Roxette’s long-time manager Marie Dimberg receives Honorary award for Swedish Music Export

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As we posted about it yesterday, at a ceremony at the Swedish Department of Foreign Affairs, Marie Dimberg was awarded the Swedish Government’s Honorary award for a lifetime achievement of Music Export.

Marie Dimberg says she was very surprised, honoured and happy when chairman of the jury for this called her quite some time ago – actually the day after Marie Fredriksson’s passing.

She tells:

My work has always been more of a lifestyle than an actual job. It’s impossible to describe the feeling of being at a Roxette concert in e.g. Johannesburg and the crowd of 50-60.000 people sing a long in a song written in small town Halmstad. Or to be part of a dream come true when Peter Jöback enters the stage on Broadway as Phantom of the Opera, one of the world’s most iconic roles. To see Agnes’ ”Release Me” climb the charts and a star is born. To hear Peter Gabriel praise Loney Dear and his incredible talent. I’ve had the privilege to be part of all of this and so much more. Those feelings are the fireworks, the goosebumps and the reward for the basis of everything; hard work and great teamwork.

Marie started her management in 1997. She began her career at EMI Records, in Sweden continued as VP of International in London and before leaving she was Marketing Director of EMI Sweden. Marie was instrumental already from the start of Roxette’s international breakthrough. Marie has been named the Most Influential Woman in the Swedish music industry and 2016 she was awarded the Denniz Pop Award for The Most Valuable Person.

2017 she teamed up with partner Tomas Jernberg and created the nordic management company Dimberg Jernberg. The company currently represents: Roxette, Per Gessle, Jonas Åkerlund, Christopher, Nause, Peter Jöback, Loney Dear, Molly Hammar, Gyllene Tider, Frida Öhrn, LOK, Emmi Christensson and BJOERN.

With new Roxette releases, and big successes with multi-platinum selling danish artist Christopher – being one of the biggest male pop stars in his home country, ramping up his career especially in Asia, and many exciting projects for 2021 in the making, the company is more vivid than ever.

See Marie talking about receiving the award HERE.

Very well deserved, Marie! Big congrats and keep up the good work!

 

Photo to the left by Sara Brynedal: Marie Dimberg and Anna Hallberg, Minister for Foreign Trade and Nordic Affairs at the ceremony; Photo to the right by Karin Törnblom

Roxette – Listen To Your Heart played 6 million times on US radio

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BMI yesterday paid tribute to the top UK and European songwriters, composers and music publishers of the most-performed songs of the previous year with the 2020 BMI London Awards. Among others, honourees for Million-Air Awards were celebrated across BMI’s digital and social channels. To recognise their remarkable achievements, BMI created a special page on its website where fans can watch video messages, listen to award-winning songs and take a look back at the best award show moments throughout the years. Click HERE to reach the site.

American radios played Listen To Your Heart now more than 6 million times! That means more than 62 years if it were constantly played! Amazing, isn’t it?

Roxette reached their 2nd No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with LTYH on 4th November 1989. In 1998 they received an award from BMI for this song being played over 2 million times on American radio. Phil Graham of BMI said it was very unusual for a song to get over the 2 million mark in such a short space of time. In October 2006, helped by DHT’s cover, Roxette were awarded again by BMI for the song’s 3 millionth broadcast on American radio. Per and MP got the Million-Air Award for 4 million plays in 2008 and for 5 million plays in 2014.

Listen To Your Heart was covered by an American hard rock band, Through Fire and they put the song back on the US charts in March 2020. The cover spent 16 weeks on Mainstream Rock Billboard music chart and peaked at No. 32.

Congratulations to Per Gessle and Mats MP Persson for creating this wonderful song that never gets old and for reaching the 6 million mark! And of course, neverending love to Marie Fredriksson!

Thanks for the hint, Tina Engmann!

Roxette – Let Your Heart Dance With Me

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The long-awaited 2nd treat from Bag of Trix – Music from the Roxette Vaults album series is out this Friday.

A previously unreleased Roxette single, Let Your Heart Dance With Me is one of the last recordings Roxette ever did and is released almost a year after the tragic passing of lead singer Marie Fredriksson. It will be available on digital platforms on 2nd October and is to be released as a limited edition 7″ golden vinyl single in 1500 copies worldwide on 9th October.

Thanks to songwriter Per Gessle’s prolific flow of tunes, classic Swedish pop group Roxette always had a surplus of material to choose between for their albums. Many of these leftover songs were actually strong contenders for inclusion and their quality has made them loved among fans when they’ve popped up as bonus material on singles or compilations.

This was the case up until the release of Roxette’s final studio album, Good Karma, which in the summer of 2016 yielded a couple of songs that weren’t needed for the album. On of them was Let Your Heart Dance With Me, but it finally sees the light of day thanks to the Bag of Trix box set, Roxette’s magnifique collection of unreleased material. The first volume of Bag of Trix is planned to be released on 30th October.

Per says about Let Your Heart Dance With Me:

I wanted to write a classic and simple “clap your hands and stomp your feet” song, and “Let Your Heart Dance With Me” came out of it. I liked it already in the studio, but as usual we already had so many strong contenders that it had to wait for a second chance. And when the idea for this project came up, it was a given.

Gessle gave Let Your Heart Dance With Me to mixing maestro Ronny Lahti, who some two decades ago gave the Roxette album Room Service its characteristic pop shimmer. The result now is a song that radiates summer, sun and optimism, despite being recorded during a time when Marie was on her final days with Roxette due to increasing health problems following her cancer treatment a decade earlier.

