London, Munich, Rome, New York – the Swedish pop-rock duo Roxette, who are conquering the global charts with their groovy “The Look,” are now constantly on the road abroad.

They don’t have a stylist who takes care of their outfits and does their make-up before TV and live performances.

“I do that myself,” says the peroxide-blonde Marie Fredriksson (30/ guitar and vocals). “We don’t put on a lot of make-up anyway, just the essentials like powder, eye shadow and lipstick for me. We also choose our own clothes and combine them as the mood strikes us.”

So far, Marie and her partner Per Gessle (also 30/ guitar and vocals) have only been successful in Northern Europe. “Marie and I already had a few number-one hits in Scandinavia before Roxette. Marie as a solo singer, me with my former band Gyllene Tider (Golden Times).”

And Marie continues: “It’s great that we’ve now made the international breakthrough.”

When “The Look” unexpectedly climbed to number one in the States, Per and Marie were 600 kilometres apart: he in his hometown of Halmstad on the Swedish west coast, she in her chic Stockholm apartment.

“When I found out from our manager, I almost jumped for joy – and called Marie straight away. She was, of course, totally gobsmacked too,” recalls Per, who had composed “The Look” exactly one year earlier – on 29 March 1988! He then celebrated with his long-term girlfriend Åsa and good friends in his elegant penthouse. Marie danced the night away in Stockholm’s trendy Opera café.

“Of course, we would have loved to celebrate this moment together,” says Per, almost a little sadly. “We really missed each other!” he confesses.