Yesterday, a sold-out Cirkus in Stockholm was treated to Marie Fredriksson’s acclaimed solo tour.

In the audience was the other Roxette half Per Gessle and together they celebrated their very first US-1a. It was exactly 25 years ago, on the 8th of April, that “The Look” went to #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 list! This milestone was properly celebrated with champagne, cake and a plaque! Per Gessle says:

The whole idea with Roxette was that I would write songs and Marie would sing them. I still haven’t got over the shock that I’m the one singing “The Look”.

The story of how Roxette’s “The Look” became Sweden’s biggest global hit ever is an amazing one. It was when an American exchange student, after studying in Borås, returned to his home country with the Roxette LP “Look Sharp!” in his luggage.

Minneapolis radio station KDWB had a programme for listeners to choose their own music. The student handed over the Roxette album and the station played the first track “The Look”.

KDWB immediately received a huge positive response from its listeners. The station’s programme director, Brian Phillips, decided to send the song on cassette to his colleagues in Miami, USA, New York and Los Angeles. The song received massive airplay across the US and suddenly Roxette had a US hit without officially releasing a disc in the country.

“The Look” was released as a single in the US on 1 March 1989 and already on 8 April “The Look” was at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in competition with names such as Bangles, Rod Stewart, Madonna and REM. The rest, as they say, is history and with its 4 US number ones, 75 million albums sold and several world tours, Roxette is still today one of Sweden’s biggest music exports.

In connection with Record Store Day on 26 April, an anniversary version of “The Look” will be released on 7“ vinyl in a limited edition.

On SVT play you can celebrate by watching Hitlåten’s story about “The Look”