Jonas Åkerlund

Marie Fredriksson’s biography published in English – official press release

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Marie Fredriksson’s Final Memoir – Iconic Roxette Singer Documented Her Influential and Inspirational Life – Due From 1984 Publishing July 25, 2023

New York, NY – Marie Fredriksson’s final memoir, Listen to My Heart: Life, Love & Roxette, will see a worldwide English-language release from 1984 Publishing on July 25, 2023.

The 260-page hardcover is the fully candid and compelling life story of one of rock music’s most resilient lead singers. Given only a few months to live following a harrowing diagnosis in 2002 – Marie boldly forged ahead into a life with newfound courage and inspiration. She continued as both a solo singer and with Roxette, where she performed over 550 concerts to millions of fans, sold 75 million records, and released over 50 singles including several global hits. Stateside, the duo had four #1s with “Listen to Your Heart”, “It Must Have Been Love” (from the film Pretty Woman), “The Look” and “Joyride”. In all, Roxette is Sweden’s biggest music group – second only to ABBA.

Heart-wrenching yet winning, and told with exceptional energy and sincerity, Listen to My Heart sheds new and revelatory light on the life and work of one of our generation’s most talented and courageous artists. Marie passed away in the aftermath of her diagnosis in December, 2019.

Marie wrote her memoir in tandem with author Helena von Zweigbergk. Helena says:

I was so deeply moved by the enormous amount of love that Marie both gave and received over the years, and I know how much this release would have meant to her. It’s a book about strength, love, a remarkable career and a woman who gave life her all, each and every day.

Marie’s family continues:

We know Marie would have been very excited seeing her biography in so many different languages, reaching fans in so many countries. This English version makes her life story available to even more people in the world, keeping her legacy alive.

Filled with behind-the-scenes stories involving everyone from Tina Turner and Elton John to The Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra, Listen to My Heart also explores her humble family beginnings, an early tragedy in the sudden loss of Marie’s sister, her transition into the music industry as a solo artist, and the formation and challenges of being in one of the world’s most successful pop groups. All while trying to maintain a strong marriage and be a mother to two young children in the face of a life-altering illness.

A book foreword was penned by acclaimed director Jonas Åkerlund, Marie’s longtime friend and colleague. “Marie was my first true break in the industry,” says Åkerlund. “I’ll always be grateful for that—not only because of the projects that followed, but more because of the integrity, focus, and creative generosity that she taught me . . . this book is but one testament to the boundless creativity she exuded throughout her life.” Åkerlund directed Marie and Roxette in nearly twenty music videos and documentaries, and later worked with Madonna, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, and U2.

A limited special edition of the book will contain Marie’s celebrated English-language solo CD The Change (2004), its first physical release in North America, along with Marie’s final recording “Sea of Love” (2017) as a bonus track. Along with the newly remastered music, the limited edition hardcover will contain silver foil gilding and a blue satin ribbon marker.

Book cover photo is by Mattias Edwall, with additional design by Midnight Marauder. Marie Fredriksson created the artwork for The Change album cover.

Both physical editions (plus an ebook) will be available worldwide at local bookstores, plus on-line retailers including Bengans, Amazon.se, Amazon.co.uk, and many more. Store inquiries should be made to Ingram (Europe) and URP (record stores).

Marie Fredriksson’s biography in English – official press release

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We have just received the official press release to the English edition of Marie’s biography, so we share it with you.

Marie Fredriksson’s Final Memoirs Gets English-Language Release
Iconic Roxette Singer Documented Her Influential and Inspirational Life Due From 1984 Publishing April 25, 2023

Cleveland, OH — Marie Fredriksson’s final memoirs, Listen to My Heart: Life, Love & Roxette, will see a worldwide English-language release from 1984 Publishing on April 25, 2023.

The 260-page hardcover is the fully candid and compelling life story of one of rock music’s most resilient lead singers. Given only a few months to live following a harrowing diagnosis in 2002 — yet surviving for 17 more years, until 2019 — Marie boldly forged ahead into a life with newfound courage and inspiration. She continued as both a solo singer and with Roxette, where she performed over 550 concerts to millions of fans, sold 75 million records, and released over 50 singles including several global hits. Stateside, the duo had four #1s with “Listen to Your Heart,” “It Must Have Been Love” (from the film Pretty Woman), “The Look,” and “Joyride.” In all, Roxette is Sweden’s biggest music group — second only to ABBA.

Heart-wrenching yet winning, and told with exceptional energy and sincerity, Listen to My Heart sheds new and revelatory light on the life and work of one of our generation’s most talented and courageous artists.

Marie wrote her memoirs in tandem with author Helena von Zweigbergk. “Ever since co-writing Marie’s memoirs in Swedish, I’ve always been asked about an English-language version; after all, Marie sang primarily in English with Roxette. I’m glad that we finally have that answer,” says Helena. “I was so deeply moved by the enormous amount of love that Marie both gave and received over the years, and I know how much this release would have meant to her. It’s a book about strength, love, a remarkable career and a woman who gave life her all, each and every day.” Helena wrote a new afterword for the book in August, 2022.

