Marie Fredriksson

Tack för musiken, Marie Fredriksson

by

SVT broadcasted the show ”Tack för musiken”, for which the recordings with Marie Fredriksson were on 27th August. Click HERE to watch it!

It begins with Niklas Strömstedt and the band performing ”Tro” live. Niklas welcomes Ms Effe only after this. They are sitting and talking about Marie’s career (solo, earlier bands, Roxette, Per Gessle), illness (she’s healthy now and grateful to be there) and her family. Marie’s husband, Micke Bolyos was sitting in the band, playing the keyboards during the show.

You can see how much Marie enjoyed being there and how fine she is. She was very relaxed, smiling and laughing all the time. Tears appeared in her eyes when Niklas was talking about her album ”Den ständiga resan” that there are 13 songs about darkness, but the last song, ”Till sist” is different. He read up the first lines of the song and asked who these lines are about. Marie pointed at Micke and told it’s about him. They looked at each other with so much love during the whole show.

MF_Tack_för_musiken_01  MF_Tack_för_musiken_02

Marie started singing when she was a little child. She started the day with singing at 7 am, when everyone else would have loved to sleep. Later, at the age of 17 she wanted to be an actress. It was her dream. She was talking about how she loves writing songs, but after her illness it’s not that easy anymore. She talked about Lasse Lindbom, how much he means to her. They had a fantastic time and were writing a lot of songs together.

In the audience there were many familiar faces and at one point Niklas started talking about Argentina and the fans. Marie realized there were fans in the audience from Argentina, too and said that a lot of Roxette fans are here and they are fantastic. The fans are always by their side, following them and they are even here at this show. Marie told the fans know all the lyrics regardless of where they are coming from or which language the songs are in.

Niklas was joking about Marie’s name, Gun-Marie and pronounced it the English way: Gun-Marie from Roxette. Everyone was laughing.

Read more

Roxette Brasil interviewed Jokke Pettersson: ”Marie and I are very close since I was a child.”

by

Roxette Brasil (Bianca Cappelletti) did a nice interview with Jokke Pettersson, Marie’s nephew, who is going to be part of Marie’s band on tour. Here you have the translation:

 

Marie is the youngest child of the Fredriksson family. Her sister Anna-Lisa (who died in a car accident when Marie was 8) and Ulla-Britt were much older, so Marie had a closer relationship with Tina. In fact, they were inseparable! The family has always lived in a very musical environment and it seems that the tradition is being kept. Jokke Pettersson, Marie’s nephew will play the guitar in the band that will accompany her on tour in 2014.

Jokke kindly gave an interview to Roxette Brasil and here it is:

Roxette Brasil: – Hello, Jokke! For a start, tell us a bit more about your musical background. Has music always been present in your life? When did you start playing? What are your biggest influences?

Jokke: – Yes, music has always been a large part of my life. I started playing the drums when I was 8 and the guitar at the age of 11. In my family we were always playing music and singing, so it was natural for me to play the instruments, too.

Roxette Brasil: – We know you have a strong blues influence, but you also play great pop and wow … heavy metal? Can you tell us more about your style?

Jokke: – I started out as a big heavy metal fan and I was listening a lot to Metallica, Pantera and stuff like this when I was a kid. At a time in my life I thought that it was not enough and then learned to play all the other styles such as blues and pop. I always liked guitarists like John Scofield, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hendrix and others.

Roxette Brasil: – In 2011 you gave an interview to a newspaper in Helsingborg, related to a United Nations day show. You were asked about playing songs from Marie (Tro, Sparvöga , Ett hus vid havet, Vinterangel and Ännu doftar kärlek) and you said that the conductor of the choir proposed the songs, who revealed that Marie is your aunt and that your mother was in the choir, too. Can you tell us more about your relationship with Marie? Are you close to each other?

Jokke: – My mother is Tina. Marie and I are very close since I was a child.

Roxette Brasil: – Tell us about your band, Ladah.

Jokke: – I and two friends are the members of Ladah, where we played jazz-rock fusion. I’m currently working a lot with my band, Karavan. We released two albums that can be found on Spotify. We toured with American Hunter Perrin and now we’re on tour with Cameron Ochs. I also have a metal band called Kayser. We will release our next album in February. I love playing different styles.

Roxette Brasil: – For those who are wondering if you’ve worked together with Marie earlier, you played the guitar on some of the songs of Min bäste vän album, right? How did she invite you to accompany her on tour?

Jokke: – Yeah, I played on Min bäste vän and also on her new album, Nu!. She called me to go on tour with her and of course I said YES! It’s an honor!

Roxette Brasil: – Marie has one of the most beautiful and the most recognizable voices in pop. For this reason, she has many fans around the world and we know that many fans will travel from their countries to join her tour. Do the pressure and anxiety increases for this reason or the fact that you are her nephew makes you more relaxed?

