Roxette singer Marie Fredriksson: Five songs for eternity

Marie Fredriksson: "Sparvöga" (1989)

Marie Fredriksson founded her first band Strul in the late 1970s, shortly after she left school. At the punk group also played her later Roxette partner Per Gessle at times, in their own band Gyllene Tider she also sang in the early eighties. It was Gessle who persuaded the then timid singer and songwriter to a solo career: she was too talented to hide behind keyboards. Their debut album was released in 1984, but the single "Sparvöga" (Sparrow-Eye), the theme music of the eponymous TV miniseries, 1989, her first major radio and charts success.

Roxette: "The Look" (1988)

Alongside her successful solo career, her band Roxette, which she founded in 1986 with Per Gessle, also took off. "The Look" was already the fourth single of the second Roxette album "Look Sharp!" In February 1989, but the explosive song brought the international breakthrough for the already established act in Sweden. The song with the "Na-na-na-na-na" and Gessle's distinctive guitar riff went number one in the charts, including Germany, in 25 countries, and brought Roxette the first of a total of four top spots in the US billboard charts.

Roxette: "Listen To Your Heart" (1988)

To conquer the US charts, "Listen To Your Heart", originally the second single from "Look Sharp!" not even the then usual 7 "single release in the spring of 1989. The omnipresent power-ballad that is still present today in karaoke bars, casting shows and eighties compilations not only showed that Roxette was not a one-hit wonder, but also that the band could be more versatile than the fast "The Look".

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Roxette: "She's Got Nothing On (But The Radio)" (2011)

If you miss Roxette-smashers like "Joyride", "It Must Have Been Love", "Sleeping In My Car" or "Spending My Time" here, you're right, but this single, released in January 2011, marked a brilliant one Comeback for the band, which had to reinvent itself after Fredriksson's collapse and tumor diagnosis in 2002. The sweeping song, a tribute to Marilyn Monroe, recalled the power pop of the late Eighties and was in fact the most successful Roxette single since 1992 in Germany - she remained on the charts for a full 25 weeks.

Marie Fredriksson: "I Want To Go" (2017)

In 2016, shortly after Roxette's 30th anniversary on stage, Marie Fredriksson had to announce her departure for live performances - her weakened health just did not allow her to perform anymore. She remained active and published some very nice singles until 2018. Including "I Want To Go", a cover version of the 1965 released Country Blues track by JB Lenoir. Fredriksson honored her lifelong love of American music. For the first time, she heard the song about the tedious life on a farm 25 years ago, and she was very happy to finally have her own version.