TDR x PG ROX40 ★ 40 YEARS OF ROXETTE

40 years of Roxette isn’t something you can quickly summarise. It’s something you have to sit with.

So that’s what we did, we sat down with Per. Not to run through a checklist, but to talk about how it all started, the journey since, and what it means to reach 40 Years.

There are plenty of ways to mark an anniversary like this. Articles, ongoing features, countdowns, revisiting the history. We’re doing all of that throughout 2026 for ROX40. But milestones like this don’t come around often, so it felt only right to go straight to the man himself and hear how he feels, 40 Years on.

The adage goes, “never meet your heroes”. I can now firmly say with confidence, what rubbish.

It was my turn, and I’ll be honest, there was a little bit of nerves, but more so excitement, as it’s not every day you get to sit down with someone who’s been part of your life since 1988. Thomas (1) on the other hand, has known Per for years, but for me, Thomas (2), it was very different indeed.

What was Per like? Well, exactly as hoped. Chilled, funny, honest, and open. In fact, ‘straight outta Charm School’.

The puzzle was then, how on Earth do you squeeze 40 Years of success into one interview? What do you ask? What do you not ask? What are the pressing questions fans often wonder? It became obvious that we couldn’t cover everything. So we thought, OK, let’s have a really good chat and see what happens.

We managed to cover a fair bit of ground. We wandered through subjects like the same stormy weather outside our windows despite us being miles apart, to pre and the early days of Roxette, demos and song writing, forgotten notebooks, a broken piano stool, tours, ‘The Roxette Vaults’ and unreleased treasures, to negativity, the many proud moments, and making sense of it all as Roxette hits its 40^th Anniversary milestone.

It didn’t feel like an interview at all, more so some old and new friends catching up…

TDR x PG ROX40 ★ The Interview

★ STORMY WEATHER and ‘THE LOST YEAR(S)’ … ★

“Don’t know why, there’s no sun up in the sky, stormy weather.”

We sat getting ready for our interview, Thomas (1) in Ljusdal, myself Thomas (2) in Cheshire, UK (between Liverpool and Manchester for those wondering), and Per, all cosy at home on the coast of Halmstad.

Despite being miles apart, we shared our views of the weather outside, stormy! Hailstones, battering waves, not a crow in the sky. Where is Spring!?

With intros and pleasantries done, we kicked off the interview with a quick-fire series of questions to get us all warmed up. “First thing that comes to mind?” kinda style.

It turned out to be a neat way into the first chapter of the Roxette story, because the first Roxette song Per wrote was also a clue to how the band began, things we’d not heard before…

“Probably, the first song I wrote for Roxette was the only one that didn’t already exist on ‘Pearls of Passion’, before Roxette took place, which was ‘Secrets That She Keeps’. It was the first song I wrote specifically with Marie in mind for Roxette. ‘Neverending Love’ (Svarta glas) was written for another artist. Most of the other songs, ‘Goodbye To You’ (Farväl till dej), ‘Like Lovers Do’, ‘Soul Deep’ (Dansar ner för ditt stup i rekordfart), ‘So Far Away’ (Som i en dröm) and others were all written for the neglected ‘PG3’ that EMI didn’t want at the time. It’s an interesting question that I’d not thought of before”.

We had assumed, like everyone else, that it would be ‘Neverending Love‘, but now we know that’s not the case. That now takes things back further and to 1985 (even the years previous). 1985, specifically, though is what Per calls “the lost year”, and for good reason.

Nothing much was happening. Attempts for his third solo album were not going well. He’d written a lot, but EMI were not playing ball, they saw him as a ‘has-been‘, the cheek!

1986 became the year that changed everything. Per continued to struggle to get EMI onboard with ‘PG3’, his third solo effort. Songs had been written, but EMI continued to show little interest, maybe they were “missing a lead single?“. Instead, it was suggested that he team up with Marie to record a song, just to see how it might work.

The song was of course, ‘Neverending Love’ which used to be ‘Svarta glas‘ (‘Black Glasses’) written for Pernilla Wahlgren, who in turn didn’t want it and gave it to her brother Niklas, who actually recorded it but never got to release it. The newly recorded ‘try out song‘ with new English lyrics was a success over the summer in Sweden, and led to the opportunity to record a full album, which Per wanted very programmed in style.

However, the producer they hired, Clarence, wanted it very analog.

‘Pearls of Passion‘ came together quickly. The songs initially meant for the now scrapped ‘PG3’ were quickly translated and updated. Both Per and Marie spent time at the Montezuma Studios (owned by Marie’s then boyfriend) where they could both try things out, and in the end several demo recordings took place.

‘POP’ was released on Halloween 1986, spooky! It was an instant smash. Singles ‘Soul Deep‘, ‘Goodbye To You‘ and ‘I Call Your Name‘ followed, however nothing happened outside of Sweden. ‘POP’ was also released in Canada, with the 7″ version of ‘Soul Deep‘.

