NEW YORK – It was in May 2009 when Marie Fredriksson, having fully recovered from brain cancer, rejoined Per Gessle onstage for the first time. Making a guest appearance in Amsterdam during his Party Crasher tour, she faced a sea of cameras – many set to record video – and at least one fan with an audio recorder who was in the process of recording a bootleg of the concert.

If you listen closely, on some of these videos and on the bootleg recording, you can hear a fan shout “Thank you God!” in the brief moment after the musical intro, just as Marie is about to begin singing “It Must Have Been Love.” The Daily Roxette mentioned this fan’s touching, spontaneous outburst in our report on that concert.

Now, almost two years later, the Daily Roxette has learned the identity of that that fan. His name is Marcílio Manfré, 31, a Brazilian federal policeman who’s been a Roxette fan since he was 13 years old.

“The first time I was in Europe was to see Per in the Handyman tour,” he explains. “I was in Gothenburg. I’ve been a big fan of Roxette since I was a kid… 13 years old… and I always dreamed of going to Europe to see Roxette, to see Per, to see Marie. And, once I got the chance to do this – having a job and saving some money – I went to Europe.”

“So when Per announced the Party Crasher tour,” he continues, “I wanted to go to more than one concert, and I chose London, Amsterdam and Stockholm.”

Marcílio says “I didn’t know that Marie was going to join Per in the Amsterdam concert. It was a big surprise. Everybody at the concert was talking about The Daily Roxette’s report that Roxette were back and that Marie would appear onstage, but everyone was in doubt too. And when Marie appeared onstage, everybody went crazy. With me it was the same.”  

“I wanted to say what I was feeling in that moment,” he says, speaking in a hushed tone, “and what I was feeling was a wish to thank God for what was happening, because everybody couldn’t believe that Marie was onstage again after seven years… after that disease.”

Marcílio explains that in Brazil, “religion is very strong in people” and in his case, he attends Catholic mass every Sunday (and sometimes in the middle of the week too). “Maybe it was because I always thank God for Marie,” he said.

“I’m pretty sure that Marie heard and was touched, but I don’t know… maybe that’s just the thinking of a fan.”

And now, Per and Marie came to Brazil. 

“As soon as the South American tour was announced,” he says, “I very quickly bought tickets for all the Brazilian concerts.” 

Marcílio is an investigator in the Belo Horizonte office of the Brazilian Federal Police. “I work investigating crimes against the government. The work we do is similar to that of the FBI in the United States,” he says.

Married for four years now (after having dated for 11 years before the wedding), his wife and “all my family” joined him for the concert in Belo Horizonte. “As you can imagine, I was very happy to see Roxette in my hometown!,” he exclaimed.