MALMö - Marie Fredriksson will perform together with her husband Micke Bolyos at the inauguration ceremony of Citytunneln, a 17-kilometer rail link between Malmö Central Station and the Öresund Bridge. As the grand finale, HM King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden will officially open the tunnel for traffic. The ceremony will be held next to the Malmö Central Station on December 4 and is free to the public.

Other artists performing at the ceremony include Nisse Hellberg, Timbuktu, and Ola Salo.

Roxette, in particular Marie Fredriksson, has made the 'Hummingbird 100". The countdown is an all female list and is run in conjunction with Australian Music Channel "MusicMax".

Four Roxette tracks made the list, "It Must Have Been Love" (#27), "Listen To Your Heart" (#53), "The Look" (#82) and "Joyride" (#94). Pink, meanwhile, claims the most spots of any female artist with seven tracks inside the 100. Beyonce, Roxette and Madonna all have four and Blondie, Rihanna and Alanis Morissette have three apiece.

The poll results have been picked up by several Australian online news sites including Queensland’s Courier Mail.

Marie Fredriksson had her 51st birthday yesterday. She was born as Gun-Marie Fredriksson in Össjö, Sweden on May 30, 1958.

Congratulations from the whole The Daily Roxette staff!

NEW YORK - A Roxette reunion special, hosted by Per, will air in the U.S. this Sunday, May 31, on Sirius XM satellite radio. 

The Nordic Rox show will broadcast the songs the duo recently performed together in Stockholm. Nordic Rox, which Per hosts regularly, airs weekly on Sunday nights at 8:00 pm EST.

During the Roxette reunion special, listeners will also hear a broadcast of Per's recent concert in London where he performed both solo songs as well as Roxette favorites.

Each week, Nordic Rox turns the spotlight on the quality and depth of Scandinavian music, expanding upon the success of established as well as up-and-coming artists ranging from ABBA and The Cardigans to The Hives and The Sounds among many others. The specialty program has become a destination for music fans in the U.S. to hear exciting new music emanating from the Nordic countries (See the following sidebar story). 

Additionally, every day between Monday, June 1 and Thursday, June 4, several channels will broadcast a edited versions of the special, including a conversation with Per discussing the group's reunion and their recent live performances.

Finally, the '90s on 9 channel will also celebrate Roxette's reunion by devoting the upcoming weekend to the "iconic group." Beginning tomorrow and throughout the weekend, listeners will be able to hear Per personally introduce and share stories about Roxette's biggest hits including "It Must Have Been Love" and "The Look."

Meanwhile, on Radio Sweden's P4 Music channel, the second of a two-part special "musical portrait" of Marie Fredriksson will be aired on Sunday, May 31, at 11:05 pm CET.  The program (in Swedish), put together by Lisa Wall, will spotlight Marie's career as part of Roxette while the first part focused on her career as a solo artist.  Both parts will be available on the station's website. 

Editor's Note: Additonal reporting by Paul Russell.

AMSTERDAM (Updated) - There were screams, wolf whistles,  shouts of "Marie!,"  cheers, hoots, hollers, and just about every other loud sound of jubiliation you could possibly imagine when Per Gessle invited Marie Fredriksson to join him on stage this evening.  And yet, if one paused for a moment to look at the people around them, it was rather easy to spot people with tears in their eyes.  It was, by all accounts, an extremely emotional moment…  and many in attendance at the Melkweg Arena felt they were witnessing pop music history being made.

Despite the publicity put out by Night of Proms that it will be on their stage that Roxette will reunite — and as The Daily Roxette was first to report with authority — it was here tonight before a crowd comprised of adoring fans that that reunion actually occured, and somehow that seemed especially fitting.  Marie, wearing jeans and a black blouse and vest, walked onto the stage with confidence, raised her arms in the air, and acknowledged the cheering crowd. After giving Per a hug, she said "Wow!," obviously pleased with the reception she was receiving. Per went to a microphone and joked "Don't forget to bring your cameras," as a virtual sea of cameras had popped up into view. Then, in the moment of silence just before Marie was about to sing, someone near the front of the audience — a male voice —  shouted "Thank you God!"

