European group “DHT” and their cover of Roxette’s “Listen To Your Heart” has entered at number 9 on the Billboard Dance Radio Airplay charts for the week of March 19, 2005.

  This is the first Roxette-related track to feature in any American chart at any position since “Wish I Could Fly” in 2000.

• LTYH snippets

NEW YORK - The band D.H.T. has covered Roxette’s #1 single “Listen to Your Heart” and it has been released to North American radio stations via Robbins Entertainment Records.

  D.H.T., from Belgium, has been a live act since 1995. Their Roxette cover was previously released in Europe, and appeared on various compilation albums as well. Robbins, a dance label, is joint-venture with BMG North America.

• D.H.T. official web site
• Buy it at Amazon.com
• View the video (unplugged version, in WMV format)

STOCKHOLM - Canadian rocker Bryan Adams’s new album “Room Service” will be released later this fall. Not only is the title Roxette-ish, but the album itself is like Roxette’s “Tourism” – songs recorded in hotel rooms and such.

  When Expressen tells Bryan this he replies “I had no idea Roxette had done this before. It certainly wasn’t my intention to steal anything! Tell Per and Marie that I’m sorry. I just thought it was a really neat idea.”

• Expressen’s article (In Swedish)
• Bryan Adams

STOCKHOLM - According to Aftonbladet, Per Gessle says he doesn’t have the fire that’s needed to keep Roxette running.

  Although Per doesn’t specifically say that Roxette is over, he gives very little to hang your hope on.

  “I don’t feel the urge to go out in the world anymore, back then it was an enormous force to make it abroad,” says Per. Even if Marie Fredriksson gets well enough to continue, Per is doubtful.


  andersb contibuted to this article.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

A remake of the Roxette-classic “Fading Like a Flower,” performed by Mysterio, is currently at #7 on the Austrian DJ-playlist and appears to still be rising.

  Mysterio is a dancebeat act formed by Austrian DJ and producer Steve Twain and singer Karin Janda.

 Driving beats and a strong use of vocals mark the six remix versions on the Maxi-CD released May 10th in Germany on the Beatwerk Records label, and in Japan on Quake Records. It’s also included on a compilation CD – “Trance Voices, Volume 11” – released by Polystar in Germany.

• MusicLine.de (Can listen to track snippets here)
• Austrian DJ Chart
• Beatwerk Records (Click on “Acts & Artists”)

STOCKHOLM - In today’s edition of Swedish tabloid Expressen Per reveals that he’s already looking forward to record another Roxette album. “I have written new songs in English for Roxette,” Per tells Expressen’s Anders Nunstedt. “But it all depends on how Marie feels about it,” Per continues.

  On being asked how Marie really is, Per replies that she’s OK, that he spoke to her the other day. “I don’t know if she thinks it’s worth it, a new take at Roxette will take a lot of strength and time.”

  Gyllene Tider spent most of yesterday giving interviews, after which Per left for Halmstad for the weekend, where he will see Marie, among other things.

  Pelle_Pop contributed to this article.

• Expressen’s article (In Swedish)

LONDON - Roxette are featured in an column in this morning’s Guardian newspaper in the UK. In her bylined column, Ellie Levenson writes about why she loves Roxette. It’s mainly a nostalgia piece, with no current detail, but the print version of the newspaper has a nice picture of Marie and Per from the “Have A Nice Day” era.

  “I am too young to really appreciate Abba,” Levenson writes, “…besides, Marie and Per had better hair.


  The Guardian is the UK’s leading media-important national newspaper.

• The Guardian

STOCKHOLM - Roxette is sentenced to pay 3.6 million kronor (€400,000) in taxes after a tour in Germany.


  “We will appeal,” says Per Gessle.
Per is among the top tax payers in Sweden, with
taxes around 10-15 million kronor each year. “He could avoid a lot of it, but that’s not the way he wants it,” says Per’s financial advisor Mats Nilemar.


  The county administrative court sentenced Per and Marie to pay about 3.6 million kronor in unpaid taxes.
“They have to pay taxes for what they have not declared,” says
Bo Ryding, who has been handling this errand at the IRS.


  This issue has its ground in the German part of the
Crash!Boom!Bang! tour in the mid ’90s. Altogether, Roxette
did 19 gigs in Germany (a country known for their harsh
tax laws).
“The artist tax was not very advantageous,” says Bo Ryding.
By acknowledging themselves as employees of EMA Telstar,
Per and Marie were able to avoid the tax and get their
salary directly from the company.


  They would then get 640,000 SEK each for all the German concerts. This unproportionately low wage made German tax officials suspicious. “They found the amount unrealistic,” says Bo Ryding.

  The alarm from Germany led the Swedish IRS to start an investigation. The investigation showed that the wages have not been paid. Instead, compensation had been sent directly to Per’s and Marie’s company, Roxette Productions.
This income, says the Swedish IRS, has not been declared.


  Per and Marie’s lawyer has appealed against this.
He claims that an employment could not be proven, and that
the money therefore not could be taxed as income from a
service. The process has been going on since the end of the ’90s.


  But Per and Marie have not given up.
“We still claim that we’re right, and we will appeal,” says
Per Gessle.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

OSLO (UPDATED) - According to a report in today’s edition of the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, Roxette might be one of the headline acts performing live during a festival in Oslo in June 2005.

  Norway is marking the 100th anniversary of their independence from Sweden on June 7, 2005, and the celebration will culminate in an 11-day long culture festival.

  The organizers of “Norge 2005” (Norway 2005) are making plans to have both Roxette and the Norwegian band a-ha appear that day on the outdoor stage that will be constructed in front of Rådhuset, a major governmental building in the center of Oslo.

• Aftenposten article (in Norwegian)

HELSINKI - Antti Tuisku, a semi-finalist on the Finnish “Idols” contest, sings “Spending My Time” on a new CD put together of the songs performed during the TV series. The series is based on the very popular international format first shown in the UK with the name “Pop Idol”. In the series a hard-worded jury judges the performances and unmercifully throws out the contestants with not-so-good voices. Tuisku did very well in the series, as he was ranked third and had to go just before the final battle.

  The “Idols” final is broadcast live on the Finnish MTV3 channel tonight. The CD is published by BMG and its release date was also today.

• Antti Tuisku Fanclub (in Finnish)