Per Gessle says:

Just a couple of months before “Good Karma” was released, Marie’s doctors advised her to quit touring for good. We cancelled the Summer tour and all future commitments. But even a studio recording was demanding for her. She wanted so much, but really had to fight to get it out. And she did. Marie was a real trooper to the very end.

To celebrate this release, Mr. G will do an exclusive interview and answer fans’ questions LIVE on Roxette’s YouTube channel at 16.30 CEST on Friday, 2nd October. After that, premiere of the music video to Let Your Heart Dance With Me will happen at 17.00 CEST. Save the link to the Q&A and the music video premiere HERE and get ready with your questions!

The music video showcases Per and Marie’s close friendship and long companionship that led to the worldwide success. To quote Per:

We’ve also put together a beautiful music video for the song including private footage from the glorious past. Lots of memories and plenty of joy, hopefully not only for me but also for people interested in what Roxette is all about. Can’t wait to watch it together with you – our fans – who made it all possible.

See teasers of the music video here: 1; 2; 3.

See Per announcing the Q&A session HERE.

PRE-ORDER the limited edition single at Bengans, Ginza or check the availability with your local music stores, since it’s a worldwide release. UPDATE on 1st October: the single seems to be sold out at Bengans and Ginza. It might be available again on release day, but it’s worth trying to buy it in other stores. CDON, for example.

Tracklist

A            Let Your Heart Dance With Me
B            Help! (Abbey Road Sessions)

Press release in Swedish can be found HERE.

Let Your Heart Dance With Me

It was so easy to fall in love
It got so simple to fall in love
You know what I did?
I got excited
We were united
So delighted

It was so easy to laugh with you
It was so simple to look at you
You made it possible
By being beautiful
So incredible
Truly wonderful

Dance with me
Let your heart dance with me
Dance with me
Let your heart dance with me
Let me see you smile

I might be living in my car
I might be running near and far
When stars can’t find me
You know where I’ll be
Closed in the mystery
The love of you and me

Dance with me
Let your heart dance with me
Dance with me
Let your heart dance with me
Let me see you smile again
Let me see that smile

Words + Music by Per Gessle
© Jimmy Fun Music

Watch the premiere interview with Per Gessle HERE and the video to Let Your Heart Dance With Me HERE.

Nypon och ljung – new single by Per Gessle is out

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Nypon och ljung, the first single from Per’s upcoming album is now out. Listen to it on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube and other digital platforms! Look at the amount and type of instruments Mr. G plays! Oh wow! And the vocals! And the melody! So catchy!

Per tells he wrote his new album’s opening song, Nypon och ljung for Gyllene Tider’s Dags att tänka på refrängen album in 2012, but they never recorded it. He thinks he didn’t even present it to the band. Later, before his Nashville trip in 2016 he made a demo, which is completely different. In the end, he didn’t record it in Nashville either. It was just lying around though he always liked it. He was sitting at home and played and it got some sort of swing that can’t really be found in his old demos. He was thinking of J. J. Cale’s old drum box stuff from the ’70s. That fits this song very well, so he made a very simple demo with a little drum machine. It turned out just fine, so he went to the studio and did an acoustic version, then added instrument after instrument. Per Thornberg came to play tenor sax, Helena came to sing, ”Gicken” Johansson plays the bass, Jens Jansson plays the drums and Per plays all other instruments. He says it was incredibly fun and unexpectedly, it became one of his favourites.

NYPON OCH LJUNG

Min dörr är aldrig stängd
Min dörr står alltid glatt på glänt
För henne

Min dörr är aldrig stängd
Fönstret står alltid lätt på glänt
Så jag kan höra henne: oooohh….

Hon hann ikapp och förbi
Hon hann ifatt och for förbi
Det är helt OK

Hon hann ikapp och förbi
Med stav och hatt, som trolleri
Och det är helt OK

Hon kom med nypon och ljung
En gammal känsla som känns ung
Ny och ung

Hon kom med nypon och ljung
En gammal känsla som känns ung
Orörd och ung: oooohh….
OK

Text + musik: Per Gessle
© Jimmy Fun Music

Produced by Per Gessle
Recorded at T&A, Halmstad + Sweetspot, Harplinge July + August 2020
Engineers: Mats Persson (T&A) + Staffan Karlsson (Sweetspot)
Mixed by Mats Persson + Per Gessle

Vocals + acoustic guitar + electric guitar + clapping + pump organ + Wurlitzer: Per Gessle
Vocals: Helena Josefsson
Bass + lap steel: Fredrik ”Gicken” Johansson
Drums + percussion: Jens Jansson
Tenor sax: Per Thornberg

Lyric video HERE!

Photo of Per on the single cover is by Åsa Gessle

Gammal kärlek rostar aldrig – tracklist of the new Per Gessle album

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Per Gessle’s new Swedish solo album, Gammal kärlek rostar aldrig (Old love never dies) will be available on LP and CD, as well as on digital platforms. The vinyl comes in two versions – gatefold with black vinyl and limited edition coloured vinyl (1000 copies). The release date is 6th November 2020.

Tracklist

1. Nypon och ljung
2. I din hand
3. Du kommer så nära (du blir alldeles suddig)
4. Hjärta utan hem
5. Segla på ett moln
6. Ömhet
7. Viskar
8. Lycklig en stund
9. Tända en sticka till
10. Som regn på en akvarell
11. Mamma
12. Pappa
13. Kom ut till stranden

Don’t forget that Nypon och ljung is out as a single digitally on 18th September.

You can pre-order the album at Bengans and Ginza.

Cover pic by Bruno Ehrs.

Read more about the album in the press release HERE.