This week Marie's "Där du andas," the theme song for the movie Arn - Riket vid vägens slut - debuts right at #1 of 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)

Swedish heavy metal band Opeth have released their newest album "Watershed," featuring a cover of Marie Fredriksson's song "Den ständiga resan." Marie fans will be relieved to know that the cover version is instantly recognizable as Marie's song. Opeth have chosen to keep the original arrangement - the vocal is subdued, the melody is driven by acoustic guitar, and the song is punctuated with occasional splashes of electric guitar, just as in Marie's original. It wasn't certain that the song would make the album.

We just received the following message from Marie Fredriksson:

Tack till alla som skänkt mig tankar, ord och gåvor i samband med min 50-årsdag. Jag blir så varm och tacksam och glad över att ni finns. Tack också för allt stöd de senaste åren - nu ser jag med tillförsikt framåt!

Soliga hälsningar från Marie

And in English:

Thanks to everybody who has given me thoughts, words and gifts in connection with my 50th birthday. I am happy and grateful for all of you. I would also like to thank you for all your support over the last years - I am looking forward to the future with great excitement.

Sunny regards, Marie