When we asked Per about those early Montezuma Sessions, his answer brought the album back down to what it really was at the time, a chance, an opportunity, a redirection, not a masterplan:

“I was grateful that I got the chance to work with Marie on an album. That wasn’t planned at all. It happened because ‘Neverending Love’ became a big hit during the summer. It was the first time we got to check out the songs, what keys, who should sing what”.

“All the songs were pretty much written in Swedish. I think there are a couple of songs from that session that were still in Swedish, like ‘Surrender’ and ‘So Far Away’ which I’d not yet translated by then”.

“There were other songs on that album too that we did there, Marie’s ‘Voices’ that she co-wrote with her boyfriend at the time, I think he played on ‘Secrets’ too, then ‘Call of the Wild’ and so on that were all in Swedish”.

Frustrated by the lack of movement outside Sweden, Per went on to write of all things, a Christmas song, specifically aimed at getting some attention in Germany which would hopefully lead to bigger things. EMI Germany requested it. And they refused it…

It was, however, another hit at home in Sweden. The intention was to re-release it every Christmas.

★ DRESSED FOR INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS… ★

With a domestic but successful album behind them, Per and Marie were determined that their follow-up would be bigger, better and a hit outside of Sweden this time. Work started quickly with Per writing all the time.

The album wasn’t as rushed and felt more cohesive a collection, as all the songs this time were written for it. Per was trying out new sounds too with his new synth, writing ‘The Look‘ and ‘Don’t Believe In Accidents‘.

The album, initially entitled ‘Paint‘, could have been far different to the 11+ million seller we all know today, indeed the track listing was rather different, with even ‘Listen To Your Heart‘ appearing not to have made the 13 tracks detailed in an early notebook.

With ‘Look Sharp!‘, and in particular ‘The Look‘, Roxette had their international breakthrough, all thanks to an American exchange student who took the album home to Minnesota. The story is well known now, so we won’t go through all that here again. In short, ‘The Look‘ became Roxette’s first US Billboard No.1. EMI USA were not initially interested in the album.

That soon changed, literally overnight, and Roxette became hot property with their record company divisions in other countries finally sitting up and taking notice. ‘Listen to Your Heart‘ became the second Billboard No.1, with ‘Dangerous‘ also hitting No.2.

Talking about the songs now, Per is very clear that his writing has changed over the years, but never because he purposefully tried to reinvent himself…

“I can see changes in my writing style. If you go back to the eighties and check-out how I wrote songs compared to 2015. There’s a big difference, it’s nothing planned it’s just the way I developed as a musician and a songwriter. I can now appreciate how I wrote in the eighties as I can’t do that style anymore, I’m beyond that. Pop music in general has also changed”.

“I come from this ’60s and ’70s legacy of song writing, where you have middle-8s, bridges that lead to the chorus, codas, and modulation, you don’t have that anymore. Most pop songs have four chords that go on and on. It’s become like that because of computers, 8 bars for this and move along and that’s a different style. When you play songs for real in a band situation, there’s much more room for inspiration”.

“If you check out the solos on a lot of songs like ‘Dangerous’, ‘The Look’ or even ‘Joyride’, the solo instrumental parts are totally different chords to the chorus and verses, and that’s on purpose, I wanted it to be a surprise, something should happen that you’d not heard before or expect. That’s not how it is today, it’s more about repetition”.

That led to a quick exchange about Tik Tok, songs sounding the same and our consensus to preferring the ‘old way’.

Per, unsurprisingly, knew exactly why Roxette had the room to sound like Roxette.

“That style of writing that I had really suited Clarence, he was more from the progressive rock style, ‘Genesis’ and ‘Yes’ who had songs that went on for 20 minutes. So, when I went in with something like ‘Listen to Your Heart’ or ‘Love Is All’ all those songs ended up really long. It fit him perfectly, he didn’t want ‘The Ramones’ and their 1:45 style at all”.

★ HOLLYWOOD CALLING ★

Heavy on promotion, and starting the writing and recording sessions for the next album, working title “Album Number 3“, Roxette were busy bees.

A request came through for Per to write, and for Roxette to record a key ballad for a Richard Gere b-movie, ‘3000 Dollars‘. Per didn’t want to pass on the opportunity, but also realised there just wasn’t enough time in the day, so he offered up an oldie but goodie.

Dusting off the almost forgotten Christmas ditty from 1987, and taking out the Christmas reference, the song simply became ‘It Must Have Been Love‘.

Garry Marshall, the late and great director of Pretty Woman, loved the song so much, that he featured it heavily in the penultimate scene of the movie, a full verse and chorus. He basically re-wrote the script!

America couldn’t resist, giving Roxette their third Billboard No.1. An amazing achievement for what was essentially, an almost forgotten and overlooked Christmas song.

Then came ‘Joyride‘. Technicolor. Everything about Roxette from this moment on was in full-on colour.

