SYDNEY - D.H.T.’s rendition of Roxette’s “Listen to Your Heart” was released to Australian radio in the past week or so, with Sydney radio stations adding it to their playlists. The single is commercially released November 21. It’ll be interesting to see if it enters the Top 50 singles chart and whether it’ll spark interest in the original version.

Mr. Sandman contributed to this article.

NEW YORK (UPDATED) - While being in New York with his wife Åsa, son Gabriel and manager Marie Dimberg, Per gave an exclusive interview to Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet’s Per Bjurman. In this interview he mentions that his new album Son of a Plumber is a very personal album that he sees as kind of last will and testament.

  Per and co. are in New York to get a decent Roxette collection released in the US. And while being there he also checks the interest in Son of a Plumber. Per Bjurman, Aftonbladet’s man in New York, likes what he hears. He says that these lyrics sound very personal. “Yes,” Per says, “I really wanted to do an album that’s me. The lyrics are mainly about me and my life and they feel very important. At least to me.” Per continues, “We never had a target group in mind when we did this album, and that was very liberating.”

  Bjurman asks if Per wants to go back on a big tour now that he’s reconquered Sweden, twice. “Let me put it like this; if I hadn’t made this album in English I hadn’t made it at all. Because another summer in Sweden wouldn’t have worked. But now when it’s done, it’s of course nice if someone outside of Sweden wants to hear it.”

  Regarding a possible tour Per says the same thing as he said to TDR. “We’ve discussed it. If the album is received well abroad it would be nice to do a little club tour. We would play a little bit of everything. No Roxette stuff though, that wouldn’t work without Marie.”

  Per also mentions that he won’t push Marie into working. They haven’t had time to talk but he has read that she’s fine and that she may want to work with Roxette again. “Great to read that. I won’t stress her though.”

Thomas Evensson contributed to this article.

• Aftonbladet (In Swedish)

Read more…

STOCKHOLM - It’s been 15 years since the movie “Pretty Woman” entered the scene, and with that, the now classic song “It Must Have Been Love.” Of course, in Sweden the song was released in 1987 already, as “It Must Have Been Love (Christmas for the Broken Hearted),” - Roxette’s Christmas single. BMI, one of two organizations like STIM in the US, has now announced that “It Must Have Been Love” has now been played more than four million times on US radio. Per Gessle will therefore get another award from BMI for this. Per comments “It’s of course unbelievable.”

  Four million times is about 36 years non-stop playing…

  But that’s not all, Per Gessle and MP Persson will also receive an award from BMI for “Dance Song of the Year” regarding “Listen to Your Heart,” as these two gentlemen are the writers of the hit. The song has passed the limit for platinum with more than 352,000 downloads.

  In Europe “Listen to Your Heart” by D.H.T. is on the top 10 in Holland and in France.

  The awards will be presented in London, November 29.

• BMI

HOUSTON - Yes you heard it, “Pretty Woman” is out on DVD - again. This is the fourth time it’s been released on DVD. First the regular one, then the “director’s cut,” after that the “10th anniversary edition” and now the “15th anniversary edition.”

  “Pretty Woman” (at first called “$3,000”), danced in $463 million worldwide (€390 million) at the box office, and Julia Roberts was Oscar-nominated as best actress.

  On this new edition, there is yet another commentary track with director Garry Marshall, where he says that the fairy tale of “Pretty Woman” didn’t have to be believable, it was enough if the viewers wanted to believe it, writes the Houston Chronicle. This time around there is a blooper reel, travelog vignettes and a video from the wrap party “Live From the Wrap Party.”

  The previous edition of the DVD had 15 minutes of deleted scenes that are missing from this edition, what is there instead is the music video for Natalie Cole’s “Wild Women Do” - that barely was in the movie. Houston Chronicle writes that the big hit of the movie was Roxette’s ballad “It Must Have Been Love,” and continues to write about Roxette instead of the “Pretty Woman” DVD:

Though the Swedish duo hasn’t been on a major label in the U.S. in a decade, it’s been huge on the world stage, especially in Asia and South America long after “It Must Have Been Love” drove the “Pretty Woman” soundtrack to 9 million sales. “Roxette: Ballad & Pop Hits — The Complete Video Collection,” a new DVD sporting 37 songs and two one-hour documentaries, is a great introduction — or reintroduction — to the band.

  If anything, Roxette’s best work has come since its U.S. heyday, with the albums “Have a Nice Day,” “Room Service,” “The Pop Hits” and “The Ballad Hits.”

  The videos on “Roxette: Ballad & Pop Hits” are a mixed bag of styles and gimmicks, but the music is consistently hook-heavy, polished and emphatic. Call it lightweight commercialism or call it pop genius, but Roxette’s songs are catchy wonders, from the energized, infectious pop-rock of “Stars” and “Real Sugar” to the soaring, stirring balladry of “Anyone” and “Salvation.” America’s music biz may have missed that boat, but for those willing to search, it’s still setting sail.

• Article in the Houston Chronicle
• Buy it at Amazon.com

Third time’s the charm, they say. Let’s hope that’s true, as the third Roxette hit to have been remixed in a short period of time is “Joyride.” There is a white label 12” dance remix out called “Joyride 2005” that no one knows who has remixed.

