Roxette may jug your memory due to their contribution to the “Pretty Woman” soundtrack, or perhaps even for the hits they had before.
Their break-through story was extraordinary. Already having achieved some success back home in Sweden, they were doing pretty good as a band in the very late 80s, but when a US exchange student brought their music back home to play at a college radio, things moved along very quickly.
Their single, “The Look”, became a huge success and up to “It Must Have Been Love” (from “Pretty Woman”), they managed to keep it going on a grand scale.
With the release of their album “Joyride”, and the like named single, they began to lose ground overseas, but in Europe, their success continued for over a full decade, until the female half of the duo, Marie, discovered a tumor in her brain.
In 2002, the duo was forced to take a break.
After her recovery and taking time to do a solo work, the duo reunited for the 2009 edition of Night Of The Proms: An event in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany that unites pop artists with a classically trained orchestra. The shows would lead into a comeback that pretty much has been ongoing until today.
Even though the comeback has been less successful than their first time around, the group seemed set to let the success grow bigger one concert at a time this year. A tour was planned to bring the group to many European countries, which would also push their upcoming album, “Good Karma”, scheduled for release next month.
However, with social media bringing you reports on events as they happen, it became clear that the group couldn’t carry out their original plans. Roxette fans had noticed that Marie was having a hard time touring, physically. Tweets were posted that her vocals weren’t as strong and she was forced to sit down throughout most of the concerts. The tweets weren’t critical in their tone of voice, but fans clearly were concerned.
In April 2016, an official announcement followed that, indeed, doctors had now advised Marie to no longer tour. Her health will not allow it. It means the end of Roxette’s touring days, but what I find really interesting, is that it doesn’t seem to mean the end of Roxette.
The new album is still planned for release and they released a new single, funny enough titled “It Just Happens”, in April. Just last week they released the video for it.
Whether it’s due to Marie’s health or not, the song is a change from their biggest hit, because Per is singing most of the lead. So far, he’s only had a couple of Roxette singles to show case his own vocal abilities. The song also shows they’ve revamped their sound a little bit to keep up with what’s currently happening.
I hope they will become the first band to make a successful career at being more a recording act, rather than a performing act. There are so many tools around to help a band, in this situation, still cater their fans. They could do short performances and air them as webcasts or streaming events. I hope they come up with a creative solution and keep the music coming.