‘Joyride‘ hit the world, out of nowhere, and became their fourth and final Billboard No.1. The album was an even bigger success than the previous, and four singles followed, ‘Fading Like A Flower‘ (another Billboard No2), ‘The Big L.‘, ‘Spending My Time‘ and ‘Church of your Heart‘.

Roxette hit the road on their first World Tour: ‘Join The Joyride‘, playing to over 1.7 million people.

Per still lights up when talking about how the ‘Joyride‘ album looked.

“I think ‘Joyride’ is great artwork, I mean ‘Look Sharp!’ was cool with the newspaper, but ‘Joyride’ I remember telling Kjell Andersson the designer that I wanted the new album to be really really really colourful”.

“Because ‘Look Sharp!’ was almost black and white, I wanted Roxette to be a really colourful band, so from that time on I wanted us to be colourful, same with the ‘Crash! Boom! Bang!’ chequered flags, really in your face. It was a conscious decision. I really think the whole circus theme around ‘Joyride’ and the photo sessions were really good, we got amazing shots for that.”

And you can clearly see that when you look at the ten studio albums together, from ‘POP‘ and ‘Look Sharp!‘ in their greys and sepia tones, to then full-on technicolor…

We went on to talk about underrated Roxette songs, ones that perhaps still feel overlooked even now.

“A couple of songs that I really like myself that weren’t singles like ‘I’m Sorry’, ‘Lover Lover Lover’ and ‘Dream On’. I think the most underrated songs have to be the ones not released as singles, so I’ll go with those three.”

We didn’t venture too far from ‘Joyride‘ either, with the same period popping up again when we mentioned our ROX40 Countdown and Monthly Mock-Ups, he’d already seen what we’ve been doing.

“I’ve seen it, all looks really cool. You had ‘Knockin’ On Every Door’ I saw that one, it reminded me that when I wrote the ‘Joyride‘ album, I tried to write every song so that it could be a single. There wasn’t time or space to release all of them of course”.

“I always thought it was a mistake for EMI, and actually Gyllene Tider back in the day, they didn’t want us to release singles. We released something like only six singles from three albums, but it should have been twelve! We were a singles band, so it was crazy.”

Which led to one of those brilliantly nerdy Roxette exchanges that only this kind of interview can really hold. How did you pick songs for a full Gyllene Tider Greatest Hits if only six singles were actually released?

“Because all of the songs from those albums became hits anyway. So when it came to Roxette, I always wanted us to be a ‘singles album’, but diverse to allow releasing non-single material, but great songs like ‘Queen of Rain‘.”

We mentioned our Monthly Mock-Up for April, an imaginary double AA side single from the ‘Joyride‘ era, Thomas (1) picking rocker ‘Hotblooded‘ and me opting for ‘(Do You Get) Excited?‘, sleeves, cassette, vinyl, poster etc…

“That’s cool, ‘Excited’ was supposed to be a single. The big screw up in the States happened in the Spring of ‘92, the same week we started the Tour. The record company was sold, people got sacked, the new company didn’t want to work with Roxette. The whole ‘Spending My Time’ Campaign which was supposed to be our fifth number one, it all collapsed, and the whole Tour went so so. After that ‘Excited’ got scrapped. Those were the days!”

★ BUSY! ★

If there is one thing that comes through again and again, both in the timeline and our conversation, it’s this, Per does not like sitting still.

1992 brought ‘TOURISM‘. While on the ‘Join The Joyride‘ World Tour he had the idea of doing a Tour album. Not a Live album, not a Studio album, a TOUR album, all to capture the energy within the band while on the road. EMI weren’t too keen on the idea, but they still supported the album and, interestingly, it didn’t form part of their Recording Contract obligations.

‘TOURISM‘ was yet another success. ‘How Do You Do!‘ was a HUGE summer hit. ‘Queen of Rain‘ and ‘Fingertips ’93‘ followed. The album sold in the millions and remains a firm highlight within the Roxette catalogue. Hopefully, we might get that Vinyl re-issue one day.

Then 1993. Disney didn’t happen. A song meant for the 1993 movie Hocus Pocus was declined, more likely so because it starred the incomparable Bette Midler, who in the end sang herself, as En Vogue who Roxette were ditched for also ended up being binned, who knows.

‘Almost Unreal‘ eventually found a new home with the movie Super Mario Bros. The movie was a total flop, the song a huge hit. The video was played and played, featuring some really cool effects, and a heavily pregnant, glowing Marie.

The same year, Roxette became the first non-English speaking act to be invited to play the prestigious MTV Unplugged. Recorded at Cirkus in Stockholm, Roxette performed their biggest hits, some fan favourites and several covers. The show earned great reviews and remains a heavily sought after recording.

One of the planned ROX40 surprises coming up will in fact be the MTV Unplugged show, however, it could be delayed somewhat, as “they’re struggling to find the tape”. Can you believe it? The good news here though, is that it WILL be released!

