Seventeen years after they first toured China, Swedish pop duo Roxette is back again, stirring up the memories. Zhang Kun catches up on their news.

Roxette brings back many fond memories of catchy songs in the 1980s, and old movies like The Pretty Woman. The duo, set to tour China in March, will wow the crowds at Beijing's Mastercard Center and the Shanghai Grand Stage.

"In the 1990s, Roxette albums were always on the best selling lists of imported music," says promoter Wu Liangyu from Shanghai Shining On Culture.

"It was among the first modern Western pop the Chinese mainland had heard. The group enjoys a recall that is very high in the minds of Chinese fans."

Roxette is Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, and the group was founded in 1986. For the past two decades, the duo has topped the charts of 24 countries and chalked up record sales exceeding 75 million copies. Some of their songs were given Chinese lyrics and sung by Chinese pop singers, especially those from Hong Kong.

It Must Have Been Love was a song from its 1988 album Look Sharp and was used for the movie Pretty Woman starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. It has become an all-time favorite.

The duo has traveled far to play in front of millions, but Fredriksson still says it is "the coolest experience, and it still feels amazing to perform live," she said in a TV interview last year.

Roxette toured with Crash! Boom! Bang! in China in 1995, with one show in Beijing Workers' Gymnasium. That was one of the very few Western entertainers performing in China at that time.

The duo remained popular until 2002 when Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She had to go through repeated surgeries and a long, hard recovery.

"This happened in 2002, and now I'm recovered and doing just fine. But those years just after it happened were horrible," Fredriksson says. "I couldn't speak for a long time. I couldn't get any words out, which was terrible. Per has always believed in me and that I would come back. He has always stood by me."

"Her chances were very slim ... only one in 20 people survives that disease. So it's amazing that she's still alive," Gessle recalls.

Gessle published several solo albums during the years that followed. At the same time Roxette's great hits were readapted by dance groups in Belgium and Germany.

The Roxette reunion happened in 2009, when the duo played on the Night of the Proms in Europe, followed by a tour in Europe. Their new album Charm School was released in 2011, and topped music charts in Europe immediately. Now they are bringing it to China.

You may contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 02/19/2012 page15)