Roxette won’t be performing in Toronto this fall as planned, nor in any of the other North American cities the Swedish pop rock duo was scheduled to entertain on its 40th anniversary tour this year.
“Due to logistics and hugely increased touring costs, Live Nation (U.S.) has decided to postpone the (North American) tour,” the band wrote on Instagram on Saturday. “Hope to see you some other time down the road.”
Roxette was scheduled to play Toronto’s RBC Amphitheatre on Sept. 11.
Ticketmaster will issue a refund to the original method of payment used at time of purchase as soon as funds are received from the event organizer, and the funds should appear in accounts within two to three weeks, the ticket company said on its website.
The duo originally consisted of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle. Fredriksson died of cancer in 2019. Six years later, the band resumed performing with new vocalist Lena Philipsson.
“Lena, I and the band are of course disappointed,” the band wrote in a followup post on Instagram on Saturday. “We were really looking forward to this (North American) tour and (the U.S.) is by far our biggest streaming market. This decision was made by Live Nation USA, which they probably based on their own calculations. I hope we can play for our fab fans in the USA and Canada at some point in the near future.”
Roxette is Sweden’s second-best-selling musical act after ABBA. They had two U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles with “Listen to Your Heart” (1988) and “The Look” (1989). Their 1987 song, “It Must Have Been Love,” was featured on the soundtrack of the 1990 film, “Pretty Woman.”
Roxette was scheduled to play at Montreal’s Bell Centre three days after the Toronto show. Both of those concerts, along with planned U.S. shows in cities like Philadelphia, Dallas and Phoenix, are now cancelled.