  According to some rumors on the Internet, it has been mixed by The Tabledancers. That has proven to be incorrect, as they told The Daily Roxette that it was not their work. This 12” vinyl record has been sold on eBay for as much as $57, but is now available through regular webstores for $9.99 or £6.99.

  Per loves the remix, according to TDR’s own sources.

  A “white label” remix indicates that this is an independent project, done without the authorization of Roxette’s own record label. As royalties are not being paid, the identity of the remixer is kept secret.

• Juno records
• DanceRecords.com

D.H.T.’s “Listen To Your Heart” has been getting a lot of airplay on a radio station in Brisbane, Australia. There are no signs of whether the single is going to be released or not. According to radio station Nova 106.9 no record company in Australia has signed D.H.T. as of yet.

  However, a CD called “Ministry of Sound: Clubber’s Guide To America – Volume 1 will be released in Australia on the 15th August 2005, and it will contain D.H.T.’s “Listen to Your Heart.”

  More good news for Roxette fans in Australia: the single “Fading Like a Flower” by Dancing DJs vs Roxette has been released in Australia. Well, not actually the single itself, but the track is available on the CD “Wild Weekends 2005.”

  “Listen To Your Heart” gets airplay in France. It’s not the dance version but the acoustic one which gets airplay on the most important radio station - NRJ. This is the first Roxette song on French radio since “Wish I Could Fly” in 1999.

  Furthermore, in Poland “Fading Like a Flower” is known and played in good Warsaw clubs - clubbers seem to like that remix very much, according to TDR’s sources. The Polish radio station Planeta FM has started to play it as well now.

Krystian and Bibou contributed to this article.

NEW YORK - One of this summer’s fastest-rising pop tunes is titled “Listen to Your Heart.” But the message the single offers music-biz execs is to listen to the guy who works in your mailroom.

  That’s how Cory Robbins, president of Robbins Entertainment, came across Belgian duo D.H.T.’s cover of “Heart”, a power-ballad hit for the Swedish duo Roxette back in 1989. D.H.T., which features 20-year-old singer Edmée Daenen alongside MC/DJ/writer/producer Flor “Da Rick” Theeuwes, has soared to the upper reaches of commercial radio formats with a dance mix and an “unplugged” ballad rendition of the song.

  The single is presently at #1 on the Dance Radio Airplay chart, #5 on the Billboard Radio Monitor mainstream top 40 chart this week, #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at #17 on Nielsen BDS’ national airplay list and is expected to climb even more.

  Like everyone who works for Robbins, mailman Matt D’Arduini was invited to the Monday night meeting of label executives. In early 2004, he brought D.H.T.’s “Heart” and played it. Weeks later, Robbins offered Theeuwes and Daenen a deal.

• USA Today
• Billboard Top 40 Mainstream

Read more…

Dancin’ DJs v. Roxette’s single “Fading Like a Flower” will be released July 25 and TDR can show you pictures from the video and the single sleeve. Roxette and EMI have approved the usage of Roxette’s original recordings and you can also see the video in the background of Dancin’ DJs’ video.

  Roxette’s original version of “Fading Like a Flower”, off the “Joyride” album, was a hit back in 1991 where it ended up on #2 in the US for instance. The video was mainly shot in the old part of Stockholm named Gamla stan (Old town).

• AATW and Dancin’ DJs
• The single sleeve

There’s a new Roxette track out there. This time it’s not played by Roxette, but by Ginestrakvartetten (The Ginestra Quartet) and it’s a beautiful seven and a half minute long medley of “Vulnerable”, “It Must Have Been Love”, “Dressed for Success” and “The Look”. Ginestrakvartetten is a classical quartet so the medley is therefore performed gracefully with classical instruments.

  This track is from an album that is a bonus CD to the book “Smak av Halland” (“A Taste of Halland”), a cookbook – and more – about Halland, the county that Halmstad is the capital of.

  “Smak av Halland” is written by Tomas Tengby and Stefan Holmström, while the photographs are taken by Bruno Ehrs and Lasse Åkerström.

  ICA, the publishing company, describes the book like this: “Book idea: A cookbook with the raw material of Halland as a basis. Additionally what’s unique for Halland is presented in the text and the photos. Some history, health, food, music and nature.”



Examples of recipes featured in the book:



Small potato pancakes

Potatoes au gratin spiced with blue cheese

Fillet of beef in a string

Salad from Ugglarp with horseradish dressing



  All in all there are about 50 recipes and 60 color photos in the book. ISBN: 91-534-2636-3

Per-Axel Månsson contributed to this article.

• FORMA publishing group (In Swedish)
• Musik i Halland (In Swedish)
• Ginestrakvartetten (In Swedish)

LONDON - A hospital radio station in the UK has a tentative release date for the dance single by Dancing DJs. The track is a remix of Roxette’s 1991 single “Fading Like A Flower” and is slated for release on All Around The World recordings for May 2nd.

  It is titled “Dancing DJ Vs Roxette: Fading Like A Flower 2005.”



The promo includes the following mixes:



1. Dancing DJs Mix

2. Alex K Bounce Mix

3. Hardino Mix

4. Discode Mix

5. Alex K Extended Mix

6. Hardino Radio Edit

• All Around the World
• Radio Horton