Then came ‘Crash! Boom! Bang!‘ in 1994. After studio time in Stockholm, London and the stunning Italian island of Capri, Roxette had been busy again, getting their fifth studio album ready. On first play to EMI, the feedback to Per was that it was great, but they “couldn’t hear the first single“. Surprise.

Massively p*ssed off, Per went home and wrote ‘Sleeping In My Car‘. He got the gang together quickly, and it was recorded. The first single was a banger. EMI were happy. ‘Crazy About You‘ was dropped from the 15 track album, replaced by ‘Sleeping In My Car‘. In fact, the album was initially titled ‘Fireworks‘.

It was another super success internationally, alas, by this time, the USA record company support was in disarray following the earlier sale. The streamlined version of the album ‘Favourites from Crash! Boom! Bang!‘ was sold via McDonald’s along with other major artists including Tina Turner, Elton John and Garth Brooks. Regardless, the album went on to shift a million copies there alone.

Roxette ventured out on their second World Tour, and it was a big one. Stadiums and even China. Roxette became the second group to be invited to play there, following Wham! before them in 1986. Another amazing achievement.

★ DON’T BORE US – GET TO THE CHORUS! ★

By 1995 it was time to pause, but only briefly, and look back. What’s the saying? “Look back but don’t stare“.

After almost a decade, Roxette released their first Greatest Hits album, ‘Don’t Bore Us – Get To The Chorus!‘, with a huge promotional campaign.

14 hit singles were collected, as well as four brand new recordings. Roxette performed a one-off gig at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London to a very lucky crowd.

“That gig was the sh*t!”.

High praise indeed from Per. He’s correct too. It was one of the better gigs Thomas 1 has seen. We even did our very first Monthly Mock-Up back in February for that very gig. Oh to have it available on streaming. We do wonder if Per realises the demand for live shows amongst the fans?



The Daily Roxette

★ Monthly Mock-Ups! ★ February ★

Kicking-off our brand new series ‘Monthly Mock-Ups!’ we have our very first edition, starting with a live album, because some gigs just simply refuse to fade quietly into history.

Read the full story...

Feb 1, 2026 •

Details

Then came what was supposed to be a gap. Roxette were supposed to be taking a bit of a break in 1996 and 1997, however, they managed to release ‘Baladas en Español‘, a collection of their best ballads in Spanish. It sold over 2 million copies according to Per. Another success, and now being re-released for its 30th Anniversary, all part of the overall 40th Anniversary celebrations.

But Per, as we established, can’t sit still. We brought up a page from a 1996 notebook he’d posted recently on socials, one that contained the Roxette album ‘Up!’ that of course didn’t happen…

“When I found the ‘Up!‘ notebook entry, it never happened as Marie was on a break with her second child. The songs were more in the style of Gyllene Tider, which fit me very well, indeed in suited Marie very well too, look at ‘Sleeping In My Car‘. If you look at those songs like ‘T-T-T-Take It!‘ sung by Marie that would have been fantastic. It wasn’t meant to be, so I did it myself”.

“Roxette was very much driven by me. If I didn’t suggest that we went on Tour, it didn’t happen. If I didn’t suggest a new record, it didn’t happen. That was the biggest difference between myself and Marie“.

“After the success of ‘Joyride‘ I told her that we’re now one of the biggest bands on Planet Earth, now we have to work really really hard to become even bigger and to cement Roxette. Marie didn’t want to do that and wanted to take a break. I did say c’mon, it’s like an Athlete, between events you have to keep training and exercise, learn from what you’re doing. We were very different there”.

Which is exactly how ‘The World According to Gessle‘ enters the story.

“It turned out to be a great album, we worked on it everywhere, including London. It turned out heavier and raunchier than my previous ones.”

Which, for the record, is true. For us it’s THE car album. Any long car journey, ‘The World According to Gessle‘ is played. It’s tradition, and I can’t wait to play it in my new car!

By the time Roxette returned in 1999 with ‘Have A Nice Day!‘, they were doing what the best bands do when they’ve lasted long enough to know themselves. They changed again.

‘Wish I Could Fly‘ was rather different to what had come before, it was fresh, it was unexpected and it became a huge hit. Singles followed, ‘Anyone/Pay The Price‘, ‘Stars‘ and ‘Salvation‘. No Tour this time, instead, returning to the recording studio again to start on another new album.

That became ‘Room Service‘ in 2001. ‘The Centre of the Heart‘ hit number 1 in Sweden, the album was released, Roxette performed a couple of album launch gigs in Stockholm, Cologne and Barcelona. Everything was super cool. The album photography and video shot at The Madonna Inn by Jonas Akerlund and a European Tour followed. Roxette were back and riding high.

★ THE CHANGE ★

Roxette were to headline ‘Night of the Proms‘, an offer they couldn’t refuse. The Press Conference had been arranged and Per was travelling when the news reached him. Marie had been taken ill. The days and weeks that followed would change the course of Marie’s life forever. Roxette were understandably an afterthought.