Marie’s family continues, “We know Marie would have been very excited seeing her biography in so many different languages, reaching fans in so many countries. This English version makes her life story available to even more people in the world, keeping her legacy alive.”

Filled with behind-the-scenes stories involving everyone from Tina Turner and Elton John to The Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra, Listen to My Heart also explores her humble family beginnings, an early tragedy in the sudden loss of Marie’s sister, her transition into the music industry as a solo artist, and the formation and challenges of being in one of the world’s most successful pop groups. All while trying to maintain a strong marriage and be a mother to two young children in the face of a life-altering illness.

A new book foreword was penned by acclaimed director Jonas Åkerlund, Marie’s longtime friend and colleague. “Marie was my first true break in the industry,” says Åkerlund. “I’ll always be grateful for that — not only because of the projects that followed, but more because of the integrity, focus, and creative generosity that she taught me . . . this book is but one testament to the boundless creativity she exuded throughout her life.” Åkerlund directed Marie and Roxette in nearly twenty music videos and documentaries, and later worked with Madonna, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, U2, and Metallica.

A limited special edition of the book will contain Marie’s celebrated English-language solo CD The Change (2004), its first physical release in North America, along with Marie’s final recording “Sea of Love” (2017) as a bonus track. Along with the newly remastered music, the limited edition hardcover will contain foil gilding and a satin ribbon marker.

Both physical editions (plus an ebook) will be available worldwide at your local bookstore, plus on-line retailers including Amazon and many more. Store inquiries should be made to Consortium (US), Ingram (US, UK, Europe), PGC (Canada), and URP (record stores). If the title is not available in your country, please contact 1984 via e-mail.

Book cover photo is by Mattias Edwall, with book design by Midnight Marauder. Marie Fredriksson created the artwork for The Change album cover.

             

Listen to My Heart – Hardbound Cover            Listen to My Heart – Limited Edition Hardbound

             

UPDATE on 9th March 2023 from 1984 Publishing: due to production delays affecting much of the book industry, publishing date of the English version of Marie Fredriksson’s biography had to be shifted to 25th July in North America and 27th July in UK/Europe. Other regions should have the release also during that time frame.

Marie Fredriksson’s biography to be published in English

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Marie Fredriksson’s autobiography, Kärleken till livet was first published in Swedish in 2015. It was then translated into several languages and published in German in 2016 (Listen to My Heart: Meine Liebe zum Leben), in Czech in 2017 (Listen to My Heart: Moje láska k životu), in Spanish in 2019 (Listen to My Heart), in Hungarian in 2020 (Listen to My Heart – Hallgass a szívemre), in Portuguese in 2021 (Listen to My Heart) and in Russian in 2022 (Love for Life). Finally, an English edition is in the making under the title Listen to My Heart: Life, Love & Roxette. It’s planned to be published by 1984 Publishing (USA) on 25th April, 2023 and it’s already available for pre-order e.g. on Amazon (look for other countries’ Amazon sites too, to get the best price regarding postage), at Barnes & Noble and on Book Depository, but probably more online book stores will pop up later.

The English version of the biography you can buy as an e-book or a hardcover, which is a limited edition – as stated on Barnes & Noble’s website. The limited collector’s edition includes Marie’s 2004 English-language solo album The Change on CD – previously unreleased in any physical format in North America – as well as bonus track Sea of Love (2017), the last song that Marie recorded. This edition also contains foil gilded page edges and a satin ribbon marker.

Listen to My Heart is a completely candid and passionate, heartbreaking yet often witty life story of one of rock music’s most resilient lead singers, Marie Fredriksson from Roxette (“It Must Have Been Love”, “Listen to Your Heart”, “The Look”, “Joyride”).

Given only a few months to live following a harrowing diagnosis in 2002 – yet surviving for 17 more years, until 2019 – Marie boldly forged ahead into a life with newfound courage and inspiration. She continued as both a solo singer and with Roxette, where she performed over 550 concerts to millions of fans, sold 75 million records, and released over 50 singles including several global hits. In all, Roxette is Sweden’s biggest music group – second only to ABBA.

Filled with behind-the-scenes stories involving everyone from Tina Turner and Elton John to The Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra, Listen to My Heart also explores her humble family beginnings, an early tragedy in the sudden loss of Marie’s sister, her transition into the music industry as a solo artist, and the formation and challenges of being in one of the world’s most successful pop groups. All while trying to maintain a stable marriage and being a mother to two young children in the face of a life-altering illness.

Heart-wrenching yet winning, and told with exceptional energy and sincerity, Listen to My Heart sheds new and revelatory light on the life and work of one of our generation’s most talented and courageous artists.

The book contains a foreword by Marie’s longtime friend, director Jonas Åkerlund (Madonna, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Paul McCartney, U2) and personal photographs from her family’s collection.

