Swedish singer/songwriter and guitarist Per Hakan Gessle was born 65 years ago in Halmstad, is married and has a son. He is best known as a member of the pop rock duo ‘Roxette’.
In 1976, Per created the band ‘Gyliene Tider’ which immediately became famous in their native country and together released 4 albums. The first 3 were very successful, however, the last one failed to reach the expected sales and the group split. Whilst still part of the band, Per released his debut album and a second one shortly after the group disbanded.
Gessle had already known Marie Fredriksson, the other member of ‘Roxette’, for some years and in 1986 they decided to form this duo and went on to release their debut single and number 3 local hit, ‘Neverending Love’ which was written by Per, followed by their first album.
By the end of the 90s, ‘Roxette’ released 5 more albums which included a string of international hit singles like ‘The Look’, ‘It Must have been Love’, ‘Dressed for Success’, ‘Listen to your Heart’, ‘Dangerous’, ‘Joyride’, ‘Fading like a Flower (Every time you Leave)’, ‘The Big L.’, ‘Spending my Time’, ‘How do you Do!’, ‘Sleeping in my Car’ and ‘Crash, Boom, Bang!’, amongst others. Meanwhile, Per released his first English solo album in 1997.
In 2001, after the duo’s 7th album came out, Marie fell ill and a brain tumour was diagnosed. Whilst she was receiving treatment, Per proceeded with his career as a solo artist and in 2004 issued his 4th album which proved extremely successful, so much so that he received several awards. That same year, he re-united with his former band ‘Gyliene Tider’ members for their 25th anniversary and embarked on a very successful tour across Sweden.
In all, as a solo artist, Per had 31 albums, 53 singles, 3 Box Sets and 2 EPs, whilst as ‘Roxette’, the duo released 36 albums, 76 singles, 52 music videos and 3 Box Sets, with some of them issued after Marie’s demise in 2019. Gessle also collaborated with other artists like Thomas Anders of the group ‘Modern Talking’ as well as singer Belinda Carlisle and wrote songs for them. He received several awards including 4 Grammy, 3 Rockbjornen and a Guldalgen.
Per co-owns a hotel on the Swedish west coast, as well as has a private collection of Ferrari cars.
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