Lena Philipsson

Per Gessle and Lena Philipsson release a single and embark on a tour together

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Per Gessle and Lena Philipsson release the title track on Per’s upcoming album on 3rd May. And there is more to come…

It all began with Per starting to write and record a new album in Swedish. His first in eight years of new material. Early on, the idea crystallized to focus on duets, to sing together with some of Per’s absolute favourites.

A first taste came in February when Beredd with Molly Hammar was released and now it’s time for the second single, Sällskapssjuk. This time together with Lena Philipsson. The album, which is also called Sällskapssjuk, will be released this fall.

Per and Lena’s paths already crossed in the mid ’80s when Per, among other things, wrote the lyrics to Lena’s breakthrough song Kärleken är evig. Now it’s time again.

Sällskapssjuk suited Lena like a glove, and during the recording in Halmstad both thought it would be fun to work even more together. A thought was born.

In 2016 Roxette did what we believed was to be the last ever concerts. Now, the duo’s frontman, songwriter and founder Per Gessle picks up the torch and takes this bundle of worldwide hits on the road again.

It’s almost five years ago since Roxette lost Marie Fredriksson to cancer. A devastating loss that left both family, friends and fans in grief.

Their legacy of songs has continued to thrive, being constantly streamed, played and enjoyed by old and new supporters around the world.

2025 will see a live revival of this massive catalogue, all penned by Per Gessle, when he takes the Roxette band back on stage to do what he loves the most; perform his songs live in front of a dedicated audience.

Per and the Roxette band will be joined on stage by Swedish singer and megastar Ms Lena Philipsson.

Per says:

This is all about my Roxette songs, this huge bundle of music and lyrics I’ve been writing for well over three decades. I’m not starting a new duo. Marie will always be irreplaceable. However, I’m really lucky to have found an amazing voice and a brilliant performer in Lena Philipsson.

I co-wrote Lena’s first major hit back in 1986 and she’s one of the brightest shining stars Sweden has ever known. I’m extremely proud she wants to join me in my trek to keep the Roxette legacy alive.

Lena says:

I’m both excited and thrilled about embarking on this tour. I really look forward to working with Per – he is a phenomenal songwriter and a neverending musical force.

The Roxette band will consist of Christoffer Lundquist, Magnus Börjeson, Magnus “Norpan” Eriksson, Dea Norberg as well as original Roxette icons Clarence Öfwerman and Jonas Isacsson. Nine years since the last tour, “Roxette in Concert” will kick off in Cape Town, South Africa.

Tour dates – 2025

February 26       Cape Town, Grand Arena GrandWest, South Africa
February 28       Pretoria, SunBet Arena Time Square, South Africa

March 5              Perth, Kings Park, Australia
March 7              Melbourne, Margaret Court Arena, Australia
March 8              Sydney, ICC Sydney Theatre, Australia
March 9              Wollongong, WIN Entertainment Centre, Australia
March 11            Adelaide, Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Australia
March 13            Hobart, Mystate Bank Arena, Tasmania
March 15            Hunter Valley, Bimbadgen, Australia
March 16            Mount Cotton, Sirromet Wines, Australia

Photo by Fredrik Etoall

Per Gessle’s teddy bear charity concert

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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.

E-Type covers Gessle co-penned song “Kärleken är evig”

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This may be interesting for collectors of songs written by Per Gessle. He once co-wrote “Kärleken är evig”, which was performed by Lena Philipsson at the Melodifestivalen 1986. The song finished second at the Melodifestivalen and reached number 3 in the Swedish single charts.

This song has now been covered by E-Type during the TV4 programme “Så mycket bättre – season 2”, a Swedish reality TV show where seven artists spend eight days together at a hotel in Gotland and each of them do their own versions of the other artists’ songs. The artists that participated in this season are Tomas Ledin, E-Type, Lena Philipsson, Laleh, Timbuktu, Mikael Wiehe and Eva Dahlgren.

You can watch the performance on TV4play.se, listen to the track on Spotify or buy it at iTunes. All of it if you are resident in Sweden.