Gun-Marie Fredriksson (; 30 May 1958 – 9 December 2019) was a Swedish singer, 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 multiple hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including four number ones.
Fredriksson had a successful career in her native country prior to forming Roxette. She was a member of punk group Strul, a band which created their own music festival in 1979. Strul's dissolution led to the creation of her next project, the short-lived MaMas Barn, after which she began releasing solo work. Her first album, Het vind, was issued in 1984, followed by Den sjunde vågen in 1986 and ... Efter stormen in 1987. Roxette's international breakthrough coincided with a period of inactivity for Fredriksson as a solo artist, punctuated only by the release of the non-album single "Sparvöga" in 1989. Subsequent solo albums included Den ständiga resan (1992) and I en tid som vår (1996).
In 2002, after fainting at home, Fredriksson was diagnosed with a brain tumour. During her rehabilitation, she continued to record music as a solo artist, resulting in The Change in 2004 and Min bäste vän in 2006, as well as the non-album single "Där du andas" in 2008—her first and only solo number one single in Sweden. She and Gessle later reunited to record more albums as Roxette, and the pair embarked on a worldwide concert tour. She also continued to record as a solo artist in her native Sweden, releasing Nu! in 2013. Fredriksson died on 9 December 2019 as a result of health issues stemming from her 2002 brain tumour.
Early life
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."
With both parents in full-time employment but unable to afford child care, Marie and her underage siblings would often be left unaccompanied at home while their parents worked. It was during this period, with the help of siblings and friends, that she learned how to sing, read notation and play musical instruments. She also credited her pastor with encouraging her love of music, and said that she had been performing "ever since I was little and me and my sister Tina went to Sunday school. We had a wonderful pastor in Östra Ljungby. I've got really bright, lovely memories of that place, even when my big sister died. I loved all the songs. It was such a source of freedom for me… for both of us."
Her interest in music continued to grow throughout her teens, as she discovered artists such as The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple. She enrolled in a music school in the Svalöv Municipality at the age of seventeen, where she befriended students from the theatre department by composing music for their amateur plays. Since no other vocalist in the school could emulate Fredriksson's vocal range, she joined the cast of a musical she co-wrote. This musical toured throughout Sweden, with its run culminating in a performance in Stockholm for Prime Minister Olof Palme.