Per Gessle

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Per Håkan Gessle, born January 12, 1959, in Halmstad, Sweden, is a famous Swedish singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the male half and main songwriter of Roxette, the pop‑rock duo he formed with Marie Fredriksson in 1986. Roxette became internationally popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s with albums like Look Sharp! (1988) and Joyride (1991), and they topped the US charts several times, especially with It Must Have Been Love from the movie Pretty Woman. The duo ended when Fredriksson fell ill and died in 2019.

Before Roxette, Gessle led Gyllene Tider, a Swedish band that had several number‑one albums in the early 1980s. They split up after their 1984 album The Heartland Café. Gessle then pursued a solo career, releasing albums in Swedish and English. His 2003 album Mazarin was a huge hit in Sweden and helped start a long‑running collaboration with backing vocalist Helena Josefsson. He released other solo albums such as Son of a Plumber (2005), En händig man (2007) and Party Crasher (2008). In 1997, The World According to Gessle showcased more of his solo work, including three singles.

After Roxette stopped touring in 2015, Gessle continued releasing solo material, including En vacker natt (2017), En vacker dag (2017) and Small Town Talk (2018), with many sessions in Nashville. In 2016 he adopted the stage name Mono Mind and released Mind Control in 2019. In 2022 he released The Loneliest Girl In The World under PG Roxette, hinting at a new album with members of Roxette’s live band called Pop-up Dynamo. He has also written songs for other artists, such as Stjärnhimmel for Elisabeth Andreassen and Kärleken är evig for Lena Philipsson, and he collaborated with Belinda Carlisle and Nick Lowe.

Gessle is the son of Kurt, a plumber, and Elisabeth, and he has siblings Bengt and Gunilla. He married Åsa Nordin in 1993, and they have a son, Gabriel Titus, born in 1997. He also co‑owns Hotel Tylösand and the Joyride Car Collection, Per Gessle’s private Ferrari collection. He helped develop the Roxette jukebox musical Joyride, which premiered in 2024.