Swedish musician Per Gessle has announced the return to activity of his band Roxette with a new singer, his compatriot Lena Philipsson, five years after the death of its iconic original vocalist, Marie Fredriksson.
Specifically, as the official profile of the recomposed duo on Instagram points out, in 2025 there will be a tour of which two concerts have been anticipated in South Africa: one on February 25 in Cape Town and another on the 28th in Pretoria.
“It’s about my Roxette songs that I’ve been writing for over three decades. I’m not going to start a new duo. Marie will always be irreplaceable. However, I am very lucky to have found an incredible voice and a brilliant performer in Lena,” Gessle alleged in response to the replacement of her former partner.
Philipsson is a well-known artist in Sweden and also for regular Eurovision viewers, since she represented her country in the 2004 edition with the song It Hurts, with which she placed fifth.
“I am excited to embark on this tour. I really want to work with Per: he is a phenomenal composer and an inexhaustible musical force,” said this singer, whose first hit was co-written in 1986 by Gessle, in statements included in the official announcement.
Roxette became one of the most internationally successful Swedish groups, especially after the release of their second studio album, Look Sharp! (1988), which included the hits Dressed For Success, Listen To Your Heart and The Look.
They would take over from Joyride (1991), which is among the 100 best-selling albums in the world thanks to songs like Spending My Time, or Crash! Boom! Bang! (1994), with which Sleeping In My Car was released.
A brain tumor led Frederiksson to a long period of recovery at the beginning of the 21st century and, although he later released a solo album in 2004, the duo did not publish new material until 2011, when Charm School was released, which Two more studio albums followed, Traveling (2012) and the final Good Karma.
The illness once again took its toll on the singer, who suffered in the last years of Roxette’s activity to the point of having to cancel the tour for her 30th anniversary. In 2019, her death was announced at the age of 61, but after having shipped more than 75 million copies worldwide.
