Roxette Profile

Roxette was a Swedish duo composed of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle. They began their career in 1986 and debuted with the studio album titled Pearls of Passion. They released their second album Look Sharp! two years later becoming the international stars. They have a total number of 19 UK Top 40 songs, and multiple US Hot 100 songs. Their hit song It Must Have Been Love became extremely popular after being feature in a 1990 film Pretty Woman.

Look Sharp! Studio Album

Their breakthrough album titled Look Sharp! was released on October 21, 1988. Roxette was already popular in Sweden, but they became known overseas only after they released this album. It consists of 12 songs including the singles Dressed for Success, Listen to Your Heart, Chances, The Look and Dangerous. It was certified 6 times platinum in Sweden and reached number 1 on both Norvegian and Swedish charts.

Gun-Marie Fredriksson

Gun-Marie Fredriksson was born in 1958 in Össjö, Sweden. Before joining Roxette she was a member of a band Strul established in 1979. She started her solo career with the release of Het Vind under EMI Sweden. That was followed by by albums Den sjunde vågen and ... Efter stormen released in 1986 and 1987 respectively. Fredriksson and Gessle joined their forces by releasing an English version of a song Neverending Love, and was their first work under the name Roxette. The vocalist died in 2019 after a long battle with cancer. After her death the duo disbanded.

Per Gessle

Per Gessle, known also as Per Håkan Gessle is a singer, songwriter and guitarist born in Halmstad, Sweden, in 1959. In 1976 he co-founded a pop group Gyllene Tider, which released very popular albums including the eponymous Gyllene Tider, Moderna Tider and Puls. Their fourth release titled The Heartland Café was not a success and the group disbanded. He began a career as a soloist in 1982, when his debut full-lenght album Per Gessle came out. His second solo album titled Scener premiered in 1985. After joining Roxette, the duo had their multi-platinum albums Look Sharp! and Joyride. Per Gessle is credited as a co-writer of many of the band's songs.

Roxette Albums

The band debuted - as mentioned earlier - with Pearls of Passion in 1986, but didn't achieve any international success until Look Sharp! in 1988. This was followed by a critical acclaimed Joyride in 1991, and Tourism: Songs from Studios, Stages, Hotelrooms & Other Strange Places in 1992 which sold a total number of 6 million copies. Their other releases are Crash! Boom! Bang! (1994), Have a Nice Day (1999), Room Service (2001), Charm School (2011), Travelling (2012) and Good Karma (2016).