Roxette

Roxette is a Swedish pop rock duo formed in 1986 in Halmstad, consisting of Marie Fredriksson on vocals and keyboards and Per Gessle on vocals and guitar. Building on Gessle's earlier success with the band Gyllene Tider and Fredriksson's solo career, the pair combined their talents to create a polished, hook-driven sound blending rock guitars, synth textures and soaring melodic vocals.

The duo broke through internationally with their 1988 album Look Sharp!, which produced global hits like «The Look» and «Listen to Your Heart». Their 1991 follow-up Joyride cemented their status as one of the biggest pop acts of the era, spawning further hits including the title track and «Fading Like a Flower». Across their career Roxette scored four US number-one singles — «The Look», «Listen to Your Heart», «It Must Have Been Love» and «Joyride» — along with nineteen UK Top 40 entries, songs such as «Dangerous», «Spending My Time» and «How Do You Do!» among them.

Roxette's music became a defining sound of late-1980s and early-1990s radio pop, admired for Fredriksson's powerful voice and Gessle's gift for melody and songwriting. The duo continued performing and recording over the following decades despite Fredriksson's long illness. She passed away in December 2019 at the age of 61 after a seventeen-year battle with cancer, closing one of Sweden's most successful musical partnerships.