Marie revealed her cancer diagnosis, and retreated into her treatment and convalescence. The fans waited patiently hoping that all would be well. We know now that the outlook at that time was frightening, and for Marie, her time could have been cut short back then. Marie didn’t give in. She overcame what was an incredibly debilitating illness. It took time, patience, resilience, but she did it.

It wasn’t clear what would happen to Roxette during the following years, however, several recordings were made allowing compilation albums ‘The Ballad Hits‘ and ‘The Pop Hits‘ to be released, including the beautiful new songs ‘A Thing About You‘, ‘Breathe‘ and the super-charged ‘Opportunity Nox‘. Which have to be amongst their best recordings ever, especially ‘Nox‘. We do have a giggle, remembering the original name for ‘The Ballad Hits‘ here being ‘Love Peas‘. We didn’t ask!

Fans had not forgotten Roxette and were patiently waiting, hoping for something to happen. In 2006 a new Greatest Hits was released, ‘Roxette Hits!‘ with a couple more new recordings ‘One Wish‘ and ‘Reveal‘. The ‘RoxBox‘ was released, giving fans a brief glimpse into The Roxette Vault.

★ THE ROXETTE VAULT ★

And the Vault, inevitably, is where the conversation turned next and what remains…

“I don’t think it’s anything special, the reason for me putting out all the demos is that I was a big fan of when Pete Townsend of The Who did it with his demos, and from a song writing point of view I thought it was interesting to hear how songs develop. Since I have all these demos, soooo many demos, I thought it was a cool idea to present them. For those interested, please listen, for those not, don’t bother.”

We commented that lots of artists seem to have jumped on the ‘demos‘ bandwagon, with even Madonna doing it now…

“Yeah, there’s a reason you make demos it’s because you’re on your way to create a song. The finished song, eventually and in most cases is superior”.

“However, when it comes to Roxette, since so many songs are sung by Marie, it’s interesting to hear them sung by me. I found some unreleased different versions from the ‘Room Service‘ album that will come out this year. I’ve also got some really terrible songs written in the early ’80s that will probably not ever see the light of day!”.

Thomas 1 interjects mentioning, the ‘Dance Away‘ demo by Gyllene Tider, which has a totally different melody to the Roxette version we all know, it remains firmly locked away…and for good reason, we don’t think it’s that bad though, it’s just ‘of an era‘?

“It’s not for human beings to hear!” laughs Per.

Then came the question I absolutely had to ask, because I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t…

Did anything exist in The Roxette Vault from the legendary ‘Look Sharp Live!‘ Gigs at Borgholm Castle in 1989? We even added that this is one of the most sought-after Roxette items…

“Are you talking about when we did the ‘Listen to Your Heart’ video?”.

“I don’t know, we did some footage here and there, we did ‘Dangerous’ there as well and some live recordings. Live video shootings, it was released I guess, on a VHS?”.

Borgholm, for those not aware, a quick reminder…

The ‘Look Sharp Live!‘ concert project, or more accurately the ‘Listen To Your Heart‘ video production, carried a considerable budget and was seen as very ambitious for its time. It was directed by Doug Freel for Propaganda Films and EMI, with the copyright held by EMI Svenska AB under exclusive licence to EMI Records Limited. Captivated by the grandeur of Borgholm Castle, Freel famously believed it looked as though it had been built specifically for the production! Hilarious!

With the huge level of investment, Freel and his American Production Team created what would become classic Roxette visuals. Two helicopters were even hired and brought in from the Swedish Air Force to capture the iconic aerial shots.

The final released footage wasn’t limited to just one video either. It was used for singles ‘Listen To Your Heart‘ and ‘Dangerous‘, plus the non-single, non-album track (at the time), ‘Silver Blue‘. Alongside the promotional videos, three live songs were also captured.

We confirmed with Per that the recordings took place on 25th and 26th July, 1989, not that we’re obsessed, and that the only live cuts released from the concert were limited to ‘Dance Away’, ‘Paint’ and ‘Cry’.

We went on to discuss our disbelief that the whole costly set-up was done without capturing the whole two nights, but looking back now, perhaps the b-roll leftover footage was turned into what became the video for non-single ‘Silver Blue‘? Who knows?

“I think we decided early on that these were the live songs that needed footage. It was done during the filming of the ‘Listen To Your Heart’ video where we were working with Doug Freel, who directed it. I think he also did the Sydney ‘Joyride‘ Live shows later on? That was a live VHS tape too I guess.”

“The audio for that has been mixed properly by Mats ‘MP’ (Persson), and it sounds fantastic!”

“It’s going to be released. It’s likely to be a triple vinyl thing because it’s really really wonderful. Marie and Jonas doing ‘Soul Deep’ is like an 8 minute treat, sounds so good.”

We went onto to clarify regarding Borgholm, as we believed Per is known to have recorded most gigs soundboard.

