charity

Per Gessle performed at the fundraising concert for Ukraine

by

Per Gessle performed at the fundraising concert in solidarity with Ukraine at Avicii Arena, Stockholm tonight. The almost 3-hour-long Hela Sverige skramlar show started at 20:00 CET and could be watched live not only on spot, but thanks to the organizers, also on SVT and other online channels (TV4 Play, Aftonbladet, Expressen). Swedish Radio also broadcast the event. The show will be available online for two months to watch on SVT, HERE.

The evening was filled with unique performances of some of Sweden’s foremost artists (Per Gessle, Eva Dahlgren, Peter Jöback, Wilmer X among many others) who showed up for free. Ticket revenues go in full to six different organizations in their work to curb the humanitarian crisis and promote human rights and democracy (International Red Cross, Proliska, UN Women Sweden, Fight for Right, Civil Rights Defenders and The Media Initiative for Human Rights).

As Per said earlier in a press release:

What is happening in Ukraine is undemocratic, indefensible and inconceivable. Difficult, if not impossible, to understand. You would think that no one in our modern times would have to experience such situation. I played a lot both in Russia and in Ukraine and the people of both countries are absolutely amazing. I have unforgettable memories from there that I saved deep in my heart. How could this happen?

Björn Ulvaeus from ABBA opened the event with a wonderful speech about peace and freedom.

Emma Molin and Fredrik Skavlan were the program leaders and after 4 performers they announced that 16 million SEK had been collected until then. While they talked, you could see Per and the band in the background, the crew changing the set for them. Mr. G entered the stage together with Helena Josefsson, Clarence Öfwerman, Magnus Börjeson and Ola Gustafsson to perform the 5th song at the gala. Listen To Your Heart sounded beautiful in that full arena!

All other artists also gave their best at the event. Even performers from Ukraine took the stage. Don’t miss Maria Sur singing Survivor (Destiny’s Child). So powerful!

Thank you, Per & Co. and all appearing on and providing support off stage, as well as everyone using Swish and any other ways to support Ukraine! At the end of the show it was announced that more than 60 million SEK was collected. [Update on 4th April: Contributions continued to come in on Sunday and the total collected is currently 75.805.615 SEK.]

Stills are from the gala video.

Per Gessle at the fundraising concert for Ukraine

by

A fundraising concert in solidarity with Ukraine is organized in Avicii Arena, Stockholm on Saturday 2nd April at 20:00 CET. The evening will be filled with unique performances of some of Sweden’s foremost artists who show up for free and the ticket proceeds go to six different organizations in their work to curb the humanitarian crisis and promote human rights and democracy. Ticket revenues go in full to International Red Cross, Proliska, UN Women Sweden, Fight for Right, Civil Rights Defenders and The Media Initiative for Human Rights.

Per Gessle is one of the participating artists, but also Eva Dahlgren, Peter Jöback, Wilmer X will be there, just to mention a few big names.

From the press release:

The country’s booking company gathers to arrange a fundraising concert with Sweden’s artist elite. This time in solidarity with Ukraine and with three major thematic themes in focus; humanitarian crisis, human rights and democracy.

Humanitarian Crisis:

More than one million people are on the run and many of them are children. At the same time, even more people are stuck in cities and towns in Ukraine and are affected or risk being affected by the war, either directly by military force or indirectly by famine and disease. We must help people in need.

Human Rights:

There are few things more incompatible with human value and life as war. We receive a lot of information about serious violations of human rights and violations of international law in the ongoing conflict, from indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas to denial of basic needs such as food, sleep and healthcare. We must fight for human rights.

Democracy:

Democracy in Ukraine is under direct attack, while we are seeing increased repression in Russia and Belarus. The small space left for free independent media and civil society in Russia has been brutally shut down. Since the outbreak of war, we have seen the great popular opposition to the war and how the brave voices that stand up to the Putin regime and call for peace are being systematically silenced. We must stand up for democracy and freedom in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

Per Gessle says in today’s press release:

What is happening in Ukraine is undemocratic, indefensible and inconceivable. Difficult, if not impossible, to understand. You would think that no one in our modern times would have to experience such situation. I played a lot both in Russia and in Ukraine and the people of both countries are absolutely amazing. I have unforgettable memories from there that I saved deep in my heart. How could this happen?

Tickets for the event are available HERE.

Thank you, Per, for supporting Ukraine!

The almost 3-hour-long concert can be watched worldwide live online HERE and it will be available at the link for a month.

Per Gessle’s teddy bear charity concert

by

Mix Megapol organized a charity event to be broadcast on the radio and their Facebook channel at 19.30 CET, 25th April. Due to the pandemic, the venue couldn’t be filled with listeners, but by donating 100 SEK, a listener helped to place a teddy bear in the audience. And wow, there were tons of bears in the crowd! Per Gessle, Lena Philipsson and Petra Marklund performed at “The Teddy Bear Concert” on Mix Megapol’s Guldscen this evening. The show was recorded yesterday, 24th April.

Lena Philipsson was first with 5 songs and she was followed by Petra Marklund with 4 of her hits. Last but not least, Mr. G appeared on stage together with Helena Josefsson, Clarence Öfwerman, Christoffer Lundquist and Magnus Börjeson and he chose to do an acoustic performance. They played 5 songs (3 PG solos and 2 Roxette hits). Petra Marklund joined them for the last one, Listen To Your Heart. We had a chance to experience Petra singing this song at the tribute event for Marie Fredriksson in January 2020.

