Roxette’s 40th anniversary tour cancelled

Retro rockers cite 'hugely increased touring costs' among the reasons for axed shows

Published Jul 26, 2026  •  4 minute read

Roxette's original singer Marie Fredriksson and bandmate Per Gessle perform at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on Aug 9, 2012. Photo by Stuart Dryden /Postmedia

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Despite the news that its 1990 smash hit It Must Have Been Love recently surpassed a billion YouTube views, Roxette has announced they are scrapping their upcoming North American tour.

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Founder and co-frontman Per Gessle hinted that low ticket sales might have been to blame when he broke the news on social media.

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“This decision was made by Live Nation USA, which they probably based on their own calculations,” he wrote.

The concerts were meant to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Roxette’s 1986 debut, Pearls of Passion.

After the band’s original singer Marie Fredriksson died in 2019, Gessle revived Roxette with Swedish star Lena Philipsson last year.

“I co-wrote Lena’s first major hit back in 1986 and she’s one of the brightest shining stars Sweden has ever known,” Gessle said in a statement at the time, according to Variety. “I’m extremely proud she wants to join me in my trek to keep the Roxette legacy alive.”

Gessle said he and Philipsson, along with the rest of the touring band, were “of course disappointed.”

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“We were really looking forward to this North American tour and (the) U.S. is by far our biggest streaming market,” he wrote.

Per Gessle of Roxette on the stage with the band at Rogers Arena on Sept. 12, 2012 in Vancouver. Photo by Ian Lindsay /Postmedia

In a separate message posted to Roxette’s Instagram page, the band cited “logistics and hugely increased touring costs” as a reason for the cancellation.

The North American outing was to have begun Sept. 10 at Pine Knob Music Theatre outside of Detroit and included a date at Toronto’s RBC Amphitheatre the following night.

The band’s European shows are unaffected with the pop duo slated to play gigs in Germany, Denmark, Finland and Switzerland.

When the tour was first announced earlier this year, Live Nation pointed to Roxette’s impressive chart success as it touted the group’s comeback. “With more than 80 million albums sold and a countless number of No. 1 hits across Europe, the U.S., Latin America and Asia, Roxette remains the Swedish act with the most U.S. Billboard No. 1 singles, four in total,” the promoter said.

Roxette had a string of hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Listen to Your Heart, The Look and Joyride.

Featured on the soundtrack for Pretty Woman, It Must Have Been Love was one of 1990’s biggest hits.

In a post on his website, Gessle said the track had its beginnings as a Christmas ballad.

“It was a massive hit in Sweden, but nothing happened elsewhere. It wasn’t even released in Germany, not until the Pretty Woman soundtrack came out a few years later and the song just exploded everywhere,” he said, according to PEOPLE.

“Not bad for a song that was just lying around, gathering dust,” Fredriksson added.

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On social media, some fans chided Roxette for booking a tour into such large venues and the high cost of tickets.

“There simply isn’t much interest in the new Roxette in the United States. Roxette has always struggled in the American market, and the album sales over the years clearly show that,” one fan wrote. “This newly assembled version of Roxette is generating even less interest. The reality is that Roxette’s main markets have always been Europe and South America.”

“Really sad,” another added. “Clearly the venues were too large. Please try again in smaller more intimate venues!”

“The lead singer is no longer with us and the venues were too big. Doomed from the start,” a third person concluded on Reddit.

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‘Blue Dot Fever’ claiming big-name artists

Roxette’s departure from the concert scene in North America follows a wave of cancellations amid so-called “Blue Dot Fever,” a term describing tours with weak ticket sales, reflected by the abundance of blue dots showing unsold seats on Ticketmaster.

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Kiefer Sutherland candidly confessed he was scrapping his U.S. jaunt back in May due to low ticket sales.

The Pussycat Dolls axed almost all of the North American dates on their upcoming reunion tour “after taking an honest look at the North American run.”

Former One Direction singer Zayn Malik also shelved his U.S. arena tour citing scheduling concerns.

Low ticket sales were also to blame for Meghan Trainor terminating her upcoming Get In Girl Tour. After “some really tough conversations,” the All About That Bass singer aborted the trek.

Lily Allen also cancelled upcoming arena shows at Los Angeles’ Forum, Chicago’s United Center, San Francisco’s Chase Center, Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, Philadelphia’s Xfinity Mobile Arena and Montreal’s Bell Centre on her upcoming West End Girl Tour.

Trying to explain the lack of demand for certain shows, Nathan Green, CEO and co-founder of New Level Radio, told Newsweek that some artists have mistakenly thought their popularity on social media would turn into ticket purchases.

He also said that fans seeing plenty of seat availability lessens demand.

“That used to be a small-act problem, not something you’d see on a major tour. Now it’s showing up on tours that should be sold out,” Green told Newsweek. “Fans see the map, decide the show isn’t worth going to, and the rest of the seats stay empty. Empty seats sell more empty seats.”

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