Roxette singer Marie Fredriksson dies aged 61 after long battle with brain tumor
Swedish pop singer-songwriter, pianist and painter Marie Fredriksson, best known for forming pop duo Roxette alongside Per Gessle, has died after a long battle with a brain tumor. She was 61-years-old.
She died on Monday, December 9, and her death was confirmed by her family, according to the Mirror.
"It is with great sadness that we have to announce that one of our biggest and most beloved artists is gone," they said. "Marie Fredriksson died on the morning of 9 December in the suites of her previous illness."
They also added that the 61-year-old would be buried in silence with only the closest family present.
Gessle paid tribute to her following her passing, saying in a statement, "All my love for you and your family. Things will never be the same."
Fredriksson was first diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2002 after she fainted at home, and doctors at the time had told her that she had only a 20% chance of survival. However, she managed to beat the condition and recovered after a long and grueling treatment regime.
Her illness did not stop her from recording music either. While Roxette was put on the backburner despite the success of 1988's 'Look Sharp' and 1991's 'Joyride' due to her illness, she had continued to record as a solo artist.
She subsequently released 'The Change' in 2004, and 'Min bäste vän' in 2006, as well as the non-album single 'Där du andas' in 2008, which was her first solo number-one single in Sweden.
She did eventually reunite with Gessle and toured with Roxette in 2011, even performing at the Swedish royal weddings of Princess Victoria in 2010 and Princess Madeleine in 2013.
The singer was forced to stop recording and touring in 2016 after the tumor made a comeback, and in 2015 had written in her autobiography 'The Love of Life' that she had come to terms with her poor health.
"At last, it feels like I have reconciled myself to having a radiation injury to live with. That this is how it turned out," she wrote. "I have lost many years through the disease. And it is also a sadness to age. But every day I think I'm grateful to be sitting here. And that I can still sing."
Fredriksson is survived by her husband of 25 years, keyboardist Mikael "Micke" Bolyos, and their two children, a 26-year-old daughter named Inez Josefin and a 23-year-old son named Oscar.