It was lovely to hear these 5 songs in an acoustic arrangement again. Per’s vocals sounded very emotional and Helena was singing beautifully as usual. Clarence, Chris and Magnus also added to the intimacy of this little set with their playing.

After the Late Night Concert in December 2020 we all hoped for more acoustic appearances by Per. Even if we hoped for real live events, corona still doesn’t let us enjoy such happenings in real life, but fortunately, we had this opportunity to have Mr. G in our living rooms once again thanks to Mix Megapol.

Per Gessle setlist

  1. På promenad genom stan
  2. It Must Have Been Love
  3. Ömhet
  4. Tycker om när du tar på mej
  5. Listen To Your Heart

After the concert, Per thanked for watching and listening. A private teddy bear was sitting in front of him while performing. Would be nice to know the story of that one. Maybe it’s from Per’s childhood? Who knows. Looked cool anyway. The teddy bear too. Haha.

All donations related to the event fully go to Barncancerfonden (Childhood Cancer Foundation). Collecting donations started on 29th March and the amount reached more than 1.3 million SEK the day before the concert and one could still donate during the event, so in the end the sum was: 1.614.110 SEK! The teddies will be donated as well.

In case you missed the concert, you can watch it HERE!

Stills are from the concert.

PG’s promo video of the event you can watch HERE.

Lena, Petra and Per say thank you in THIS video.

Music Against Cancer – a successful charity auction supported by Roxette

by

As we reported about it earlier, Marie and Per supported Musik Mot Cancer, a non-profit organization to raise money for Barncancerfonden Väst (children’s cancer foundation) and the children’s department of the hospital in Norra Älvsborg. They signed 3 guitars and some other Roxette and solo project related things. The end of the auction was on 16th November, on Music Against Cancer Day. Anyone could bid on all items from all around the world. The organizers first hadn’t planned with fans from abroad, but it soon turned out for them that there were many who wanted to bid mainly on items related anyhow to the Rox World. Musik mot cancer was very fast replying to all the questions regarding the auction and they also translated a huge part of their website into English to help foreign Roxers understand what was going on and how they could bid on guitars and stuff.

The closure of the auction was organized as an event in Trollhättan, Sweden, where the guests could see all the items on display. The final bids could be taken in person, too, but the online platform was also available until the end of the auction. For a very long time it seemed that the guitar signed by both Marie and Per would be the one with the highest bid, but in the end it was Peter Lemarc’s guitar. Its final price was 25 000 SEK.

The second highest final price was that of the Roxette guitar, 20 000 SEK. Interesting info is that the winning bid for the Rox guitar (besides the guitars signed by Håkan Hellström and In Flames) came from Folke Pettersson, from Lilla Edet. He says he comes from a musical family, but he was bidding mainly because he finds the cause very important. The guitar signed by only Per was auctioned for 9 000 SEK, the one signed by only Marie for 7 000 SEK.

From the total of 83 items on auction 16 was related anyhow to the Rox World. Musik mot cancer collected 270 000 SEK to help the fight against cancer. 17% of this amount of money comes from items signed by Marie and Per. What a fantastic result! The final prices for each item you can check HERE.

Congrats to the organizers! Wishing them as much success with their future projects as they had with this one! Huge thanks to Marie and Per for supporting such a great cause and to all the participants who with their bids helped to raise this much money!

 

Marie_guitar_Per_guitar

Photos by Musik mot cancer

Music Against Cancer – signed guitars from Roxette

by

Musik Mot Cancer (Music Against Cancer) is a non-profit organization. Their purpose is, on a voluntary basis, to raise money for Barncancerfonden Väst (children’s cancer foundation) and the children’s department of the hospital in Norra Älvsborg. They collect autographs on instruments and other things from musicians and put them up for auction together with the photo of the artists holding the signed item.

Yesterday they met Marie and Per and got a guitar signed. The guitar, together with this photo, will be auctioned until 16th November, Music Against Cancer Day. The event will take place in Folkets Hus Kulturhuset in Trollhättan, Sweden between 14.00-20.00 on 16th November. Check out Musik Mot Cancer’s website and Facebook page for the details! Here is the event page on Facebook.

Photo taken from Musik Mot Cancer's Facebook page
Photo taken from Musik Mot Cancer’s Facebook page

 

Update on 23rd October:

There seem to be 2 more guitars besides the one signed by both Marie and Per. One is signed by Marie only and another by Per only. See picture below. According to the website, signed instruments will be available on the website, too, for online auction from 24th October that lasts until 16th November and winners will be announced at the event mentioned above.

MF_PG_Rox_guitars_Musik_Mot_Cancer

Update on 25th October:

Links to the auctions:

Starting price for all 3 guitars is 1000 SEK. One has to register on the website for bidding. Anyone can bid from around the world, but mainly in case you are not from Sweden, I suggest you contact the organizers, since I’m very sure they will not deliver the guitars at their own expense. Check it with them before you would bid. Contact them HERE.

Update on 2nd November:

Musik Mot Cancer added some more items signed by Marie and Per. 2 Marie and 2 Roxette CDs, a Roxette DVD, one of Per’s books and a TPGA box. You can also bid on these items, just click Gå till Auktionen här at the website and then scroll down.

Update on 13th November:

Article in 7 dagar