Listen to your heart

Roxette – Listen To Your Heart played 7 million times on US radio

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BMI is excited to celebrate their exceptional family of songwriters and publishers in the UK and Europe whose groundbreaking music is making an electrifying impact on the global music scene.

At the 2024 BMI London Awards last night they recognised the top UK and European songwriters, composers and publishers of the past year across US streaming, radio, film and television. The Million-Air Awards were also presented throughout the evening and among the hit songs honoured was Listen to Your Heart by Roxette. Per Gessle and Mats MP Persson appeared at the event to receive the award.

American radios played Listen To Your Heart now more than 7 million times! That means more than 67 years if it were constantly played! Pure awesomeness!

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 American hard rock band Through Fire and they put the song back on the US charts in March 2020. In 2020, PG and MP got the Million-Air Award for 6 million plays.

Congratulations to Per and MP for creating this most amazing, timeless gem and for reaching the 7 million mark! Neverending love to Marie Fredriksson without whom it wouldn’t have been possible!

Per says in the 10th December press release:

Every time I hear Listen To Your Heart, I think of Marie’s magical voice. Yesterday it was five years since she left us and without her contribution, Mats and I would never have received this fantastic award. 7 million radio plays in the US is hard to grasp. I’m super proud, of course.

Check out BMIs website HERE!

Check out more photos HERE!

Check out the highlights video from the event HERE!

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!

A cover of Roxette’s ”Listen To Your Heart” on the US charts

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Mainstream Rock is Billboard magazine’s music chart that ranks the most played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the US. Listen To Your Heart has now entered the charts at No. 40 in the interpretation of an American hard rock band, Through Fire. The band was founded in 2015 and released their 2nd album, All Animals – on which their Listen To Your Heart cover can be found – on 19th July 2019. It’s not the first time the band appears on the charts. Their debut single Stronger reached number 29 and 3 other songs were also charting. Their highest peak position was 13 with their 2016 single, Breathe. Listen To Your Heart was released as a single and an official video to it was published on 9th December 2019, before anyone knew what happened in the Roxette World that day. The single features an acoustic version too.

Listen To Your Heart was written by Per Gessle and Mats MP Persson on 3-4 May 1988 and was released as the second single from Roxette’s second studio album, Look Sharp! in September the same year. This is what Per told about it earlier:

I co-wrote this with MP Persson in May of 1988 and it immediately felt very special. The lyrics came from an all night conversation I’d had with a friend who was going through a heartbreaking divorce. In the studio with Roxette it sounded awesome, with Marie taking the lead role and Clarence creating that beautiful piano intro.

Our ambition was to make it sound really ”American”. I guess we succeeded…

It has become our most popular song all over the world and was our second No. 1 in the US.

Roxette reached their 2nd No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the song on 4th November 1989.

A Belgian dance group, DHT did a trance cover of LTYH and it became a hit in the US and in some other countries. This way in 2005 Listen To Your Heart returned to the top 10 on the Billboard (reaching No. 8) as DHT’s remake.

American radios played Listen To Your Heart more than 5 million times. In 1998 Roxette 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.

Let’s see how high the cover of Through Fire climbs. And hey, looking forward to the 6 million plays ceremony anytime!

Update
28/03/2020 – No. 39
04/04/2020 – No. 35
11/04/2020 – No. 33
18/04/2020 – No. 36
25/04/2020 – No. 33
02/05/2020 – No. 35
09/05/2020 – No. 36
16/05/2020 – No. 36
23/05/2020 – No. 35
30/05/2020 – No. 32
06/06/2020 – No. 32
13/06/2020 – No. 33
20/06/2020 – No. 33
27/06/2020 – No. 34
04/07/2020 – No. 37

Roxette on Rocksmith

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Rocksmith is an award-winning method, the fastest way to learn to play guitar. You can plug any real guitar or bass into your PC, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 or PS4 and join over 3 million people who have learned to play guitar with this method that adapts to you as you play. Hundreds of songs are available and now 3 Roxette hits are also added. The Roxette Song Pack contains The Look, It Must Have Been Love and Listen To Your Heart and is available on Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, and Steam. The songs may be posted later for players in territories served by the European PlayStation Store due to differences in publishing times. See the tunings and arrangements in THIS VIDEO.

Roxette Song Pack

  • “It Must Have Been Love” – E Standard – Lead/Rhythm/Bass
  • “The Look” – E Standard – Lead/Rhythm/Bass
  • “Listen To Your Heart” – E Standard – Lead/Rhythm; D Standard – Bass

Thanx for the hint, Gaby Hildebrandt!

 

Roxette reached 100 million views of Listen To Your Heart

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It was 4 months ago when the official video to It Must Have Been Love reached 100 million views on YouTube. At that time Listen To Your Heart had 81.9 million views. Both videos were uploaded to YouTube on 4th March 2009. Today, 7 years later LTYH also reached 100 million views! Isn’t it a.w.e.s.o.m.e.? 100 million views! Seeing the view count of IMHBL (126.6 million), the future is so bright you gotta wear shades!

The song was written on 3-4 May 1988. This is what Per says about it:

I co-wrote this with MP Persson in May of 1988 and it immediately felt very special. The lyrics came from an all night conversation I’d had with a friend who was going through a heartbreaking divorce. In the studio with Roxette it sounded awesome, with Marie taking the lead role and Clarence creating that beautiful piano intro.

Our ambition was to make it sound really ”American”. I guess we succeeded…

It has become our most popular song all over the world and was our second No. 1 in the US.

The original lyrics contained some different words, so instead of ”Is there a whisper / That cannot be heard ? / You find the meaning / But you can’t find the words” the final lyrics became: ”And there are voices / That want to be heard / So much to mention / But you can’t find the words”. Sounds much better, doesn’t it?

We can find a little discussion about the song and the video to it in the Don’t Bore Us – Get to the Chorus! compilation booklet:

PG: The Big Bad Ballad. This is us trying to recreate that overblown American FM-rock sound to the point where it almost becomes absurd. We really wanted to see how far we could take it.

MF: It sounds a bit dusty today, but it was our second #1 in the US…

PG: … which of course we couldn’t ever dream about since it was more or less made for Sweden. When it hit big in the States we suddenly found ourselves lumped together with bands like Heart and Starship, which wasn’t the intention behind Roxette at all. But we got out of that one… I hope.

MF: The video was great. Shot with an American crew at the Borgholm Castle. The director thought we had built the ruin just for the video.

PG: It took some time to convince them that the place actually was for real.

MF: Today we perform it in a stripped down version, with acoustic guitars. Still love the melody.

Aw… Borgholm… It would have been so amazing to see them perform live there.

On 4th November, 1989 Roxette reached their 2nd No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with Listen To Your Heart. What was historically significant about the song is that it was the first No. 1 available only as a cassette single, not on a 45-RPM vinyl single.

A Belgian dance group, DHT did a trance cover of LTYH and it became a hit in the US and in some other countries. This way in 2005 Listen To Your Heart returned to the top 10 on the Billboard (reaching No. 8) as DHT’s remake.

The song is such a hit that American radios played it already more than 5 million times. In 1998 Roxette 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.

We all remember the performances on each tour, how awesome LTYH sounds live, either in its original power ballad style (1988, 1991, 2001 (Barcelona, Stockholm) , 2009 (accompanied by a symphonic orchestra at NoTP), 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016) or in an acoustic, unplugged arrangement (1993 (MTV Unplugged just can’t be missed), 1995, 2000 (Virgin Megastore)).

This fanthem will never go out of style! Wishing many more hundreds of millions of views and radio plays of Listen To Your Heart! Congrats!

LTYH_100_million_views