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There was good news and bad news about Roxette’s enduring popularity this week. The good news was, the group’s 1987 single “It Must Have Been Love” was announced as having officially joined YouTube’s 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.
Roxette’s 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 — despite the group itself issuing a statement that the tour was merely being “postponed.” The shows had been booked into amphitheaters in North America, with the Swedish act headlining a triple bill that also included fellow ’80s favorites Taylor Dayne and Nick Lowe.
A statement on Roxette’s social media read: “Due 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.” The announcement was signed “Team Rox.”
The 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.
Some 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’d 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.
Social 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.
In 2025, founder/co-frontman Per Gessle revived the group with a new female lead singer taking Fredriksson’s place, Swedish star Lena Philipsson. “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. “I’m extremely proud she wants to join me in my trek to keep the Roxette legacy alive.”
The 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.
In a press release when the tour was announced, Live Nation called out Roxette’s enviable track record of hits. “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’s exit from the North American tour circuit follows a highly publicized wave of cancellations and postponements that have come to be popularly known as “blue dot fever,” referring to the sea of unsold tickets visible on seating charts for weak-selling concerts. The “fever” 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.
Other artists who’ve 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 “poor ticket sales” 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.
Despite 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’s cited “hugely increased touring costs” 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.
