GOTHENBURG - Roxette’s female half, Marie Fredriksson, attended Gyllene Tider’s record breaking concert Saturday. Marie told Per that she thought the concert was “fantastic,” according to a report in Aftonbladet.

  This was Marie’s first public appearance in months.

ÖSTRA LJUNGBY - The social democratic party in Marie Fredriksson’s home town Östra Ljungby proposes that a street should be named after their only world-famous celebrity so far. The non-socialists are against the proposal.

  “It’s not about Marie Fredriksson. It’s about the fundamental rule of not naming after living people,” says cultural board’s chairman Jan Lindberg. “Also, there’s no ’vacant’ street right now.”

  Rune Persson, one of the members behind the proposal, has a different opinion. “It’s always a good time for Östra Ljungby to highlight Marie Fredriksson. It doesn’t have to be a street or a market place. It can as well be a school or some institution.”

  The board had a long discussion on the issue, but didn’t make a decision yet.

• Helsingborgs Dagblad article (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Marie Fredriksson and her husband Micke Bolyos are participating in a cookbook together with 16 other Swedish artists. The book, titled “Kockrock” (“Rock Chefs”), will be available in stores in May.
The book is a compilation of recipes from artists who have, over the past three years, been guest chefs at Solsidan, a restaurant in Torekov, located on the west coast of Skåne (Sweden’s southernmost province).

  Marie and her husband were the first to participate in what became a popular series known as “Kockrock.”

  “It was a magical night. Marie and Micke are ultra-food-freaks and they were very enthusiastic in the kitchen,” says Robert Nilsson who runs Solsidan together with his brother Rikard.

  Since then, many other artists have been guest cooks in the Solsidan kitchen.

  Marie and Micke’s contribution to the book is “Asiatiska oxfilérullader” (Asian beef filet rolls).

  Late last year, Per Gessle had a recipe for bread in “Our Daily Bread…”, a recipe book published by the Swedish Salvation Army.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We’ve updated this article to more accurately reflect that this book is a collection of recipes from “guest rock chef” events that have been going on for almost three years now. — LEO

• Solsidan
• Metro (see page 3 of Stockholm edition)

STOCKHOLM - The Fre brothers, a Swedish duo performing soul music, are going to record their version of Marie Fredriksson’s 1996 hit ballad “Tro.”

 “We’re making an album of older Swedish songs that we like and which we perform our own way. Sort of like our own interpretations,” says Henok Fre. “Our version sounds very good. We’ve given it our own touch; our voices, our own choir arrangements and an unbelievable grand background with strings and all. Although it’s natural for a soul production.”

 Other artists whose songs are on the yet untitled album are Mauro Scocco, Peter LeMarc and Bo Kaspers Orkester. Bo Kasper and his company are even performing on the album. “It would’ve been so nice if all the artists were singing with us, but we haven’t had time to organize it. We would’ve loved to sing with Marie Fredriksson, but we didn’t want to ask out of respect for her now that she’s been so ill.”

 Marie isn’t the only Roxette member the brothers admire. “Per Gessle is cool and I really like ’Tycker om när du tar på mig’, but it’s probably too new to make a cover song.”

• Sundsvalls Tidning article (in Swedish)

STOCKHOLM (UPDATED) - Marie Fredriksson is the “Queen of the Rock Bear” (Rockbjörnen - Aftonbladet’s annual reader’s choice award). She has received no less than 11 Bears (five solo and six Roxette) over the years. Aftonbladet published an exclusive interview today with Marie in which she reveals to the public that she’s working on her new solo album (regular readers of TDR have known about this project some time now). Marie is slowly recovering from her illness, and is in seclusion with her closest family.

  Aftonbladet asked Marie how it feels to be “the Queen.”

  “It feels very good. I didn’t think it was that many, and I’m incredibly proud and happy,” Marie states. She also says that she, in a slow pace, is putting a new album together.

  When asked if she has a certain project she wants to do, like a musical or such, she replies “My next work that I really look forward to is recording a solo album in English.”

EDITOR’S NOTE (Dec. 16 Update): While this “next work” comment was initially confusing, TDR’s reporter spoke with Ronny Olofsson, the reporter at Aftonbladet, who feels that “Marie was talking about her present material.” Additionally, manager Marie Dimberg also says that the album “probably will be in English.”

  Sundance Kid contributed to this article.

