PORTO ALEGRE (Brazil) – After the long awaited and meteoric comeback of Roxette to South America that included one show in Uruguay, three in Argentina, one in Chile and five in Brazil – worth millions of dollars to promoters and full of a “million” sighs, screams and tears among the fans who attended the concerts – the are great expectations now that Roxette will return to South America in 2012.

Social media and web-savvy promotors in Chile have turned up the volume on their long-standing effort to get Roxette to perform at a big music festival there. They have launched a “campaign” website and a Facebook page that already has over 1,700 members.  

Considered one of the most important music festivals in Latin America, the International Song Festival of Viña del Mar is held every year during the last week of February in the coastal city of Viña del Mar, Chile. Established in 1960, the festival can in some ways be compared to Eurovision in that it is primarily a song contest. It has two categories: pop music and folk music. The highlight of the six-night festival is the big name international artist that attracts the crowds and who shares the stage with local and regional artists and “less famous” worldwide acts. This past February, that headliner was Sting. The festival is held at the Quinta Vergara Amphitheater, which now has capacity for 20,000 people.

Broken Records International (BRI), a Santiago-based company led by Héctor Faune and Max Irarrázaval, received a kind of “green light” from the producers of the festival to start, for the third time, negotiations with Roxette for the duo’s presentation as the main international attraction. Since the return of Roxette during the Night Of The Proms in 2009, BRI has been trying to bring them to the Chilean summer festival.  Numerous telephone calls were made ​​during those years to Marie Dimberg, Roxette’s manager, and Thomas Johansson of LiveNation .

But the current situation seems more promising than in other years, Faune told RoxetteBrasil. “Now Roxette is finally on a world tour,” said the the successful businessman and fan of the duo, his voice vibrating with enthusiasm, “and we still have an album of new songs in the charts worldwide. The environment for a presentation at the Festival could not be more favorable. Moreover, the Roxette concert was sold out on April 9th in Santiago, and the producers of the Festival of Viña del Mar attended the show.”

Faune and Irarrazaval met with Roxette and Johansson at that concert to propose, once again, that Roxette participate in the festival. The producers of the event will decide on a headliner between now and December, and in the meanwhile, Roxette is reviewing the proposal. In addition to the show at the festival, BRI is proposing an extra show in the capital Santiago, again at the Movistar Arena.

Besides this campaign in Chile, sources tell us that there is also a great interest on the part of Time For Fun (T4F), the concert promotors in Argentina and Brazil, to repeat the dose of successful shows there.  Up for question is how these would be scheduled. Would Roxette make two trips to South America (as there are rumors of other proposed dates for South America)? Or would – in order to better coordinate expenses – these other concerts be made to fit in with this festival appearance, should it occur.  Roxette will be in Australia earlier in February, and it could make sense to fly from there to South America.

Whatever the final outcome regarding dates, it is clear now that – as suspected – T4F was amongst the promotors on Per’s mind when he told Hallandsposten that “As soon as we leave a city, the tour promoter wants to book us again…”

Additional reporting by Lars-Erik Olson