{"id":4901,"date":"2026-07-25T18:35:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T18:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4901"},"modified":"2026-07-25T18:35:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T18:35:49","slug":"roxette-cancels-40th-anniversary-tour-of-north-american-amphitheaters-citing-hugely-increased-touring-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4901","title":{"rendered":"Roxette Cancels 40th Anniversary Tour of North American Amphitheaters, Citing \u2018Hugely Increased Touring Costs\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tThere was good news and bad news about Roxette\u2018s enduring popularity this week. The good news was, the group\u2019s 1990 smash \u201cIt Must Have Been Love\u201d was announced as having officially joined YouTube\u2019s Billion Views Club. The bad news is, the audience that wants to hear that track performed live may not have been as great as anticipated, at least in North America.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4899\">\u2018Bob\u2019s Burgers\u2019 to Unveil New Holiday Short \u2018On the Fort Day of Christmas\u2019 This Year on Hulu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tRoxette\u2019s 40th anniversary tour had all of its U.S. and Canada dates canceled on Friday, with ticketholders receiving notices that their money was being refunded for the shows \u2014 despite the group itself issuing a statement that the tour was merely being \u201cpostponed.\u201d The shows had been booked into amphitheaters in North America, with the Swedish act headlining a triple bill that also included fellow \u201980s favorites Taylor Dayne and Nick Lowe.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tA statement on Roxette\u2019s social media read: \u201cDue to logistics and hugely increased touring costs, Live Nation US has decided to postpone the Northamerican (sic) tour. Hope to see you some other time down the road.\u201d The announcement was signed \u201cTeam Rox.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tLater on Saturday, founder founder\/co-frontman Per Gessle added a personal note, telling fans the decision was strictly Live Nation\u2019s. \u201cLena (Philipsson, the new singer), I and the band are of course disappointed. We were really looking forward to this northamerican tour and US 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.\u201d (<em>Variety<\/em> has reached out to Live Nation for comment.)<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe North American tour was to have begun Sept. 10 at Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, Michigan, and was scheduled to hit the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on Oct. 5 before concluding Oct. 9 at White River Amphitheatre in Washington.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSome fans expressed disappointment in the cancellation after having paid for nonrefundable flights to come into the U.S. from overseas to see the shows. But the number of foreign tourists who\u2019d planned to see concerts in North America may speak to the common belief that Roxette had always been bigger in Europe than the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tSocial media also brought up instances of fans saying they did not plan to buy tickets for the tour because the group was not the same without its late lead singer. Marie Fredriksson died in 2019 of complications from a brain tumor first diagnosed in the early 2000s. The band last did a limited series of dates with Fredriksson in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4897\">\u2018Brunello: The Gracious Visionary\u2019 Review: Giuseppe Tornatore\u2019s Seductive Hagiography of a Fashion Legend<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tIn 2025, Gessle revived the group with a new female lead singer taking Fredriksson\u2019s place, Swedish star Lena Philipsson. \u201cI co-wrote Lena\u2019s first major hit back in 1986 and she\u2019s one of the brightest shining stars Sweden has ever known,\u201d Gessle said in a statement at the time. \u201cI\u2019m extremely proud she wants to join me in my trek to keep the Roxette legacy alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe new Roxette continues to tour successfully overseas. This past week, they did shows in the Czech Republic and Austria. Between now and the end of August, they have shows still on the books for Germany, Denmark, Finland and Switzerland. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tIn a press release when the tour was announced, Live Nation called out Roxette\u2019s enviable track record of hits. \u201cWith 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,\u201d the promoter said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRoxette\u2019s exit from the North American tour circuit follows a highly publicized wave of cancellations and postponements that have come to be popularly known as \u201cblue dot fever,\u201d referring to the sea of unsold tickets visible on seating charts for weak-selling concerts. The \u201cfever\u201d part of the saying was coined around the time that Zayn Malik cited unspecified health issues as the reason for calling off his U.S. tour.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tOther artists who\u2019ve canceled either entire tours or significant chunks of their dates this year range from the Pussycat Dolls to Meghan Trainor to the only partially nixed Post Malone\/Jelly Roll stadium tour. This month, Lily Allen canceled almost all of her dates in U.S. arenas and booked new shows in more modest amphitheaters. David Lee Roth joined the list of acts calling off the remainder of their dates this week. Kiefer Sutherland was among the few candid enough to outrightly acknowledge \u201cpoor ticket sales\u201d for a tour cancellation. Of course, weak sales are not the only reason for taking a show off the road. Some artists have nixed dates due to what are considered to be legitimate health reasons, including such reliable ticket-sellers as Dolly Parton, the Beach Boys and Barry Manilow.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tDespite the wave of news media reports about cancellations in 2026, the overall touring business continues to be robust. Some industry observers, though, have sounded an alarm that increasingly high prices for superstar tours which are guaranteed instant sellouts may be siphoning off consumer dollars from mid-level acts, whose ticket prices are also going up. While Roxette\u2019s cited \u201chugely increased touring costs\u201d may not be the only reason for canceling a tour, the uptick in expenses that can turn a break-even tour into a money-loser is not a fallacy.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=4895\">\u2018Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender\u2019 Creators, Director Talk New Art Style, Huge Action Sequences, Ideas That Didn\u2019t Make Final Cut<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The group Roxette has canceled its tour in North America, days after the song &#8216;It Must Have Been Love&#8217; officially joined YouTube&#8217;s Billion Views Club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[610,3908],"class_list":["post-4901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-live-nation","tag-roxette"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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