Swedish singer, pianist and songwriter Gun-Marie Fredriksson was born on 30th May 1958 in Angelholm and passed away on 9th December 2019. Marie was married and had 2 children. She was the lead singer of the pop-rock 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 the age of 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, led the way to embark on a 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’. ‘Roxette’ disbanded in 2001 but reunited 7 years later to perform in some events.
As a solo artist, Fredriksson had 38 singles and released several albums which peaked to number one in the Swedish charts. As ‘Roxette’, they had 10 studio, 13 compilation, 11 video, 1 live and 1 remix, 56 singles, 20 promotional singles, 52 music videos and 3 box sets. During her career, Marie received 5 Rockbjornen and 2 Swedish Grammy awards.
Marie passed away on 9 December 2019 from a brain tumour at the age of 61 after a long battle of 17 years.
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