KAZAN, RUSSIA (Updated) - It was a shaky at the beginning, with Per and Marie encountering audio problems during the first three songs… but Roxette mangaged to get through that and, according to reports from various fans amongst the approximately 7,000 in attendance, the rest of the concert went very well.

TDR's reporter in Kazan, Svetlana Kulalaeva, filed this report:

The audience seemed to be very reserved at the beginning. Also, because not many people speak English in the province, most people could hardly understand what was said. No welcoming applause to "Hello from Hollywood", though by the first chords of "It Must Have Been Love" the arena exploded with applause and noise.  But the guys were great! Really! They did their job and worked and enjoyed what they were doing, and it was like a fire for butter. Slowly, slowly the audience started to make noise, applaud loudly, shout and show signs of appreciation.

Roxette didn't ask the crowd to raise their hands (nothing like "raise your hands in the air" or this kind of cheap stuff), they inspired people, and after a few songs people started to move, dance, clap hands, behave somehow to show that they liked what they were seeing.

The arena where the show took place is the biggest in Kazan, and it was full… but mostly the seats. There was a lot of space on the dance floor and between the rows, so in the beginning it looked more like a symphony concert.  I suppose it's a display of the Russian character: we start slowly, we need time to pick up speed, but once we get going we can hardly stop. By the end of the show, people jumped close to the stage and danced in the gangways!

The band was great, they are professionals in the best meaning of the word. To start in a cold atmosphere without showing any disappointment, it costs a lot. They felt some disappointment I suppose, I could feel it by the behavior of Marie most of all, she was quite reserved too, but she was good… really good. Smiling, the voice was beautiful as always, and Per inspired everybody by the music and he did it very well.

It was a good mix of new and old songs, and we accepted everything, waiting for their old hits of course.  They did win over the audience and the cold Russian winter!  They made the snow melt, and spring has finally arrived to our place!

And one of our readers (gearshift) told us that “'Listen to Your Heart' was gorgeous. Half of the stadium was collected at the front of the stage and the other half was waving cell phones. It was a full magic moment. Marie was singing almost two hours in a row - FANTASTIC!!”

Video of the first three songs [KP.ru] (the audio problems had not yet been worked out) | Video of "The Look" [fancam] | Video of "Listen to Your Heart" [fancam] | Video of "Spending My Time" [fancam] | Video of "How Do You Do"/"Dangerous" [fancam] | Video of "Joyride" [fancam]

Fridapeeples and Roxtexanet contributed to this article.