What Is Per Gessle's Net Worth?
Per Gessle is a Swedish pop singer-songwriter and musician who has a net worth of $150 million. Per Gessle is probably best known for being half of the duo Roxette alongside Marie Fredriksson. Roxette has sold tens of millions of albums, and they released 10 studio albums before Fredriksson's death in 2019, including "Look Sharp!" (1988), "Joyride" (1991), "Tourism" (1992), "Crash! Boom! Bang!" (1994), and "Room Service" (2001). Five of Roxette's albums were certified Platinum or higher in multiple countries, and all of them reached the top 10 on the charts in Sweden. Roxette is known for hits such as "It Must Have Been Love," "Listen to Your Heart," "The Look," "Dangerous," and "Joyride," and Gessle was the band's lead songwriter. Per also released the albums "Gyllene Tider" (1980), "Moderna Tider" (1981), "Puls" (1982), "The Heartland Café" (1984), "Finn 5 fel!" (2004), "Dags att tänka på refrängen" (2013), "Samma skrot och korn" (2019), and "Hux Flux" (2023) with the pop group Gyllene Tider. He has released several solo albums as well, including "Scener" (1985), "Mazarin" (2003), "Son of a Plumber" (2005), and "En händig man" (2007).
Early Life
Per Gessle was born Per Håkan Gessle on January 12, 1959, in Halmstad, Sweden. He is the son of Elisabeth and Kurt Gessle, and he grew up with older sister Gunilla and older brother Bengt. Kurt was a plumber, and he died in 1978. Elisabeth passed away in 2013, followed by Bengt in 2014 and Gunilla in 2016.
Career
In 1976, Gessle formed the musical duo Grape Rock with Mats Persson, and after Anders Herrlin, Micke Syd Andersson, and Göran Fritzon joined the group, it was renamed Gyllene Tider. After releasing their self-titled debut album in 1980, Gyllene Tider became one of the most successful Swedish bands of all time. The band released eight studio albums between 1980 and 2023, and six of them reached #1 on Sweden's Sverigetopplistan chart. Their 2004 album "Finn 5 fel!" was certified 3× Platinum in Sweden, and 2013's "Dags att tänka på refrängen" went 2× Platinum in the country. Per released his debut self-titled solo album in 1983, and it reached #5 on the Sverigetopplistan chart. His second solo album, 1985's "Scener," reached #39 on that chart. In 1986, Gessle formed Roxette with Marie Fredriksson, and they released their first album, "Pearls of Passion," in October of that year. The album was certified Platinum in Sweden and reached #2 on the Sverigetopplistan chart, and it featured the top 10 singles "Neverending Love" and "Goodbye to You." Their second album, 1988's "Look Sharp!" was certified Platinum or higher in 12 countries and reached the top 10 in 10 countries. The album included the hit singles: "Dressed for Success," "Listen to Your Heart," "The Look," and "Dangerous."
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Roxette's next four albums, "Joyride" (1991), "Tourism" (1992), "Crash! Boom! Bang!" (1994), and "Have a Nice Day" (1999), reached the top 10 in numerous countries and went Platinum or higher in at least five countries. The 1991 single "Joyride" topped the charts in more than a dozen countries, and "Fading Like a Flower (Every Time You Leave)" (1991), "How Do You Do!" (1992), and "Sleeping in My Car" (1994) were top 10 hits in several countries. Per released his third solo album, "The World According to Gessle," in 1997, and it reached #1 on the Sverigetopplistan chart and was certified Gold in Sweden. In 2001, Roxette released the album "Room Service," which reached #1 on the charts in Sweden and Belgium and went Platinum in Sweden. The band had a #1 hit in Sweden with the single "The Centre of the Heart." In 2002, Roxette went on hiatus after Fredriksson fainted and was subsequently diagnosed with a brain tumor. During the hiatus, Per released the solo albums "Mazarin" (2003), "Son of a Plumber" (2005), "En händig man" (2007), and "Party Crasher" (2008). The first three albums reached #1 on the Sverigetopplistan chart, and "Party Crasher" peaked at #2. All four albums were certified Platinum or higher in Sweden, and "Mazarin" went 5x Platinum. The singles "Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)," "En händig man," and "Silly Really" reached #1 on the Sverigetopplistan chart.
In 2011, Roxette released their eighth studio album, "Charm School," and it reached the top 10 in five countries and was certified Platinum in Germany. The band's next album, 2012's "Travelling," was certified Gold in Sweden. Those two albums featured three top 10 singles (in Sweden): "She's Got Nothing On (But the Radio)," "Speak to Me," and "It's Possible." Roxette's final album was 2016's "Good Karma," which reached #1 in Czechoslovakia and #2 in Sweden and Switzerland. Sadly, Fredriksson died in December 2019 after a 17-year cancer battle. In recent years, Gessle has released the solo albums "En vacker natt" (2017), "En vacker dag" (2017), "Small Town Talk" (2018), "Mind Control" (2019), and "Gammal kärlek rostar aldrig" (2020), and four of those albums reached the top five on the Sverigetopplistan chart. In 2022, Per released the album "Pop-Up Dynamo!" under the name PG Roxette. He recorded the album with members of Roxette's former touring band, and he said of the album, "There are millions of people out there who still love the band, so it's a matter of course for me to keep our music alive. At first I wasn't sure which way to go, but over time it became clear that I wanted to continue this fantastic 'pleasure trip.' I want to keep the Roxette legacy alive."
Personal Life
Per married Åsa Nordin on August 21, 1993, at Västra Strö Church in Eslöv, Sweden, and they held their wedding reception at Trollenäs Castle. The couple welcomed son Gabriel Titus on August 5, 1997. Gessle co-owns the Swedish company NoteHeads, which "provides an e-commerce platform for digital sheet music sales, as well as the musical composition tool NoteHeads Igor Engraver." He also co-owns a Tylösand hotel.
Awards and Nominations
After releasing "Mazarin," Gessle won Grammis (the Swedish equivalent of Grammys) for Best Artist, Best Composer, Best Male Pop Performer, and Best Song for "Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)" and Rockbjörnen awards for Best Swedish Male Artist, Best Swedish Song for "Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)," and Best Swedish Male Artist. Roxette won three Grammis awards, including the Government Music Export Prize (2002). They earned six Rockbjörnen awards, four Bravo Otto awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, an Australian Music Award, a Fono Music Award, and a BMI Film & TV Award. The band also won two World Music Awards for Best selling Scandinavian artist, and they received nominations from the Brit Awards, Juno Awards, Echo Music Prize, and Hungarian Music Awards.
