Synopsis

Roxette's "Wish I Could Fly" unfolds as a nocturnal collage of longing and urban isolation. Marie Fredriksson moves through a shadowy apartment, appearing alone and preoccupied as a shifting spotlight reveals fragments of other lives. Couples sleep or share intimate moments, while city streets, buses, metro stations, prostitutes, and seemingly ordinary objects pass through the darkness. Per Gessle appears only briefly, including in a tender scene with his young son. The fragmented images create a dreamlike portrait of desire, loneliness, and nighttime connection.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed on December 28 and 29, 1998, in an apartment on Strandvagen in Stockholm.

• The apartment was borrowed for the production. Per Gessle's own apartment was nearby, but the filming location was not his home.

• The video's central idea was described as a portrayal of nightlife, with the moving spotlight connecting otherwise separate scenes and lives.

• Per's son Gabriel appears in the video. He was approximately one year old when the footage was shot.

• The song was written partly as an experiment in combining a prominent drum-machine loop with a large live orchestra. That contrast between programmed rhythm and orchestral drama became a defining part of the track's sound.

• Marie Fredriksson later called the song one of her all-time favorite Roxette recordings.

• Released as the lead single from "Have a Nice Day" in February 1999, the song became one of Roxette's major European radio hits and was reported as the continent's most-played song on radio during 1999.