Roxette were second only to ABBA when it comes to record sales by a Swedish act, and Marie Fredriksson was a huge part of that statistic. She met Per Gessle in the late 1970s when he was frontman of the hugely popular (in Sweden) Gyllene Tider, and Fredriksson was in a number of less successful acts. They hit it off and after working with each other on various solo projects in the early 1980s they formed Roxette. Their back catalogue is one of the strongest in the power ballad genre, with “It Must Have Been Love” still a radio staple to this day. However, we’ve lost Fredriksson somehow: she had been battling cancer for nearly two decades and was not in the greatest health on her most recent tour, fading like a flower as the doctors listened to her heart. And other puns.
Marie Fredriksson
30 May 1958 – 9 December 2019
Died aged 61 (unique hit)