“And I breathe your love, until I felt the pain.
         And like rain, it slipped away…”

“’Breathe‘ is a song that I wrote while I was babysitting my son in Stockholm,
he was about 3 or 4 years old at the time. I still consider this to be one of my best ballads.
It was one of the last songs Marie recorded before she got ill… that year for her was a tough one”.
Per Gessle, TPGA, 2014

‘Breathe‘ was one of two brand new songs recorded for ‘The Ballad Hits‘ in 2002, alongside ‘A Thing About You‘, and closed the album perfectly. Per’s T&A Demo was recorded in January 2002, before the Roxette version was recorded later that year.

It’s a beautiful, atmospheric ballad, and Marie’s vocal is simply stunning. Delicate in places, powerful where it needs to be, it’s another of those songs that reminds you exactly why Per’s writing and Marie’s singing was such a magical combination.

Of course, ‘Breathe‘ also carries a little more weight when listening back today. It became one of the final new Roxette recordings featuring Marie before her brain tumour diagnosis in September 2002, and her subsequent retreat from public life.

Nobody knew what was just around the corner when it was recorded of course, and we certainly don’t want to rewrite history by presenting the song as some kind of farewell. It wasn’t. But knowing what followed does make Marie’s beautiful performance here feel especially poignant.

Should it have been a single? We think so. It certainly deserved more attention than simply being the final track on a compilation album. Another Roxette gem that perhaps got a little lost along the way.

What do you think?

★ Currently on Streaming
01 Breathe (T&A Demo – Jan 10, 2002)
02 Breathe (Album Version)

03 Breathe (T&A Demo – Jan 10, 2002) – In Conversation with Sven Lindström

★ Missing from Streaming
– It’s currently unknown whether other versions of this beautiful song exist.