Pop duo: Marie Fredriksson would be 65 – New book about Roxette

pop duo
Marie Fredriksson would be 65 – New book about Roxette

Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle have had world careers. photo

© Walter Bieri/KEYSTONE/EPA/dpa

She was the voice of Roxette: Marie Fredriksson died three and a half years ago after a serious illness. She would have turned 65 this Tuesday – a day later a book about the cult band will be published.

80 million records sold, ten studio albums, number one in 20 countries with “It Must Have Been Love”: Roxette have made a world musical career. And a companion is now tracing it: Alex Gernandt, longtime editor-in-chief of “Bravo”, has written a book about Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson.

“Roxette – Popular Misconceptions and Other Truths” will be released this Wednesday, one day after Fredriksson would have turned 65. She died three and a half years ago after a serious illness, and Roxette’s voice fell silent.

“In it I describe some of what I have experienced as a reporter with Roxette in three decades,” said Gernandt, who has also written books from the series about Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi and AC / DC, the German Press Agency in Munich. “Highlights were joint trips to Beijing and Moscow in 1995, as well as visits at home in Halmstad and Stockholm.”

Highlights, role models and hits

In his book he writes that the Beatles, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Elton John were among their musical role models and that the Swedes had 19 top ten hits in England, the motherland of pop, but not a single one Number one.

The book traces the career of the pop duo, describes highlights and anecdotes from their great career and also shows what the two musicians liked to hear privately. According to Gernandt, “To Love Somebody” by the Bee Gees was on Fredriksson’s personal playlist, while Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” was on Gessle’s.

He cites the following as a popular misconception: “Many thought that the tragic death of Marie would inevitably end the Roxette chapter,” he writes near the end of the book. “But after a period of mourning, Per decides differently: he will let the band live on – not least in memory of Marie.” Last year the album “Pop-Up Dynamo!” his band project PG Roxette.

dpa

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