page_title: Marie Fredriksson
section_title: 1992–2002: Continued solo work
hierarchical_section_title: Marie Fredriksson / Career / 1992–2002: Continued solo work
caption_attribution_description: English: Roxette concert in Palau Sant Jordi. Galego: Concerto Roxette no Palau Sant Jordi.
context_page_description: Gun-Marie Fredriksson was a Swedish pop singer, songwriter, pianist and painter, who was best known internationally as the lead vocalist of pop rock duo Roxette, which she formed in 1986 with Per Gessle. The duo achieved international success in the late-1980s and early-1990s with their albums Look Sharp! and Joyride, and had multiple hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including four number ones.
  Fredriksson had a successful career in her native country prior to forming Roxette. She was a member of punk group Strul, a band which created their own music festival in 1979. Strul's dissolution led to the creation of her next project, the short-lived MaMas Barn, after which she began releasing solo work. Her first album, Het vind, was issued in 1984, followed by Den sjunde vågen in 1986 and ... Efter stormen in 1987. Roxette's international breakthrough coincided with a period of inactivity for Fredriksson as a solo artist, punctuated only by the release of the non-album single "Sparvöga" in 1989. Subsequent solo albums included Den ständiga resan and I en tid som vår.
  In 2002, after fainting at home, Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
context_section_description: Fredriksson returned to solo work following the recording of Roxette's fourth album, Tourism. She was a featured vocalist on "Änglamark" ("Angel Land"), a Band Aid-style recording spearheaded by former ABBA vocalist Anni-Frid Lyngstad under the banner Artister för Miljö (Artists for the Environment), which was released in July 1992. She also performed the track alongside all of the other featured artists during a televised gala the following month. Fredriksson's fourth solo album, Den ständiga resan (The Eternal Journey), was released that October, and remains both her highest-selling and most critically successful solo studio album, with sales of over 185,000 copies in Sweden as of 2002. She was nominated for three awards at the 1993 Grammis, including Songwriter of the Year and Artist of the Year, winning the latter. "Så länge det lyser mittemot" ("As Long as There Is Light on the Other Side") and "Mellan sommar och höst" ("Between Summer and Autumn") were issued as commercial singles; the latter song, "Så stilla så långsamt" ("So Still, So Slow") and "Det regnar igen" ("It's Raining Again"), were also top ten hits on Svensktoppen. She toured in support of the record.
  Her first musical collaboration with husband Mikael Bolyos, "Herren ber för dig" ("The Lord Prays for You"), was released in November 1994 on the charitable compilation Vilda fåglar: sånger om barn (Wild Birds: Songs About Children), the proceeds of which were donated to children's hospitals in Nordic territories. The next summer, she was a featured vocalist with Bolyos' band Sugarcane, during their concert residency in Halmstad nightclub Penny Lane. She took part in this residency every summer between 1995 and 2002, performing vocals on several of Bolyos' original compositions and numerous cover versions, including "The Good Life".
  Her fifth solo album, I en tid som vår (In a Time Like Ours), was recorded by Fredriksson and Bolyos at their home studio in Djursholm between February and September 1996. She was eight months pregnant when it was released in November, so was unable to promote it. The album peaked at number two on Sverigetopplistan, and lead single "Tro" became the longest-charting song of her career on the Swedish Singles Chart, either as a solo artist or as part of Roxette; it reached number eight and spent a total of 29 weeks on the chart. Her duet with Anni-Frid Lyngstad, "Alla mina bästa år" ("All My Best Years") – from Frida's 1996 album Djupa andetag (Deep Breaths) – was released as a single in February 1997.
  Fredriksson and Gessle collaborated on a new Roxette album throughout 1997 and 1998; Have a Nice Day was eventually released in February 1999. She was more involved in its composition and production than on previous Roxette releases, recording numerous demos at her Djursholm studio and singing lead vocals on ten of the album's fourteen songs. The record includes "Waiting for the Rain", the first Roxette song written and composed solely by Fredriksson. Prior to the album's release, the duo signed a new recording contract with their longterm label EMI, which saw Fredriksson obtain the copyright for her entire solo discography. The process of recording the album was reputedly difficult and confrontational, with Fredriksson later heavily criticising co-producer Michael Ilbert: "I ended up under his thumb. He would only communicate with Per and [Roxette's regular producer] Clarence Öfwerman. He complained to everyone that my voice was weak, that I needed to re-record vocals, and that my songs weren't good enough. He criticised me until I started crying. I lost all my confidence, and no longer felt happy in Roxette."
  Her first greatest hits album, Äntligen – Marie Fredrikssons bästa 1984–2000, was released in 2000, and was the second best-selling album of the year in Sweden, behind the Beatles compilation 1. It was also one of the best-selling albums of 2001 in the country, and was certified triple platinum for shipments of almost 250,000 units. The two new songs recorded for the compilation, "Äntligen" ("Finally") and "Det som var nu" (
caption: Fredriksson performing as part of Roxette at Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona on 24 October 2001
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP Scanjet djf2100", "Image XResolution": "91", "Image YResolution": "91", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "206", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "888", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "91", "Thumbnail YResolution": "91", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1000", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "16688", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:04:25 16:14:20", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1177", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "786", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[1, 0, 19, 0, 32, 32, 32, 48, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 55, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 56, ... ]"}