Over the years, there’s been ongoing debate too around what still exists and what remains unreleased. What else was filmed, and where is that footage now? Was a soundboard recording made? On that point, there must have been for the three live songs, which naturally raises the possibility that the full two nights of audio were recorded.

It’s something we’ve often questioned ourselves, especially when watching ‘Silver Blue‘, where multiple time-lapses of the full concert and additional footage are clearly visible. There have also been rumours suggesting SVT were responsible for the shoot. That isn’t the case. It’s more likely confusion with Badrock in 1987, which was an SVT production…

“I’m not sure, if there’s any leftover Borgholm footage, not sure. Audio, not that I remember, I’d have to check”…

Disappointed, we moved onto the Vienna Look Sharp Live! gig we had recently been sent by a fellow fan (thank you!), and in turn we sent on to Per. He’s not yet listened to it, but will when he gets chance. It’s a goodie!

Hopefully, one day we’ll get an official remastered ‘Look Sharp Live!‘ gig in FULL.
It might not be Borgholm, but ANY of them would be equally as awesome!

★ ROXETTE RETURN ★

Per remained busy through 2008 and 2009, releasing multiple albums, then hitting the road. In Amsterdam fans were in for a huge surprise, Marie walked onto the stage with Per, collectively Roxette. Performing ‘It Must Have Been Love‘, fans were emotional to say the least. Marie had returned.

Roxette made a triumphant return, fulfilling the Night of the Proms obligation. It was a huge success. They performed ‘Wish I Could Fly‘ as well as their 4 Billboard No.1 singles accompanied by a full orchestra.

In 2010, Roxette tried out some shows to see how Marie felt to be fully back on stage performing a full Roxette set. The shows went really well and became the springboard for something much bigger.

Way out, out of the blue, Marie called Per and suggested he write a new Roxette album, which became the wonderful ‘Charm School‘.

‘She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio)‘ became a hit and the world welcomed them back to the world stage. A couple more singles followed too, ‘Speak To Me‘ and the amazing ‘Way Out‘.  A World Tour was announced, which quickly became known as ‘The Neverending Tour‘, fans couldn’t get enough. The band were in top shape and the set was electric.

The Tour continued, and we got what was essentially the follow up to ‘TOURISM‘. Album number nine, ‘Travelling‘ was released with lead single ‘It’s Possible‘. Both Per and Marie also managed to drop in some Swedish solo and Gyllene Tider projects in 2013 and 2014.

Then came 2015. Time for celebrations. 30 Years of Roxette! A new compilation album ‘XXX‘ was released and a new Tour that would be the final Roxette Tour.

It was becoming obvious that the touring life was taking its toll on Marie’s health and wellbeing. Much to her disappointment, they announced her retirement from Touring in 2016, cancelling any existing dates of the Tour.

The 10th and final Roxette studio album, ‘Good Karma‘, was released with lead single ‘It Just Happens‘.

Per has said previously that it was an extremely difficult album to record, due to the declining health of Marie, yet she was so determined to get it finished for the fans. The singles ‘Some Other Summer‘ and ‘Why Don’t You Bring Me Flowers‘ were also released.

Leftovers from the album, ‘Let Your Heart Dance With Me‘ and ‘Piece of Cake‘, would remain unfinished and hidden in The Roxette Vault unknown to fans for some time.

More solo projects followed, but it was understandably quiet for Marie.

♥ AND I WISH YOU THE BEST THERE IS, BEFORE YOU GO TO SLEEP… ♥

It wasn’t unexpected, but it hit hard.

Marie left us, 9th December 2019. Per released a heartfelt statement confirming the news which left fans devastated. Marie had gone.

It’s one of those ‘do you remember where you were‘ moments. I do (Thomas2).

I was sat at home alone at my desk, the news popped up on my screen and literally within minutes my phone lit up, message after message. I can’t begin to understand the loss for Marie’s family, close friends, and for Per.

We didn’t talk about the loss of Marie, as we wanted to keep everything upbeat, respectful and pay tribute rather than focus in on the loss.

♥  Gone too soon, always remembered  ♥

★ BAG OF TRIX ★

The ‘Bag of Trix‘ Collection was perfectly timed. Everyone was still in mourning. This box came as a welcome archive and look back at Roxette, from the very beginning, to the last ever recordings. So much previously unreleased material helped fans get through the loss. It followed the equally amazing box, ‘The Per Gessle Archives‘ that focussed on songwriting across Per’s many projects.

Since ‘Bag of Trix‘, we’ve been lucky to have had continued Anniversary releases and other surprises. Per took time out from Roxette to process what had happened, to grieve, and to then decide how life should continue.

Per was responsible for pretty much all of Roxette’s material as the main songwriter and driving force. He didn’t want to just let the catalogue fade. He made various attempts at keeping their legacy alive through PG Roxette, releasing the fun album ‘Pop-Up Dynamo!‘ and toured. It didn’t quite hit the mark for some fans, we liked it however, especially the demo set.

