Per Gessle

Per Håkan Gessle is a Swedish pop singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known as the former male half of the Swedish pop rock duo Roxette, whom he formed with Marie Fredriksson in 1986. The duo achieved international success in the late-1980s and early-1990s with their albums Look Sharp! and Joyride, and topped the charts in the US four times, most notably with "It Must Have Been Love" which was featured in the film Pretty Woman. Prior to the formation of Roxette, he had a successful career in native Sweden as the frontman for Gyllene Tider. The band released three number-one albums during the early 1980s but disbanded shortly after their fourth album, The Heartland Café.
In-between periods in Roxette and Gyllene Tider reunions, Gessle recorded numerous solo albums, both in Swedish and English. After Fredriksson's illness in 2002 he released Mazarin. The album was a critical and commercial success for Gessle and started the beginning of a long term collaboration with the backing vocalist Helena Josefsson. With Fredriksson's continued treatment and recuperation he made three more albums, Son of a Plumber, En händig man and Party Crasher.