“If you had one wish, would it be about me?”

“It was in fact wonderful, and emotional of course… we’re back in the groove.”
Per Gessle, CKWV ‘The Wave’, Canada, June 2006

Roxette were 20 years old in 2006. There were plans for a huge anniversary celebration, a brand new Greatest Hits collection, ‘A Collection of Roxette Hits! – Their 20 Greatest Songs!‘, and the enormous ‘The Rox Box / Roxette 86-06‘ collecting together four CDs, a DVD and a mountain of material from The Roxette Vault.

But most importantly, Marie was back.

Following her brain tumour diagnosis in September 2002, treatment and recovery, nobody really knew what the future held for Roxette. Marie had gradually returned to music with her own solo projects, but working with Per again was another step entirely. And wonderfully, it was Marie who suggested they should record something new together.

Per’s T&A Demo for ‘One Wish‘ was recorded on May 20, 2006, before Per, Marie, Clarence, Christoffer and Jens Jansson reunited at Christoffer’s Aerosol Grey Machine Studio in Skåne that June to record two new Roxette tracks: ‘One Wish‘ and ‘Reveal‘.

For Per, the reunion was understandably emotional. He later described how, despite everything that had happened and the years that had passed, it took about an hour before the familiar Roxette chemistry returned. Same jokes. Same people. Back in the groove.

“It’s been such incredible fun to work with this gang again. Roxette is so big and intense.”
Marie Fredriksson, Aftonbladet, August 2006

And you can hear that joy in ‘One Wish‘. It’s classic uptempo Gessle pop. Bright, immediate, ridiculously catchy and deliberately uncomplicated, with Per and Marie sharing the vocals. After everything that had happened, there was something wonderfully reassuring about hearing those two voices together again.

The single arrived in October 2006, leading the 20th Anniversary celebrations and opening the new ‘Hits!‘ collection. It also appeared towards the end of ‘The Rox Box‘ alongside fellow new recording ‘Reveal‘.

The physical single was a rather generous release too. Alongside ‘One Wish‘ came ‘The Rox Medley‘, while the four-track edition also dug back into the archives for ‘It Must Have Been Love (Christmas For The Broken Hearted)‘ and outtake ‘Turn To Me‘.

And then there was the video. Naturally, Jonas Åkerlund was back too.

Shot in the basement of Filmhuset at Gärdet in Stockholm, the ‘One Wish‘ video became a colourful celebration of Roxette’s first twenty years. Newly filmed footage of Per and Marie was mixed with clips from their classic videos, animation and deliberately shifted red, green and blue imagery.

It was nostalgic without simply becoming another Greatest Hits montage, and seeing Marie standing alongside Per in a brand new Roxette video again was arguably more important than any special effect Jonas could throw at it.

The video premiered on Swedish TV4’s ‘Nyhetsmorgon‘ in September 2006, before rolling out internationally. Here in the UK, Magic TV even used it as the final chapter of a ten-video Roxette retrospective, beginning with ‘The Look‘ and ending, rather appropriately, with ‘One Wish‘.

But the gentle Roxette return didn’t stop with the record and video. Marie and Per began making selected promotional appearances together, including Sweden’s ‘Världens barn‘ gala and Germany’s huge BRAVO 50th Anniversary celebrations. There was no grand declaration of a World Tour, no attempt to immediately recreate the relentless Roxette machine of the early ’90s. Everything was deliberately slower.

Marie herself made that clear at the time. She was taking things week by week, balancing Roxette with her health and family, and even floated the possibility that any future touring might perhaps be something smaller.

Nobody knew where any of it would lead. And that, looking back, is what makes ‘One Wish‘ so important. It wasn’t the gigantic comeback single announcing that Roxette were back forever. It was something far more human…

Per and Marie went into a studio together again. They made music. They shot a video. They appeared together in public. Marie sang Roxette songs again. One careful step at a time.

The single itself did rather nicely too, reaching #2 in Sweden, #5 in Finland and #3 in Spain, proving there was still plenty of appetite for new Roxette music. And of course, we now know where those small steps eventually led.

For the moment though, in 2006, simply having Roxette back together again felt like one wish already granted.

★ Currently on Streaming
01 One Wish (T&A Demo – May 20, 2006)
02 One Wish (Album / Single Version)

03 One Wish (T&A Demo – May 20, 2006) – In Conversation with Sven Lindström

★ Missing from Streaming
– One Wish (Chuck Dread Remix)*
– One Wish (Spaceliner Remix)*

*Unreleased. Remixes were commissioned, however for whatever reason were not approved for release.