Marie sang lead vocals on "It Must Have Been Love" (view mobile phone video posted by Expressen) and "The Look" (view video from same source) which surprised many fans who were expecting her to take over for Per and sing "Wish I Could Fly." There are links to better quality videos in the comments below.

Update: Just prior to the concert, TDR was in touch with long-time reader "Kachina" (Sheba Argarwal-Jans). Knowing that this would be her first Roxette-related concert, we invited her to write a review, or provide us with her impressions.  We're delighted with her report, and hope you'll find it interesting as well.  We've also added photos shot exclusively for The Daily Roxette by staff photographer Colin van der Bel.  Click here for a special TDR slideshow with more than 50 pictures of the concert!

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STOCKHOLM - Marie will be one of the celebrity guests attending a June 18 gala at Stadshuset (Stockholm City Hall) where Crown Princess Victoria will be handing out this year's prizes from the Marianne and Sigvard Bernadotte Artist Fund. The gala is even more special this year as Marianne Bernadotte, who is Victoria's great aunt, is celebrating her 85th birthday.

Marie is expected to perform during the event, along with Marianne Bernadotte's close friend Lill Lindfors, opera singer Barbara Hendricks with Staffan Scheja, and violinist Christian Svarfvar. Other special guests announced at this morning's press event, held at the Grand Hôtel, include ABBA singer Agnetha Fältskog, but it is uncertain for now whether she too will perform.

Per has started his tweeting career enthusiastically. He has already answered dozens of fans' questions using his @PartyPleaser Twitter account and revealed some nice tidbits about the forthcoming tour.

The most interesting piece of information so far has been that Per has discussed with Marie about performing with him on the tour. "[S]he might pop up somewhere, we've talked about it," Per wrote in his tweet.

Another revealed fact is that the Stockholm concerts on May 9 and 10 will be filmed, and "most likely" there will be a live DVD available after the tour.

(Updated) According to a press release sent out today by the Göteborg Opera, Marie Fredriksson will perform in a gala for the World Childhood Foundation on May 18th.

The foundation was founded by H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden in 1999 and in order to celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Göteborg Opera has organised this gala, which will be attended by the Royal Family. Other artists such as Peter Jöback, German violin virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter and mezzo-soprano Katarina Karnéus will participate in the gala as well.

World Childhood Foundation's work is aimed at the most marginalised children. "The goal is to promote the right of every child to its childhood and to work for better living conditions for children in danger. We must fight against the extreme  material, social and emotional poverty in which they livea," writes H.M. Queen Silvia on the foundation's homepage. Currently the foundation supports more than 100 projects in 14 countries.

All revenue from the gala will be donated to World Childhood Foundation.

Update April 2: According to the Göteborg Opera homepage, tickets will be on sale on April 6th at 12:00 CET. The tickets cost 1700 SEK and can only be purchased at the Opera Box Office personally (not over phone or email) since a personal ID must be show at the time of purchase. Maximum amount of tickets per person is two. Dress code is smoking or dark suit.

As announced earlier this month, Marie Fredriksson performed last Thursday in Café Opera, Stockholm, in an event called "Still rocking in the free world".

Together with Lasse Lindbom, Niklas Strömstedt, Mats Ronander, Annelie Rydé, husband Mikael Bolyos and son Oscar Bolyos, she remembered those great times in the '80s on Café Opera's stage. Marie covered Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved A Man", "El Paso" and sang her own hit "Ännu doftar kärlek". The big surprise of the evening was however Marie's 12 year old son Oscar Bolyos, who performed Lenny Kravitz's "Stand By My Woman" and the Rolling Stones's "Jumpin' Jack Flash".

Videos and photos of the event can be found on Expressen, Aftonbladet and Hotgossip.

Swedish TV channel SVT interviewed Marie Fredriksson about the concert "Still rocking in the free world" which will take place at Café Opera, Stockholm, this coming Thursday. You can also find the rehearsal of "Jealous Guy" on SVT's homepage.