But 2026 is a year of celebrations. There will be numerous monthly releases, Anniversary Editions, Remastered Videos, Vinyls, Contemporary Remixes and other Surprises along the way.

When asked about the proudest moment across the 40 years, Per’s answer was of course bigger than a single event…

“Oh my gosh! Well the whole thing was a miracle. If you look back to the 70s it was amazing that I met Marie. Even further back than that, it was a miracle that I met Mats, I learned so much from him, I couldn’t even tune my guitar, but I had so many ideas, especially lyric ideas and I knew so much about pop and rock music. I don’t know that much about anything in life except pop music. Old school pop music, it ended at the end of 90’s But if you talk about ’60s ’70s ’80s I’m there!”.

“I think all these tiny bits and pieces linked together and led up to forming Roxette and having all this success in the world. It’s unbelievable”.

“There’s so many highlights and success in the States, playing in Beijing, the amazing Tour of South America in 1992 was fantastic, it just goes on and on. And also, looking back I’m really proud of the work, the songs I’ve done. I can see the evolution of songwriting, production and lyrics. There’s some in both English and Swedish that I’m really proud of, I’ve been very lucky to have that capacity to do that and I don’t know how it happened”.

Indeed, not many people have done what Per has achieved, successful careers in different languages, major hits in different markets, different bands, solo work, a hotel, a wine range, a musical, the lot! It’s unusual, it’s very unique.

When we asked which Roxette song had been the hardest to finish, the answer ended up being less about one title and more about the way songs keep moving until they arrive where they need to…

“Ah I don’t know, a song goes through different steps. When I write it and when I feel it’s almost finished I make a demo, sometimes a fully produced, sometimes just an acoustic, depends on the project”.

“I remember when I did the ‘Son Of A Plumber‘ album, both Clarence and Christofer didn’t want me to make demos at all. I just went into the studio and played them my songs and ideas. That’s one way to do it. The opposite way is like ‘Joyride’ which is fully produced”.

“It’s a hard one to answer. When you write the songs, do the demo, if I’m happy with the demo, I presented it to Marie and Clarence and we discussed where it should go, who should sing it. Most of the time I wrote for Marie. Most of the time it went very smooth”.

“When I did the ‘Sällskapssjuk’ album for instance, that wasn’t supposed to be a duet album with lots of singers, it was supposed to be sang by me. So, when I decided to do a duet album, I had to remake the recordings because of the keys. I actually had a list of 8-10 artists whose voices I liked, but Lisa and Amanda were the only two I could use as they could sing in my key, I didn’t need to re-record. When it came to Lena I had to re-record that song. The chorus is a little too high for me to sing, but I wanted Lena to sound fantastic. That’s why you do modulation all the time to find the best spot for vocal 1 and vocal 2.”

That mention of Lena naturally brought us right up to present day.

★ ROXETTE LIVE 2025/2026 ★

In 2025, Per invited guest vocalist Lena, and it all just happened.

Roxette were back on the road, 250,000+ tickets were sold, the world was ready to hear the Roxette songs performed live again.

The Tour will shortly be hitting South America, then back to Europe. North America is rumoured to follow, watch this space. And when asked directly about North America, Per was clear on the ambition:

“Yeah, we’re talking about doing a Tour in North America. Nothing written so far, but we’re talking about it.”

“Well we gonna start rehearsals Saturday, probably change a couple of tracks, but keep most of it the same as we’re playing new countries and venues”.

“We’ve only done 43 or so shows, so it’s too early to change what is a great setlist, of course it can be improved but I don’t know. I could feel how the band clicked after 30 gigs, I don’t want to mess with that. At the end of the day, let’s say 90% will be the same, with some changes”.

I (Thomas2) was lucky to catch the tour in London at Wembley. It was such a tight set, and I thought Lena did an amazing job, I really enjoyed her performance. I was gutted not to hear the full version of ‘Things Will Never Be The Same‘, but I got over it, understanding that it’s hard to get the setlist right for everyone. It was an impressive set, and the band were in top top shape.

“You can go different ways, we’re having a great time playing together, Lena is amazing. I can see this line-up going on for many years. We could do another Tour say next year or year after and we’d have to start from square one”.

“This time around, it’s all about playing the most obvious classic Roxette songs to show the world that the songs still exist on a live basis. Or you could go the other way around next time, playing 3, 5 or 10 songs that people don’t know as well, but the hardcore fans love them. We decided not to do that this time, I think that’s the right decision otherwise we wouldn’t have done it.”

“I’m really looking forward to the Tour, some new shows popping up in Europe too!”

★ THE ROXETTE LEGACY ★

Sales and Streaming aside, Roxette’s Radio impact has been equally remarkable. American Radio has played It Must Have Been Love the song, more than 7 million times!

