As you all know, Marie Fredriksson’s autobiography, Kärleken till livet was published in Sweden in 2015. All fans had been longing for at least an English version as well, but instead of it being published in English first, 1 year after the Swedish release, the book was published in German. The German edition, Listen to my heart: Meine Liebe zum Leben contains an extra chapter and some additional photos vs. the Swedish edition. Another surprise came when we heard the book would be translated into Czech and would be published in the Czech Republic this year. Listen to my Heart: Moje láska k životu has been published just now and there was a big party for its release. The event happened at Hard Rock Café in Prague on 3rd October. Longtime fan, Valeria Zvarova was there at the party and wrote her report on it. Please, read her story below. She also shared info on the difference between the Czech and the German edition of the book.
Event – The RockSet live at Hard Rock Café and christening of the Czech version of Marie’s book
3.10.2017 in Prague
As you may know, because of the event held at Hard Rock Café back in 2015, prior to the real Roxette gig at O2 Arena in Prague, there is a really great Rox revival band in Prague. It’s the singers Zuza Nová and Ondra Gorcík with their band, they call themselves The RockSet – the World Roxette Tribute band. If you want to learn more about them, click HERE.
From Hard Rock Café and publishing house Dobrovsky, which released the book in Czech, this band got an invitation to represent Roxette and christen Marie’s book at a live concert on the stage of Hard Rock Café. There are several of us Roxers here in Prague, who are friends with this band and we follow their gigs and try to help a little when possible. This time the band recorded an invitation video which we shortly translated and equipped with subtitles and posted on Rox-related Facebook sites and groups. And even Per himself shared the information posted by RoxetteBlog!
We were sure, this would be a real event for all of us fellow Roxers and yes, there were many of us there yesterday evening, and even some friends from Sweden, who really enjoyed the show with us, dancing close to the stage!
Before the concert, we picked up a bunch of white roses and the cake, a suitable one in the form of a book – and we managed to get good places at the venue. Before the start, the screen rolled down in front of the stage, showing a short video with the information about the event, about Marie, nice pictures from the book and this event was also joint with the Charity foundation Mamma Help, supporting patients suffering from breast cancer. If you bought the book there, from the price of 299 CZK /approx 10 EUR/, 100 CZK went to charity.
When the concert began, we all gathered at the stage – which is not so easy because of the fact that there is a bar placed in the middle of the venue, directly in front of the stage. During the performance, some of us gave a white rose to Zuza after our favourite songs.
The concert went on and the band was simply great on stage – as Per would say maybe – Zuza was in top shape.
The first break was filled with the christening act itself. The publisher couple Dobrovsky, representatives of Hard Rock Café and charity Mamma Help gathered on the stage. The cake was brought on a table and champagne was ready at the edge of the stage.
Zuza was presenting the event, talking about the charity and about the fact that the book was released by Dobrovsky publishing house in Czech as the third language worldwide – a fact which is truly unbelievable… and also about their cooperation with Hard Rock Café. Zuza was talking about Marie, her life and also, this was very touching, she thanked the Czech Roxers for the support they get – we are honoured… Then they poured a little champagne on the book, we handed over some more white roses and the event was soon ending.
The concert continued with the second part. There were many Roxers cheering, having fun, dancing and singing along… also the tourists went wild. I know, yes, you may say, it’s just a revival. Yes, we know that – and we do not consider them being Rox – but this is so close to Rox you can get, with full power on stage like before, great voices, performing and acting sometimes the way Rox did – even though they do not know the shows by heart like we do, in fact they have hardly seen them! And visually, yes, sometimes you get the feeling like it was really her… it’s almost unreal, we would say. And they are all great friends, since several years we have known them. We hope they will continue bringing us Rox music and the feelings being 14 again for many years to come! Especially since we know, we would never see Roxette live together again…
We from the Czech Roxette fanclub would also like to express our thanks to the singers Zuza Nová, Ondra Gorcík and all of the members of the band.
There will be some videos and photos done by Lenka Kohoutová as well. All in all, it was a great evening and we hope for more to come!
Setlist:
- Dressed For Success
- Perfect Day
- How Do You Do!
- Fading Like A Flower
- Wish I Could Fly
- Almost Unreal
- It Must Have Been Love
Then christening itself on the stage.
- Joyride
- Things Will Never Be The Same
- Crash! Boom! Bang!
- She’s Got Nothing On (But the Radio)
- Run To You
- Spending My Time
- June Afternoon
- The Big L.
- Dangerous
- Fireworks
- Hotblooded
- Listen To Your Heart
- The Look
* extra Sleeping In My Car
Some facts about the Czech version of Marie’s book:
The Czech version is slightly different to the German one – mainly in colour. The Czech one is published with light blue cover at the back and inside. The title remained yellow. That was probably because of keeping the Swedish colours – well, fine for me.
Photos are the same as in the German version, as well as the chapters.
The book is a bit smaller vs. the German version – with every language, it becomes smaller somehow – but anyway, it is a unique fact that the Czech version got released earlier than a possible English or Spanish edition or in other more important languages… it was a real surprise for us all and another confirmation of the fact how big Roxette are in our country.
And just one mistake we found, looking roughly – a picture of the Look Sharp! era is captioned with year 1998.
So, each year there is another language release, maybe one day we will see an English version as well. 😉 Fingers crossed!
Pictures in the article by Lenka Kohoutová and Valeria Zvarova.
Thank you for your report, Valeria!
(Updated) As we already 
2016 was a sad year for music fans, many “big ones” left us, artists like David Bowie, Leonard Cohen or Prince that influenced Marie and Per in a way or another.
And I won’t deny it, I think I still haven’t gotten over it and finally understood that there is no more Roxette live anymore. There will be Per performing Roxette songs, as it was already in 2009, but it will simply not be the same. It’s nothing against Per, I loved the 2009 shows and I will surely love the upcoming tour. It’s just not the same without Marie. Roxette are two great friends making magic together and there is nothing that can replace that.