Singer, pianist and songwriter Gun-Marie Fredriksson was born on 30th May 1958 in Scania, Sweden, was married and had 2 children. Marie died on 9 December 2019 from a brain tumour. She was most famous globally as the lead singer of the duo ‘Roxette’.
During her childhood, Marie learnt to sing, play musical instruments as well as read music. Her love for music continued through her teens and at 17 she started attending a music school. She even co-wrote a musical which toured through Sweden.
Two years after she graduated, she had a theatrical job and subsequently created the group ‘Strul’. For 3 consecutive years, this band performed in their own music festival and became very popular in their country, so much so that they also appeared in several TV shows.
In 1981, however, the group disbanded and Marie went on to create a new one named ‘MaMas Barn’, which however, was short-lived. So, Marie decided to try her luck as a solo artist and after an audition, which she had initially refused, was given the opportunity to kick-off her solo career.
Her first album was released in 1984 and was very successful. Two years later, the duo ‘Roxette’ was formed, with Per Gessle. They had a string of international number one hits including ‘The Look’, ‘Listen to your Heart’, ‘It Must have been Love’ and ‘Joyride’ and number twos like ‘Fading Like a Flower’ and ‘Dangerous’. Their albums sold more than 75 million copies globally and they are considered to be the second most famous Swedish band after ‘ABBA’.
As a solo artist, Marie had 38 singles and released several albums which peaked to number one in the Swedish charts. She also achieved 5 Rockbjornen and 2 Swedish Grammy awards.