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!

SUNDSVALL - In perfect weather in Sundsvall, Sweden, at 22.17 Per and Marie finally entered the stage for the long, long awaited real reunion of Roxette. The Daily Roxette was there too of course. Roxette started 13 minutes early (probably due to the midnight curfew) and played 20 songs for the 16,000 in the audience. German rockabilly act The Baseballs was the opening act. "I made a classical mistake this time" says Per "I thought it was so much fun I was exhausted after the first two songs."

The question on everyone's lips is "will Marie be able to handle this?" This reporter thinks that if nothing drastic happens, Roxette will once again travel the world in 2011.

Marie was doing terrific and she was beaming on stage looking stunned, happy and amazed. Everyone could see how she loved being back, and when the final chord of "Church of Your Heart" faded and the applause wouldn't stop, Marie had tears in her eyes.

Roxette this time around is Per and Marie, of course, with Pelle Alsing drums, Magnus Börjeson bass, Clarence (with a brand new fez) Öfwerman keys, Christoffer Lundquist guitar and newbie Malin Ekstrand backup vocals. They all performed greatly.
True, there were kinks, Marie forgetting lyrics, someone (Per?) playing in the wrong key on "Sleeping in My Car" and some other small things. But as Per says to TDR: "This isn't a tour so much as a handful of concerts flung together." Probably it will be different even tonight as Roxette plays Denmark. "I don't want to call it a test, but it is a test to see how much Marie can handle." says Per and continues "We'll have to evaluate this at a later point. Both of us want to continue doing Roxette stuff. There is a huge interest in the world. The album is halfway done, and when it is done it would be nice to take it on the road." Marie adds "It's good that one has performed as much as one has in one's life. It's in the body so to speak."

The only difference to the setlist this time was that "Things Will Never Be the Same" was cut. "Steppin' Stone" was performed in the honor of The Monkees this time, instead of Paul Revere like during Per's solo tour. Roxette is not happy with the tracklist, there will be changes according to both Per and Marie. They are open to more covers, but won't reveal which. Per also mentions that Roxette has loads of other hits they can play on a "real tour".

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HALMSTAD (Updated) - Roxette performed 21 songs at the Leif's Lounge dress rehearsal concert last night. "Damn this was fun!" exclaims Marie and continues "I've waited so [long] for this." "This is a miracle. You're a miracle" says Per to Marie tenderly. Per tells Aftonbladet that the concert was supposed to be around an hour but it was so much fun they played almost two. "It just grew…" says Per.

Over 900 tickets were sold in the end. Per thinks they could've played Solgården, outside of the hotel, and sold 3000 tickets. "That would've been devastating to our concert here in Halmstad."

If all goes according to plan, Roxette will go on a world tour next year. This mini-tour is sort of a test to see if a world tour is in the cards. "We want it to be as big as it can be, we always think big. Big is beautiful. It's been great digging into Roxette's treasure box of songs. I pawed some of them during my solo tour, but it sounds tacky when I do 'Listen to Your Heart'" smiles Per.

The Daily Roxette asks: So,  back on stage "for real" with Roxette, how does it feel, Per? "It was an unforgettable evening, the crowd was superb! We felt very very welcome!" says Per and goes on "The plan was to play for an hour and we played almost an hour and forty minutes. Marie was in top shape, Malin was excellent as well as Chris and the others, I just love this band! And of course my new nail polish!" When TDR asks Per if this was something he expected a few years back Per responds "No no, I thought Rox was over in 2002." Marie also seems satisfied as Per says: "This was one of the happiest days of her life, she said. I guess that says it all…" Per also mentions that he doesn't hope there will be any major changes to the setlist.

Finally, Per Gessle, did you have a good time last night? "Do fish swim in water?" Per smiles and goes off to new challenges.

And on Saturday the Sundsvall premiere awaits.

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HALMSTAD (Updated) - Like in 2003 (Per Gessle), 2004 (Gyllene Tider) and 2007 (Per Gessle again) there will be a secret concert, like a dress rehearsal if you will, in Halmstad August 4! Roxette will play Leif's Lounge at Hotel Tylösand on Wednesday night. 600 tickets will be released on Wednesday morning, in order to stop ticket scalpers, and will cost 295 SEK. Tickets may be bought in the reception of Hotel Tylösand starting at 11.00 AM.

The concert starts at 10.00 PM.

Update: At 1.25 PM the concert was sold out. Doors open at 7 PM.

