will record a few songs this summer for a new sampler that will be released near the end of 2006.
It has been four years since Roxette worked together.
Fredriksson’s disease made Roxette’s future insecure.

  “There have been times when no one believed Marie was going to survive. She has been in a bad condition,” says Gessle. “Now she’s free of cancer and off her medications, but she has become a different person.”

  Fredriksson avoids publicity, spends a lot of time with her husband and two children and records now and then in her home studio. “That’s why it surprised me when Marie asked me on my birthday if there would be a need for new songs during Roxette’s 20th anniversary year.”

  Gessle considers the future existence of Roxette to solely depend on Fredriksson. “No, it’s not hard. I’ve accepted it. The decisions are up to her. I’m up for anything – a tour, a new album – but I don’t expect anything. Every small step forward is good news to me.”

  In the meanwhile he concentrates on other projects, such as the solo double-album Son of a Plumber, on which Gessle (the son of a plumber) wrote numbers in the style of the era in which he got to know music: the early seventies. The songs which are full of atmosphere still rely heavily on melody, but differ greatly from Roxette’s well-produced pop.

  All of this placed Gessle in a new situation, receiving positive reviews for the first time. “All my life I’ve been ’accused’ of making commercial music. Though many people bought my records which received a lot of airplay, the press never was enthusiastic. Now a serious magazine like Rolling Stone gives nothing but praise. I can only laugh about that, since this is probably going to be my worst-selling record ever.”

  The album Son of a Plumber is released [in the Netherlands] today.

Harriej contributed to this article. Translation by Colin van der Bel.

• Algemeen Dagblad article (in Dutch)
• Scan of photo appearing in print edition

STOCKHOLM - Yesterday the “Nobel Prize” of music was presented for the 15th time, namely the Polar Prize. The winners this year were British rock group Led Zeppelin and Russian conductor Valery Gergiev. Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson with their s.o. attended the cermony.

  Others who have received this prize include Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.