Few talk about the "Swedish musical wonder" anymore, which was strongly connected to successful Swedish artists, but Swedish music is still popular outside of Sweden. Swedish songwriters still hold the fort.
"Sweden is a small country, but Swedish music is big abroad. The foreign proceeds are a receipt showing that Swedish songwriters are of high international class" says Margita Ljungberg, senior adviser at STIM.
"I'm happy that ABBA does so well! " Per Gessle comments to The Daily Roxette.

The most played songs by Swedish composers outside of Sweden 2007:

1. Listen To Your Heart
Per Gessle/Mats MP Persson
2. Dancing Queen
Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra)/Stig Anderson
3. Since U Been Gone
Max Martin/Lukasz Gottwald (Ascap)
4. Hung Up
Madonna (Ascap)/Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra), Stuart
Price (BMI)
5. Who Knew
Max Martin/Lukasz Gottwald (Ascap)
6. Behind These Hazel Eyes
Max Martin/Lukasz Gottwald (Ascap)/Kelly Clarkson (Ascap)
7. It Must Have Been Love
Per Gessle
8. Mamma Mia
Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra)/Stig Anderson
9. Gimme Gimme Gimme
Benny Andersson/Björn Ulvaeus (Buma/Stemra)
10. The One
Max Martin/Brian Littrell (Ascap)

Per Gessle's re-released and extended album "The World According to Gessle" enters the Swedish album chart at #14.

STOCKHOLM - "The World According to Gessle" was released May 2, 1997, it's now back, bigger and better. At least that's what EMI and Per want us to think. Are they right? The Daily Roxette got ourselves a little chat with Per himself regarding the re-release of this, among fans, widely liked album.

So, Per, back in the lime light yet another time, this time with an old album, tell us, what's the point in releasing "The World" again?

"Well, the thing is that it wasn't available at all anymore!," says Per, quite upset. "I happened to notice this by chance at the EMI office in Stockholm and nobody could explain why it had been deleted. So I decided to put it back on the shelves, but of course with added material I know some people are interested in. Like you for instance." Per smiles and points at this reporter.

Yes, and I am very thankful for that! You've added tons and tons of demos on the second CD, and I have to say, nice ones. What made you do that? I doubt it's that common these days.

"Well, first of all I wanted to make the re-release special. So basically I just asked myself what I as a fan, would want from an album like 'The World.' And the most obvious thing to me is 'behind the scenes' -material, like the original demos for instance." explains Per and continues "If you're really into an album it's always interesting to get to know how the working process got started and so on."

Read more…

NEW YORK -

Director Tomas Alfredson receives a cash prize of $25,000 and extra marketing power for his coming-of-age film "Let the Right One In" by winning the Founder's Prize at the Tribeca Film Festival that concluded here in New York City this past weekend.

The film, which features a song recorded by Per Gessle, will not be released in Sweden until October. "The distributors in Sweden felt that this was not a 'summer film'… that the mood matched a colder time of year," he told The Daily Roxette.

During a question-and-answer session, we asked Alfredson about the Gessle song "Kvar i min bil," which – as Per had told TDR – is given a prominent place in the film. In one scene, the lead actor is shown putting the the 45rpm single on a record player so as to listen to it.

"Do you know Roxette?," he asked us (obviously not knowing what newspaper we represented). He then proceeded to explain that the male half of that group (Per) had had a popular group (Gyllene Tider) back in the '80s, the time period in which this movie is set. Looking for a song that fit that era, but not wanting to use an instantly recognizable song, he asked Per (who he said he was an acquaintance of), if he could write a new song in the same style as those earlier GT hits.

Novelist John Ajvide Lindquist adapted his best-seller for the screen to tell the beautifully touching tale of the first romance of 12-year-old Oskar and the girl next door, Eli (who also happens to be a vampire). The Tribeca jury commented that the film was exceptional "for its mesmerizing exploration of loneliness and alienation through a masterful reexamination of the vampire myth."

The film already has North American distribution in place.

Variety also writes that a US version is in the works. Horror film company Hammer Films and indie company Spitfire Pictures have bought the rights.

SANTIAGO (Updated) - Vanilla Ninja, the Estonian power pop trio formed by Lenna Kuurmaa (vocals), Piret Järvis (guitar) and Katrin Siska (keyboards), a rocking girl band that is a well known act in the Central European scene, and now in Latin America, after participating successfully in the biggest summer Festival in Latin America, the Festival of Viña del Mar, this past February.

