BRUSSELS - Per visited the Belgian radio station Radio Donna this morning where he was interviewed on their morning program "Vrouwentongen."


  Leen Demaré, the program host, welcomed Per with the already typical question, "How is Marie doing?". Of course, Per repeated that Marie is doing fine and recovering from the surgery.

  As readers of The Daily Roxette are aware, the Night of the Proms tour was to take Roxette to Belgium, but it was cancelled due to Marie's illness. Per hopes to join next years edition, "but we haven’t decided yet because of Marie; she doesn’t want to make any promises yet but we are looking forward to doing it."


  Today "The Ballad Hits" compilation is released all over Europe. The decision to release an album with all their ballad singles was made last year during the "Room Service" tour. "We have already released about 40 singles, we are really getting old. We have had a lot of hits so this is like an statement to do this, to be able to release a ballad hits followed by a power-pop hits," says Per.

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  Despite the fact that the first single from "The Ballad Hits" – "A Thing About You" – is sung by Per, he thinks that Marie is the ideal person to sing his ballads. "She's got more the feeling to it, and a lot of songs improve when she comes to the studio to sing them," he proclaims.

  Per writes most of the songs thinking who is going to sing them while he writes. Some lyrics take a different shape and the context beomes different depending on who is singing them. "Mostly, I sang the current song because it's a guy's point of view," he explains.



"Writing music is still exciting"



  Per has already visited Spain and now he is in Belgium promoting the new album. Tomorrow he flies to Zurich and then on to Copenhagen. This time he's on his own due to Marie's illness. "I miss her, promo tours are lonely without her," he confesses. "Hopefully, she joins me next time," when the power-pop hits compilation is released.


  "Promotion tours can get boring sometimes, they used to be a bit more exciting in the past, but it's still exciting to meet fans all around. If you look at it from a different point of view, it is great that people still want to interview me," he says laughing.


  Roxette started more than 15 years ago, and they are still around. "I think one of the reasons of our success is that we never were a very trendy band. We always did our own thing. Trends come and go, but there is still a straight line in our music and that is the way to succeed," he says. Per believes that it is still exciting to write and record songs. "In the beginning I was the songwritter and Marie the singer, so I have always loved to write songs in the studio," he says.