Per received BMI Million Air Awards marking 3 million US plays in 2000, 4 million in 2005, 5 million in 2014, 6 million in October 2021, and most recently the 7 million milestone in 2024. Earlier this year, ‘Listen To Your Heart‘ celebrated its own 7 Million Air award.

One of the more delicate subjects had to be addressed. Some of the criticism around performing the Roxette catalogue with someone else other than Marie has been unnecessary, and quite frankly, disrespectful. Per was pretty direct on the subject.

“I don’t really care about that, when it comes to everything you do, from my point of view, you have to do it for yourself. Just because say you want to hear ‘Things Will Never Be The Same’ for example doesn’t mean I’ll play it. It goes with everything else, the production of the songs, the decision to bring Lena in, or they way we Tour, or who’s in the band, how you arrange the songs. I have to make all these decisions based on how I feel, and my tastes. If people don’t like it, go somewhere else”.

We mentioned that we did a TDR article last year because the unnecessary criticism was really getting on our nerves. Not everybody was reacting in the same way obviously. But it was there, and a lot of it crossed the line. Per’s view of it is bigger than one set of comments.

“It’s oh so easy now with Social Media and some people don’t really know what they’re talking about anyway. It’s the same thing when you write songs, when you’ve been doing it for a very long time, some people say ‘why don’t you sound like this as it’s the current style because what you’re doing sounds old school’, and I say yeah, because I am old and I love that kind of music. I can’t sound like 18/19/20 year olds today, their preference in pop is different to mine”.

“The only way I can create is to follow my own instincts and my own gut feeling all the time, when it comes to the lyrics, the production, the writing, the presentation, videos, photoshoots, so if I should listen to what everyone is saying around me I would be going crazy”.

Per, ultimately ‘speaks with gracefulness‘, and you can understand exactly why and how he’s survived in such a difficult industry like show business…

“It doesn’t bother me. The only thing I’d say when it started with Lena, was a lot of people commenting without actually hearing or seeing her, or understanding what we’re doing. Eventually, if they managed to come to the show they liked it, it is a good show. Lena is doing a great job. When it comes down to it, if I hadn’t have found Lena with her capacity and her professionalism, nothing else would have happened with Roxette at all. I would have buried it. All the Roxette songs are like my little kids, and it’s amazing that I can do to Buenos Aires, or Rio or Montevideo, it’s fantastic.”

It says everything about how Per sees his Roxette songs now. They’re not museum pieces. Not something to be shelved ‘out of respect’. But they’re living pieces of work that can still go somewhere. When asked if someone new discovers Roxette today where should they start, Per didn’t pretend there was one right answer, things are just not that simple…

“Roxette is a pretty ‘wide band’ if you compared it today’s pop acts. We have a wide range of styles. You have ‘Watercolours In The Rain‘, ‘The Heart Shaped Sea‘ type acoustic stuff, then you have bubblegum stuff like ‘How Do You Do!‘, ‘Real Sugar‘, and you have ‘The Look‘ which is again a bit different to that. Then you have power pop ‘Sleeping In My Car‘, then big ballads, you have the dance thing in ‘Stars‘, or ‘The Centre of The Heart‘. It depends where you come from”.

“That was intentional that we did that in so many different way. I always felt some bands got stuck. I mean The Beatles as you know and Tom Petty are my favourites and they never got stuck in a formula, and I didn’t want Roxette to be stuck in a formula”.

“If you look from the outside though, and you only know the hits ‘It Must Have Been Love‘ and ‘Listen To Your Heart‘, you think that’s Roxette, but it’s not. That’s also one of the reasons we were lucky we had two singers, when Marie sings ‘Queen of Rain‘, and I sing ‘How Do You Do!‘, it’s like two different bands”.

We didn’t get the chance to interject here, as Per was on a roll. We did wonder though, whether he knew that to us, he’s OUR Tom Petty, even The Beatles. He’s certainly more than fulfilled his wish that Roxette, or even across any of his many projects, that he never got stuck in a predictable formula.

★ ROX40 ★

That may be the neatest summary of Roxette at 40. What a joyride!

Not one sound, not one song or album, not one era, not one tour, not even one story. A catalogue that still stretches and achieves, indeed, ‘It Must Have Been Love‘ just passed the One Billion Streaming milestone!

The range of material and styles was always the point. And that, really, is why the songs are still here today. Still travelling. Still being played. Still being discovered. Still making sense to people who were there at the beginning, and to people only just finding them now. That part hasn’t changed at all.

It all begins again where it ends…Roxette at 40, Let’s Celebrate!

___________________________________________________________

Big Thanx to:
Per Gessle ★

Interview conducted 25th March 2026 by:
Thomas Lawrie-Clark ★ Thomas Evensson
with support from Kai-Uwe Heinze

Photography by:
Thomas Evensson ★ Kai-Uwe Heinze ★ Thomas Lawrie-Clark
All other photographs via Roxette Official Facebook
Copyright remains with original owners

Special Mention to:
Barry ★ for extra designs