Roxette on stage at Night of the Proms 2009-05-05 17:05:00
ROXETTE FOR THE FIRST TIME ON STAGE AGAIN AT NIGHT OF THE PROMS
Seven years after the cancellation for health reasons, Night of the Proms is billing Roxette for the ‘classic meets pop’ event again. A world first! The Swedish duo, which was creating a furore in the nineties, came at an involuntary standstill in 2002, year in which singer Marie was successfully treated for a brain tumour.
Roxette is made up of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, two Swedish artists, each of whom were busy establishing a career when, in 1986, they decided to make music together. Per’s songs combined with Marie’s voice … it could not be anything but a perfect match! And the dream came true. At the end of the 1980s, Roxette made their worldwide breakthrough with iconic pop songs and catchy power ballads, all of which found their way to the top of the charts in no time at all.
Roxette firmly established its name with singles such as ‘It Must Have Been Love’, ‘The Look’, ‘Listen To Your Heart’, ‘Joyride’, ‘How Do You Do’, ‘Almost Unreal’, ‘Crash! Boom! Bang’, ‘Sleeping In My Car’, ‘Run To You’, ‘Wish I Could Fly’, ‘Dangerous’ and ‘Fading Like A Flower’. The duo can boast impressive sales figures of more than 15 million singles and more than 55 million albums.
The story goes that an American exchange student laid the foundation for the international success by bringing home a copy of the single ‘The Look’ in 1988. This single was played by a Minneapolis radio station. Very soon cassette copies reached other radio stations. All of a sudden Roxette had a hit single in America, although no Roxette product was commercially released there. The record company jumped on board and in March 1989 ‘The Look’ was a number 1 in the charts in America and 24 other countries. Roxette’s popularity grew quickly after a revised version of ‘It Must Have Been Love’ was used for the ‘Pretty Woman’ soundtrack.
During the ‘Join The Joyride’ world tour (1991-92), named after their third album, Roxette gave 108 concerts throughout Europe, Australia, the United States and South-America and played to 1.7 million fans. In 1994 Roxette embarked upon a second world tour. In the meantime Per and Marie also continued to concentrate on their solo careers.
After a European tour in the autumn of 2001 for 200,000 fans Roxette was announced as top of the bill for the 2002 edition of Night of the Proms, the ‘classic meets pop’ event that attracts huge crowds in Belgium, Holland and Germany. On Wednesday 11 September, one day before the Night of the Proms press conference in Antwerp, Marie fainted at home in Stockholm. In hospital a brain tumour was diagnosed, which was later successfully removed. Marie’s recovery was intensive and longlasting. In 2004 she returned with her first-ever English-language solo album ‘The Change’. ‘One Wish’, the next Roxette single, dates from September 2006 and was released to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band. The single ‘Reveal’ followed on 14 February 2007. At the end of last year Marie went on tour with a Christmas show, while Per finished his new solo album ‘Party Crasher’. The release of it was followed by Per’s ever first European solo tour, which is now coming to its end.
Earlier this year, discussions started about the possibility of Roxette being part of Night of the Proms again. Bearing in mind the frequency of Roxette hits being heard on the radio and the many annual appeals from Night of the Proms fans to try and convince Roxette to be part of the programme, we are all happy to make this announcement!
“We are thrilled to finally be able to attend Night of the Proms. It’s gonna be the first time we share a live stage together since 2001 and it certainly feels most exciting to do it in front of the huge Night of the Proms audience. We look forward to performing some of our greatest hits and working together with the big Night of the Proms orchestra, which should fit our music very well.” (Marie & Per)
This year’s Night of the Proms can boast of a world first by presenting Roxette’s return on stage, seven years after the first attempt to have the Swedish duo in the show. An icing on the cake for the event celebrating its 25th edition in Antwerp this autumn!