Around ten years after the original Roxette duo last stood on stage for a show, the current lineup has to accept a major setback. Per Gessle (67), who returned to concert halls with Lena Philipsson (60) after the death of Marie Fredriksson (1958-2019), will not perform in North America as originally planned as part of Roxette's current 40th Anniversary Tour.
Due to logistical reasons and massively increased touring costs, promoter Live Nation has decided to postpone the North America tour, according to a post on the group's Instagram account. This suggests that possibly too few tickets were sold. There are no alternate dates and the subsequent sentence also suggests that the dates have been canceled, at least for now. The Roxette team says they hope to see the fans at a later time.
Lena, the band and I are of course disappointed
Shortly afterward, Gessle apparently spoke personally on Instagram. Lena, the band and I are of course disappointed, reads a post marked with / P and therefore presumably written by the musician. They had been very much looking forward to the North America tour, and the US is by far the group's largest streaming market. However, streaming numbers cannot automatically be converted into ticket sales.
The post states that the decision to cancel was made by Live Nation and probably based on their own calculations. He hopes to be able to play for fans in the US and Canada in the near future.
Gessle didn't know how to deal with his bandmate's death
Marie Fredriksson died in 2019 from the effects of cancer. As you know, we stopped with Roxette in 2016, and three years later Marie died, Gessle told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in November 2025. He said he didn't know how to deal with it for a long time. But somehow I missed playing all those Roxette songs, which are a significant part of my life, he said.
He had occasionally played the songs, but just not in the Roxette manner, because nobody can sing like Marie. It just didn't feel right. While working in the studio, he then had the idea to ask Swedish singer Lena Philipsson.
According to current information on the official Roxette homepage, several performances in Germany are still scheduled. Today, July 26, they're playing in Neu-Ulm, on July 28 in Bremen, on July 30 in Schwetzingen and on August 3 in Bonn.
