Roxette

About Roxette

Swedish pop band Roxette can't outrun the ABBA comparisons. Though not quite the gods of pop that their Swedish predecessors were, Roxette enjoyed an amazing run of popularity in the early 90's. Their trademark straight-up pop tunes mixed synthesizers with a few classic guitar riffs for the kind of verse-chorus hits that you can't help grinning along to. The blond duo Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson met while both involved in Sweden's thriving 80's music scene. After collaborating on several locally-released individual projects in Swedish, they set their sites on the elusive US market. They've said that writing English songs was hard at first, but they quickly found a knack for it and their first English-language single, "Neverending Love," caught the attention of MTV. They locked themselves in the studio and came out with their first English full-length, 1986's Pearls of Passion. Most tracks featured Marie Fredriksson's sunny vocals, but a few were sung by the throaty Gessle. 1988's Look Sharp! was the grand slam they were looking for. Their pulsing single "The Look" got massive US radio play and went to #1. Legend had it that a Minneapolis college student studying abroad had heard Roxette's track, brought a copy of Look Sharp! home and forced his local radio station to play it. After "The Look," Roxette just couldn't miss. Follow-up singles included "Listen To Your Heart," "Dangerous" and the anthem "It Must Have Been Love." In their prime, Roxette could sell out arenas everywhere from Mexico to Australia, fans singing along to every word.