Roxette continued the XXX tour, and had concerts planned in South Africa, mainland Europe and South America, with loose plans of the ROW as well. That stopped, likely forever, when Marie’s doctor said “everything has an end”… in April. Per and Marie performed their last Roxette concert together in Cape Town, South Africa, February 8, 2016. At least they were able to end it in style in 2016 – XXX. Hats off fellas. David Bowie (and many other heroes) died, which is sad in so many ways. Also in February we heard that Per had started up his own little record label, Space Station 12, where he will focus on good pop music.

In March we got the much longed for DVD “Roxette Diaries” where Jonas Åkerlund had gotten around 400,000 minutes of recorded material from Per to edit together some sort of tour/recording/traveling documentary. Likely part 1?

At the end of April Marie sent us the following:
“I am so touched by your thoughts, your words and your endless love that you have shared since the cancelling of Roxette’s summer tour was announced. Eventually all good things must come to an end, and though I love being on stage, meeting our fans, I don’t have the strength for the touring life any more. It’s as simple as that. Per and I now look forward to the release of our new album Good Karma. We really love it – hope you will too!

Love from Marie.”

Per jumped on the Pod train with Sven L, and listed his top 9 of various things. Very nice pods with cozy banter between Per and Sven. 9 (usually) good songs in every episode as well.

And in April as well, we got Roxette’s first single off their forthcoming album Good Karma – “It Just Happens”, a lovely ballad with a sweet message of love. The video quickly became a fan favorite. This time around photos of Per and Marie stayed off the sleeves, we got butterflies instead. Some liked them, some didn’t. Good Karma boasted 11 tracks and a fairly modern Roxette. Gone was the dreary ’60s sound which was substituted with keyboards and machines. Not everyone’s cookie, but TDR gave it 5/5. We reviewed it in May. A splendid album indeed, albeit a bit short with its 37 minutes. And on a side note – Good Karma was plagued with tons of leakage on the Internet.

In June the fabulous tour book “RoXXXette on the Road” written by Per and shot by Anders Roos hit the shelves. Amazing photos from most of the world, with a couple of our own Stevo even! As icing on the cake there was a limited edition of 300 copies as well, signed by Per, with an insert and 15 extra pages of photos. Hefty, but truly nice.

“Some Other Summer”, a physical CD with four remixes was released in June as well, the sleeve sporting a butterfly of course. It also came with a lyrics video.

Anders Roos and Per invited TDR to a vernissage at Hotel Tylösand in July, where they showed off, and sold, all the nice inserts from the tour book in large and even larger sizes. Thank you guys for that!

Let’s not forget that July 7, 1986, Roxette’s first ever record (no, we’re not counting the Gyllene records) – “Neverending Love” was released! 30 years! A big hit in Sweden, and nowhere else. Roxette however performed the song on TV in Germany among nurses and doctors…

And then again, there was a new single off Good Karma, this time they chose the excellent track “Why Don’t You Bring Me Flowers?” which also was released on CD, with remixes and this time a fan video. Was it good? Some people thought it was…

Apart from the 30th anniversary of the album Pearls of Passion (which went by totally unnoticed by both Roxette and their record company), nothing more Roxette happened in 2016.

But, Marie released her biography “Listen to My Heart” in German, with an extra chapter added. It got good reviews!

And, Per went to Nashville, TN, and recorded an album just like that together with his main men and Anders Herrlin. Per says it’s “low key and acoustic”, I do hope he sings in key. He describes it as a cousin of 2003’s Mazarin. He also announced a new Swedish tour this summer called En vacker kväll, or A Beautiful Evening, playing 20-some Swedish towns and one Norwegian. The still not named album is due for release in April.

In December we were treated with a lullaby album by Baby Roxers and Per talked to us about this and that, come to think about it, mostly this.

Marie and Per, we thank you deeply for the last 30 years.