Per Gessle's first single "Silly Really" from forthcoming album "Party Crasher" will be released October 27. The single as well as the album is a step in a new direction for one of Sweden's most successful songwriters and artists.

After two solo albums in Swedish ("Mazarin" in 2003 and "En händig man" 2007), another studio album with Gyllene Tider ("Finn 5 fel!" 2004) and a double album under the name "Son of a Plumber" Per Gessle now shows us a different side of his pop talent.

"Normally I write the melodies first and then we build an arrangement in the studio. This time I've started with a groove and then written the melody from that, just like when I wrote that little ditty 'The Look' once upon a time," says Per with a crooked smile that's hard to read,

"The songs are written in the '70s '80s era type of dance music. The result is a fun album that is both immediate and in your face, but also brooding and beautiful."

"Party Crasher" is Per Gessle's first international solo album in his own name since "The World According to Gessle" 1997. The album will be released  December 3.

Despite having more #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 than any other Swedish artists, Roxette failed to place a single song on the magazine’s top 100 hits of all-time. Per and Marie were in good company, though, as ABBA was also left off the best of the best tally. Meanwhile, Swedish compatriots Ace of Base earned one song on the listing and Roxette scored four #1 hits in Billboard between 1989 and 1991. The hits include, as any fan can easily tell you, “The Look,” “Listen To Your Heart,” “It Must Have Been Love,” and “Joyride.” The four singles spent a combined five weeks at the top of the Hot 100. “It Must Have Been Love” stayed at the top for two weeks, the duo’s only multi-week stay at #1.
“The Sign” tallied six weeks at #1 in 1994 and earned a spot as the #51 song of all-time, according to Billboard.
According to Billboard, “Swede success was prevalent on the Hot 100 in the early '90s. Roxette ruled with ‘It Must Have Been Love’ and ‘Joyride,’ while fellow Swedish act Ace of Base picked up the baton with ‘The Sign.’”

In case you’re wondering, “The Twist” by Chubby Checker was named the biggest Hot 100 hit of all-time. Read the FAQ to see how the charts were tallied.

Marie Fredriksson's "Där du andas," the theme song for the movie Arn - Riket vid vägens slut - debuts this week right at #1 on the Swedish singles chart. This is Marie's first #1 solo single ever! Congratulations!

STOCKHOLM - Per Gessle and Mats MP Persson will travel to London October 7 to receive yet another "Million-Air" award for "Listen to Your Heart."

"Listen to Your Heart" has been played over 4.000.000 times on US radio, same as "It Must Have Been Love" in 2005. According to BMI.com, based on an average length of three minutes, one million airplays is the equivalent of 50,000 hours or 5.7 years of continuous airplay. Top Million-Air songs are for instance The Police's "Every Breath You Take" and The Beatles' "Yesterday" with both over 8.000.000 plays.

Roxette has eight BMI awarded songs.

Per Gessle is obviously very pleased with this and comments "Yay!"

For reasons yet unknown Roxette's US #2 single from 1989, "Dangerous,"  has entered the Australian download chart at #30. "The Oz people are famous for their exquisite taste. Marie and myself are very happy indeed" comments Per to The Daily Roxette.

According to MarieFredriksson.se, Marie is filming a video for the new single “Där du andas,” which is taken from the soundtrack of "Arn - Riket vid vägens slut." A 1-track CD single will be released August 20, two days before the movie opens.

Update August 13: You can now watch the video on TV4 following this link.

GOTHENBURG - Lilla Galleriet, an art gallery in Gothenburg, Sweden's second largest city, will host an exhibition of Marie's artwork from September 20 to October 5. An invitation-only reception will kick off the show.

The gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday, from noon until 4 pm.

(Updated) - All of a sudden, EMI-Odeón Argentina has just decided to release the latest compilation by Marie, "Tid för tystnad." What makes this even stranger is that the company refused to release both "The Change" and "Son Of A Plumber," which were sung in English (and hence, had a wider potential market).

The CD looks exactly like the European edition, and it has an sticker in the back that reads (in Spanish): "Product to be sold exclusively in South America, except Brazil." Just for the record, this is the first Swedish album by Marie to be available out of Sweden since the Japanese edition of "I en tid som vår" in 1997.

This is the first Marie (or Per) solo album ever printed and released in Argentina. Some of their older albums used to be available at the stores, but they were imports.

Update: The album charts at #16 according to the Argentinian Chamber of Commerce.

STOCKHOLM - Marie Fredriksson will be singing the title song for the upcoming sequel to last year's "Arn" movie. The song, "Där du andas (Where You Breathe)," is written by Niklas Strömstedt and Anders Glenmark. Marie was asked to record the song and she says "It was an easy choice to say yes, and of course, it is great to participate in such a big Swedish film."

"Arn – Tempelriddaren (Arn – The Knight Templar)" is a 2007 epic film based on Jan Guillou's trilogy about the fictional Swedish Knight Templar Arn Magnusson. The film was released in December 2007 and the sequel, "Arn – Riket vid vägens slut (Arn - The Kingdom at Road's End)," will be released August 22 , 2008. While the films are mostly in Swedish and most of the production was made in Sweden, they are a joint production between Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Germany. With a total budget of around US$30 million, it's the most expensive production in Scandinavian film history.

This song, as well as several others inspired by Arn, will be released on the album "Alla himlens änglar (All the Angels of Heaven)" on August 27. Anders Glenmark is the producer. The song will be released on July 23.

Other singers include Sonja Aldén, Uno Svenningsson, Helena Paparizou, Tommy Körberg and Fred Johansson. Composers include Anders Glenmark, Niklas Strömstedt, Mauro Scocco, Uno Svenningsson, Tomas Andersson Wij, Patrik Isaksson, Bobby Ljunggren and Eva Dahlgren.

Listen to a snippet at Expressen.

Additional reporting by "Strest" and Ted Holgersson.

Few talk about the "Swedish musical wonder" anymore, which was strongly connected to successful Swedish artists, but Swedish music is still popular outside of Sweden. Swedish songwriters still hold the fort.
"Sweden is a small country, but Swedish music is big abroad. The foreign proceeds are a receipt showing that Swedish songwriters are of high international class" says Margita Ljungberg, senior adviser at STIM.
"I'm happy that ABBA does so well! " Per Gessle comments to The Daily Roxette.

The most played songs by Swedish composers outside of Sweden 2007:

1. Listen To Your Heart
Per Gessle/Mats MP Persson
2. Dancing Queen
Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra)/Stig Anderson
3. Since U Been Gone
Max Martin/Lukasz Gottwald (Ascap)
4. Hung Up
Madonna (Ascap)/Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra), Stuart
Price (BMI)
5. Who Knew
Max Martin/Lukasz Gottwald (Ascap)
6. Behind These Hazel Eyes
Max Martin/Lukasz Gottwald (Ascap)/Kelly Clarkson (Ascap)
7. It Must Have Been Love
Per Gessle
8. Mamma Mia
Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra)/Stig Anderson
9. Gimme Gimme Gimme
Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra)
10. The One
Max Martin/Brian Littrell (Ascap)