Biography

Gun-Marie Fredriksson (Swedish: [maˈriː ˈfrêːdrɪkˌsɔn] (About this soundlisten); 30 May 1958 – 9 December 2019) was a Swedish pop singer, songwriter, pianist and painter, who was best known internationally as the lead vocalist of pop rock duo Roxette, which she formed in 1986 with Per Gessle. The duo achieved international success in the late-1980s and early-1990s with their albums Look Sharp! (1988) and Joyride (1991), and had six top two hits on the Billboard Hot 100: "The Look", "Listen to Your Heart", "Dangerous", "It Must Have Been Love", "Joyride" and "Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)". Gun-Marie Fredriksson was born on 30 May 1958 outside the small Swedish village of Össjö.

She was the youngest of five children born of Charles Gösta Fredriksson (1914–1981) and Inez Dagmar Fredriksson (née Hoffert, 1922–1998). When she was four years old, her parents sold their farm and relocated to Östra Ljungby, where Gösta took a job as a postman and Inez became a factory worker. Three years later, her oldest sister Anna-Lisa was involved in a fatal traffic collision; her car was crushed by a tanker truck while she was travelling to purchase a dress for her engagement party. Marie explained: "She was 20 – and I can barely remember her today. But I remember the grief, how the family was torn apart. Completely. After that I had to fend for myself. I was only seven years old."