Before the girls will go on tour next June in the Baltic states, and their second visit to several countries in Latin America in July - August, they want to release a single to warm up the audience. After discussing this issue with Hector Faune, their manager/promoter for Latin America, Hector proposed to get in touch with Per Gessle from Roxette to have a possible song co-operation, as he feels Vanilla Ninja's music has lots of similarities to Roxette's uptempo and power ballad style.

When Per was approached for a co-operation he sent over two demos; "T-t-t-take it!" and "Every Day Outside My Window" but the girls felt these particular songs didn't suit them; "Per kindly sent us two songs, and we picked one to use for the next release" says Lenna, vocalist in Vanilla Ninja. The song, "Crashing Through The Doors," is composed by Per Gessle, with original lyrics from Piret Järvis and Lenna Kuurmaa. Readers of The Daily Roxette will be pleased to know this is an English version of Per Gessle's "Spegelboll" from the highly successful "Mazarin" album released in 2003.

"The girls are in the studio working hard to get a cool version out of it," Hector Faune says to The Daily Roxette.

On the question if this will be the start of a bigger co-operation with Per, Lenna replies: "Probably. I hope so. He himself was also very interested in it, but unfortunately a person who's as famous as him, his calendar is planned for a year or two."

The song will be released on May 9 to radio stations, firstly in Estonia, and a little later in the Central European Countries, as well in Latin America.

Download a sample. 

SÖDERHAMN - Snippets of some of the new songs are now available on gessle.com. The remastered and extended version of "The World According to Gessle" will be released May 14.

Gessle.com, thru Bengans, is taking orders for the remastered and extended version of "The World According to Gessle." Swedes can pay via invoice - 169 SEK, or credit card - 159 SEK, foreigners via credit card only. Shipping to Sweden is 29 SEK, EU 45 SEK and the rest of the world 55 SEK.

STOCKHOLM (Updated) - Per writes us:

Jeezus - no order in the bedroom! This morning I found a very early demo of "Wish you the best" called "Drum", which we just have to use on new TWATG-release!!! So… WYTB is left out in the cold… the album release is set for early May. that's the most recent whisper in the EMI corridors…

Update:  Release date is May 14. Still no word on where it's being released besides Sweden.

Per GessleToday the album "Per Gessle" turns 25 years old! The album, which was at first supposed to be called "Syrenernas tid" ("Age of the Lilacs"), was released 25 years ago today, on April 8, 1983.

Per tells us that he started recording this album right after "Puls" when the other four in Gyllene Tider were drafted for the army. "I remember I didn't really get along with my high voice so I set all the songs in keys too low (to get a 'deeper' voice). This is/was a big mistake. Some songs, for example 'Syrenernas tid' would have been much better with some sharper vocals."

Per isn't really happy with the sleeve either. It was shot at Tylösand and at the suite at the Hallandia Hotel in Halmstad. "I never liked the sleeve, much too 'grown up' for a 24 year old… but maybe that happened to show a different side of me than the one in GT…"

The album generated one single; "Om du har lust" with the flip side "Överallt" and "Man varnade för halka." The single is quite hard to find. EMI even claimed it was never released.

Some sources claim that the singer Anne-Lie Rydé loved "Segla på ett moln" so much that she "stole" it (convinced Per she could have it,) but that's not how it went down. Anne-Lie got it because it was a left-over.

"Per Gessle" was released on CD in the box set "På väg" July 1 1992, this time with three bonus tracks. "Segla på ett moln," performed together with Marie Fredriksson, ended up on the album "Demos 1982-86."

STOCKHOLM - Art is not just short for Arthur it seems after all. In the footsteps of Marie Fredriksson, Per will open an art exhibition of his own in May, coincidentally with the re-release of "The World According to Gessle." We have previously seen Per's drawings in the "Mazarin" album booklet and he even created a painting for an auction in 2003, but this exhibition will be something completely different. It's entitled, "The Art According to Gessle."

"I've always liked the classic Greek statues. Michelangelo's David and all that, you know. I even have a couple of antique statues in my house," Per says to The Daily Roxette. "So I thought, what the heck, why shouldn't I get my hands dirty and try to re-create that magnificient style. It's not that popular these days, but I don't think I need to worry about that, do I?" Per says with a crooked smile.

Per has transformed a room in his house in Halmstad into a studio where he works exclusively with Ferrara marble imported from Italy. Like all the great masters, he actually has an assistant doing much of the actual sculpting. Per provides direct supervision and instruction.

Per will be interviewed about these new works on Kulturnyheterna on SVT2 at 19:00 CET today. The program is also broadcast on SVT Play on the Internet.

Editor's Note: As many of you guessed from the Dateline… this was indeed our April Fool's joke. Thanks to Jastrow for the photo!  – LEO