Following Wednesday night's appearance of "It Must Have Been Love" on Australia's national countdown clip show "20 to 1" Australian cable (Foxtel) channel MusicMAX aired a 33 minute "Best of: Roxette" special on Thursday 15th July at 10.30 pm (AEST).

The songs played were as follows:

- "Joyride"
- "The Look"
- "Dressed for Success"
- "It Must Have Been Love"
- "Listen To Your Heart"
- "Milk and Toast and Honey"

Basically these are the only Roxette videos they have in their archive. They are missing the obvious hits and this reporter urges all Aussie Roxette fans to mail MusicMax and ask them for "Dangerous", "Fading Like a Flower", "How Do You Do!", "Sleeping in My Car", "The Big L", "Spending My Time", "Wish I Could Fly", "Run To You", "Crash Boom Bang" and "Almost Unreal".

Jophesine77 contributed to this article.

(Updated) - WARNING!

LiveNation warns ticket buyers to not use unauthorized sellers!

After the Roxette concert August 14 was moved to Halmstad, Biljett.nu are no longer authorized to sell tickets to the concert. However, LiveNation has found out that Biljett.nu still sells tickets to the concert - they will not be valid.

Tickets bought from Biljett.nu after July 9 are not valid for the concert. Tickets bought before July 9 are valid.

Three-day race tickets are not valid.

Per Gessle himself stresses that you should get your tickets via Ticnet.

HALMSTAD - This morning an additional 3000 tickets to the Roxette concert in Halmstad were released - and sold out in 24 minutes! The Roxette concert is therefore moved from Brottet to Marknadsplatsen in Halmstad and more tickets are already up for sale.

Tickets can be bought at LiveNation and Ticnet and are 500 SEK plus a service fee. NB! All concert tickets previously sold are valid, while race tickets are not.

No one seems to know where this fabled Marknadsplatsen (market place) is located at though, not even the Halmstadians.

(Updated) - As a replacement for the canceled Anderstorp concert, Roxette will play in its hometown Halmstad on August 14. Here is the press release we received from LiveNation:

ROXETTE TO PLAY BROTTET IN HALMSTAD

Roxette’s concert on August 14 has been moved to Brottet in Halmstad. The reason for this is that the 3-day event "The Race Legends" in Anderstorp Raceway has been canceled due to financial problems of the organizers.

Since more than 9000 tickets had already been sold, Roxette has decided together with Live Nation, to move the concert to Brottet in Halmstad. The bought tickets are still valid for the concert and more will be released on July 13th.

"We were very surprised when we heard that the Anderstorp weekend had been canceled since the ticket sales had been so good. We know that many fans from around the world had bought tickets and in order not to disappoint them, we will play in Brottet in Halmstad and we will offer a fireworks of hits in the Halland summer grass," say Marie and Per.

Tickets for the concert at Brottet in Halmstad will cost 500 SEK plus service fee and will be sold via Livenation.se, Ticnet 077-170 70 70. They will go on sale July 13, 09:00 CET.

ONLY concert tickets bought for the concert in Anderstorp will be valid for the concert in Halmstad, NOT race tickets, and additional tickets will ONLY be sold via Ticnet, NOT Biljett.nu.

Questions regarding tickets are directed to [email protected]

Update: The concert has been moved to Marknadsplatsen.

Roxette have made it on to other Australian Television Show called 20 to 1 in the Episode "Break Up Songs", which will air on channel 9 at 21:30. "It Must Have Been Love" is in the top 20 of this episode.

(Updated) - According to SR (Swedish Radio) The Race Legends at Anderstorp Raceway has been canceled due to too few tickets sold and debts totalling over 3 million SEK. (300000 €). Local businesses have been encouraged to buy tickets to support the whole happening, but apparently that hasn't worked out as planned. This means of course that the Roxette concert August 14 is canceled as well. Urban Stamming, CEO of The Race Legends, points to a press statement that will be published "tomorrow".

So far there's no information regarding ticket returns, but The Daily Roxette suggests you talk to whoever sold you the tickets.

Update: Now The Race Legends homepage says the race isn't canceled, but moved to next year. No tickets are refunded. The Daily Roxette highly doubts this goes for Roxette.

Update 2: Biljett.nu is still selling tickets to the gig since "it still hasn't been officially canceled." Biljett.nu also points to the statement that will be released tomorrow.

Update 3: "We need to have all relevant information before making a statement so if everybody could please just have some patience while we figure things out," comments Marie Dimberg, d&d management, manager of Roxette.

Roxgal contributed to this article.