By following the Motown blueprint of blending ecstatic
music with agonised lyrics, Roxette created the ultimate breakup song – and the late Marie Fredriksson delivered it perfectlyNews: Roxette singer Marie Fredriksson dies aged 61There’s a case to be made that Roxette’s It Must Have Been Love – sung by Marie Fredriksson, who has died after a 17-year health battle – is the greatest 80s power ballad of them all, and perhaps the greatest breakup song.
It’s certainly one of the biggest. The epic chorus – “It must have been love, but it’s over now” – is the sort of thing anyone can bellow, in an arena or the bath. When I saw Roxette in Manchester in 2012, the signature tune was the climax of the night, greeted with massed singing and beach balls in the audience. Frederiksson was already visibly – and occasionally audibly – frail, and yet seemed to summon up vast reserves of passion and emotion, which she poured into the Swedish band’s biggest global hit.