The picture is here for illustration. The final English cover has not yet been revealed.

Update on 17th September 2022: Amazon has just shared the cover:

Per Gessle in radio documentary about Jonas Åkerlund

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Swedish Radio P3 did a radio documentary about Jonas Åkerlund’s career. They interviewed Jonas about his collaborations with tons of world famous artists, the music videos he directed, his black metal band, Bathory, his dyslexia he struggled with and also about his movies. Besides his wife, Bea Åkerlund, Jan Gradvall and Per Sinding Larsen, Per Gessle was also interviewed for the docu.

The Roxette-related part starts with Jonas’ collaboration with Marie Fredriksson at 17:21. It’s Marie talking in the Den ständiga resan docu. Jonas tells that during Den ständiga resan project in 1992 Marie and he became good friends which was easy with Marie, because she was so kind and friendly towards everyone, including Jonas who says he was a nobody back then. He is thankful to Marie that he got the job and that led to so many others. It was that half-hour-long documentary and the videos to the album that Per Gessle saw. Then Jonas began to work with Roxette and that was his break-through.

The first collaboration with Roxette was the video for Fingertips ’93. Jonas thinks it’s a good song. Marie was pregnant and she didn’t want it to be visible, so the clothes she was wearing were hiding it. Jonas was working together with Roxette for 25 years. In 2016 they released Roxette Diaries, a documentary made of home videos recorded by Per and Åsa in the 80’s and 90’s during tours and recordings.

Per tells Jonas is an amazingly creative explosion all over. They became very close friends, both are music nerds. Their style is very different, but both of them are workaholic and dedicated to their own job. Mr. G tells every recording occasion with Jonas was an adventure, because anything could happen. Per thinks Jonas is quite organized in a way, but he is also very spontaneous. If a new idea comes up, he is testing it.

According to Per, Jonas’ best videos are like a very good pop song that is interesting in its whole length, no matter if it’s 3 or 4 minutes long. Jonas is very talented in building up a video that you want to watch again. Per feels it’s the same how he works with his pop songs, to make it interesting and catch the attention. That’s what Jonas is doing both when he is filming and cutting.

Per Gessle appears at the end of the docu again (at 1:24:53) telling Jonas will go down in history as one of the greatest music video directors not only because he has been working with many of the greatest artists, but also because his style is so unique and innovative. Mr. G says he is superproud to have been working with Jonas.

During the documentary, you can hear Small Apartments soundtrack several times and of course, part of Marie’s DSR docu and songs, as well as parts of Roxette songs.

Jonas photo by Allis Nettréus/TT/SR, Marie and Per stills are from Fingertips ’93 video

Per Gessle and Roxette in Save Tonight – Swedish hits from the video era

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Save Tonight – svenska hits från videoeran (Save Tonight – Swedish hits from the video era) is a music program on SVT. It is produced by the people behind En kväll för Marie Fredriksson, På spåret, Det svenska popundret and Hitlåtens historia, so there is a guarantee for a high quality series. Tonight, 25th September 2021 it’s the premiere of the program and it’s planned to be an annual TV show.

The essence of the program is to pay homage to great musical eras from the last century with live music, interviews and features. It’s the 40th anniversary of MTV music channel broadcasting its first program in 1981, when a new window was opened to the world for people interested in music.

A number of great artists cooperated in Save Tonight – svenska hits från videoeran, Per Gessle is one of them. There is a short interview with Mr. G about Roxette’s videos. This part starts at 46:41 and lasts till 49:29.

Program leader Josefine Jinder tells Per Gessle knew how to write hit after hit, but knew nothing about how to make music videos. So when MTV popped up, he took it as a big, but fun challenge.

Mr. G tells before MTV it was dry. The videos fit Roxette perfectly. They were young and interested in the video format. They thought it was an extension of their pop language. Per thinks it was cool to make videos e.g. to The Look and Dressed For Success, which they made at the same time in New York. He says it was awesome to work together with stylists and choreographers, so you could make more of your song. You quickly realized that you have to have a good video and so it quite quickly escalated the budget. If you are international, you have to work with an international budget and it was extremely lot of money they invested in music videos. Mr. G thinks that big part of their success is due to their cool videos, e.g. Fading Like A Flower in Stockholm City Hall or Listen To Your Heart on Öland. Per laughs and tells that everyone in the US thought that they built the ruins for the video’s sake. Actually, Marie was most often the front figure and Per rather had to strike tough poses and ”power chords”. It was fun, they loved making videos.

Jonas Åkerlund also talks on the program from 1:03:39, mainly about videos in general and the contradictions in the briefs of record labels for doing something cool and shocking that one could have never seen before, but at the same time taking care of not going to an extreme when a video can be censored, because then no one will see it. He says videos became fun again when YouTube appeared.

You can already watch Save Tonight – svenska hits från videoeran on SVT Play (if you are in Sweden) or watch it on SVT1 at 20:00 CET tonight.

Stills are from the program.