• Aftonbladet’s story (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - There will be no trial for Marie Fredriksson vs. Karolinska Sjukhuset. Justitiekanslern (JK) - the Chancelor of Justice, dropped Marie Fredriksson’s preliminary investigation on Friday afternoon.

  “Judging by the interrogations with the doctor in charge it seems unlikely that someone in charge of or someone with access to information regarding [Fredriksson’s] case will have given out said information. Nothing speaks for a breach of the professional privacy standard.” JK writes in his decision.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Journalisten.se, the online magazine of The Swedish Union of Journalists, reports that The Swedish Press Council has decided that the newspaper Expressen “violated good journalistic practice” in its coverage on Marie Fredriksson’s illness.

 The Swedish Press Council is a self-regulated organization that monitors matters of press ethics in Sweden. Any member of the public can file a complaint to the Press Council and the council then undertakes an inquiry. A newspaper that has been found to violate good journalistic practice is expected to publish the written decision of the Press Council. It must also pay an administrative fine.

 The Press Council isn’t a court of law, but its decision may have some weight in the trial. In her lawsuit, Marie is demanding compensation of 500,000 Swedish krona from Expressen.

• Journalisten.se article (in Swedish)
• The Swedish Press Council

STOCKHOLM - It’s been a year now since the fainting incident that brought Marie Fredriksson to the hospital…. a year that Marie has spent recovering from the concussion, the surgery to remove the tumor found in the back of her head, and undergoing the aggressive treatments used to fight cancer.

  As was to be expected, this recovery has taken some time, but Marie felt well enough at the end of January to attend a ceremony at the Royal Palace and accept an honorary medal from the King of Sweden. Since then, according to sources close to Marie, when she feels so inclined, she’s been working on new material – using the recording studio in her home to lay down tracks. As readers of The Daily Roxette already know, she contributed back-up vocals for one on the songs on Per Gessle’s “Mazarin” album.

  In February, Marie filed a libel lawsuit against Expressen, one of Sweden’s major newspapers, for publishing a story that claimed she had an additional lump believed to be a tumor. “Expressen’s information is totally untrue. We would, of course, not start a legal process if we weren’t telling the truth ourselves,” states Marie Dimberg, who is Marie Fredriksson’s (and Roxette’s) manager.

  “Marie’s condition is, like Per Gessle sometimes says, ’not the flu.’ She’s undergoing the necessary standard procedures, all normal in cases like this,” Dimberg tells TDR. “Sometimes she feels very good, and sometimes a bit worse, due to her treatment. The doctors say it’s all like it should be.”

  To those impatient for news about Marie’s recovery, Dimberg tells us “It will take the time it takes, and we all have to be patient and support Marie - and not spread more rumors.”

STOCKHOLM - Sweden’s chancelor of justice, Göran Lambertz, suspects that someone at the Karolinska hospital leaked information about Marie Fredriksson’s health condition to Expressen while she was being treated there. Swedish news bureau TT reports that the chancelor of justice has therefore decided to initiate a preliminary investigation to determine if there was a breach of professional privacy standards by the hospital.

• Aftonbladet’s article (In Swedish)

STOCKHOLM - Otto Sjöberg, Expressen’s editor-in-chief, stands by his apology to Marie Fredriksson, in spite of new developments in the legal proceedings reported yesterday.

  Sjöberg declined to comment to Martin Jönsson, a reporter for Journalisten (a magazine and website for Swedish journalists), about the fact that the libel trial against him has now been postponed. He also doesn’t want to comment on the information about Marie Fredriksson in legal counselor Peter Danowsky’s letter to Fredriksson’s lawyer, where it is claimed that Expressen had at the time received new information about her health condition.

  However, he stresses that the apology published last spring, where he apologized to Marie Fredriksson for letting the newspaper speculate about her health condition, is not affected by these new developments.

  “I apologized for speculating about her test results, and that it could’ve been a malignant tumor. We had information about a new lump – information that we’ve all along maintained was credible – but it was wrong of us to speculate. It was a mistake. But it won’t affect the legal process, or what happens now,” Sjöberg says.

  Marie Fredriksson’s attorney, Leif Silbersky, interprets yesterday’s happenings as Expressen retracting their previous apology: “Their actions are completely absurd. First they maintain that they are right, then they back off and apologize, and now they retract the whole thing [just] before the trial. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

• Journalisten’s article (in Swedish)