Jokke: – Tough question. I think the biggest reason to be calm is that I know what I’m doing. But I love Marie and her personality and it is very good of course.

Roxette Brasil: – As a final question, what are your expectations for the tour?

Jokke: – Play great music, meet cool people and have fun.

Marie Fredriksson – TV ad and PR for ”Nu!”

by

Lygrell & Silver Productions is the company that made the short video we could see on Aftonbladet’s website last Friday in which Marie and Micke are talking about ”Sista sommarens vals”.

Warner Music Sweden decided to do different PR for the album than usual, so besides some interviews in magazines, there are 5 videos about different topics. Good news is that all 5 videos are available online! (4 of them were removed after this article was published.) The PR videos are fantastic and it’s a great idea to do something different indeed. The productions company informs, Warner will spread them via social media sites.

Here you can check all the videos (note that now only Sista sommarens vals has a valid link):

The videos are shot at Marie’s & Micke’s home in Stockholm, in different places of the house. One of my personal favourites is the one with ”Kom vila hos mig”, where Marie is singing in the studio. Pure awesomeness!

The other is the longest video (15 minutes!!!), where she and Jonna are talking about mode and style. We already shared Jonna’s blog post with Marie some time ago on our Facebook site, so now we know why they were sitting together in Marie’s wardrobe. 😉 In the background you can see many clothes Marie was wearing in old videos (e.g. Anyone, The Big L., Joyride, Milk and Toast and Honey) and on tours or photo sessions. You can see in the video how much Marie loves her hot clothes. Good that she keeps them all.

Besides the 5 PR beauty videos, Lygrell & Silver Productions also made a 20-sec-long TV ad, which can be seen on TV4. Absolutely fantastic! 3 songs can be heard in the ad: ”Det är nu!”, ”Kom vila hos mig” and ”Sista sommarens vals”. Click HERE for watching!

MF_MB_PR_videos

Update 15:30 CET, 1st December: the PR videos besides the one in which Marie and Micke are talking about Sista sommarens vals and the TV ad were removed. Ooops. Warner will probably share them one by one, so please, be patient. They should be out very soon.

Busy St. Lucy’s day for the fans

by

You already saved the date in your calendar, as we already informed you that the 1-hour-long part of ”Tack för musiken” in which Marie Fredriksson is the guest will be broadcasted on SVT1 at 21:00 CET, 13th December. The show was recorded at the end of August and many fans could buy tickets and be there in the audience. It is going to be a fantastic show with Marie performing some of her songs live and a long interview with her done by Niklas Strömstedt.

Before you can enjoy watching Ms Effe on TV, you’ll have a chance to see another program on another channel, TV4. ”Gyllene Tider sommaren 2013” starts at 20:00 CET the very same evening. This will be an appetizer from the upcoming DVD. It will contain parts of the ”Dags att tänka på refrängen” tour, as well as some exclusive shots from the backstage. One bad thing about Swedish TV channels – understandably – competing with each other is that the GT stuff ends at 21:30. Fingers crossed that both programs will be available online after they are over on TV.

Oh, one more thing! Hopefully, history won’t repeat itself and we won’t have to wait another year for the GT DVD after this TV cut is broadcasted. 😉

MF_GT_13th_Dec_on_TV

 

Marie Fredriksson & Mikael Bolyos interview on TV4

by

This morning at 10:15 am CET there was a short interview with Marie and Micke in Nyhetsmorgon on TV4. The interview took place at Marie’s & Micke’s home in Stockholm. Marie was talking about how grateful she is for everything and they both said they learned how to live in the present. Marie said she learned to live with the fact that it takes her more time to write and also that she can’t remember the lyrics sometimes.

It means a lot to both of them that they could make this new album, ”Nu!”, however, it took a long time to release it. When she wrote ”Sista sommarens vals” of course she was thinking about Micke and when Micke wrote ”Vad vore jag utan dig” he thought about Marie. Marie says this latter song is so beautiful. That’s her favourite off the album and it feels fantastic to sing Micke’s words. Watch the video how Marie is “touching” Micke when they are talking about these 2 songs. So lovely! 😉 Both Marie and Micke were in a very good mood and relaxed, Marie was smiling all the time during the interview.

They were also talking about the kids, how fantastic it is to have them and that they are also interested in music and they are talking about music each day. They also told the story of their meeting in Sydney and how they became a couple right after that.

While touring with Roxette she felt better and better, she got strength and she gained her self-confidence back. Marie – besides her family – is grateful also to Per who was writing new material for Roxette and believed so much in Marie.

Marie is longing for the tour. It will be fantastic to tour in Sweden with a great band she’ll have with her. Besides new songs, there will of course be old ones, too on the setlist.

Watch the video HERE! Don’t forget to check the wonderful old pic of Marie in front of Micke!

Marie_Fredriksson_Mikael_Bolyos_nyhetsmorgon_01