The perfect song about Barbie was found in the last century

The soundtrack to “Barbie” was released as an independent album, which has a chance to please itself, without reference to the film. There are a lot of stellar names here like Billy Eilish, Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, Sam Smith, Tame Impala, Haim, but the songs are somehow liquid. The album was produced by Mark Ronson, the epitome of commercial success and an incredible authority who has worked with Amy Winehouse, Bruno Mars and other stars. But in the case of Barbie The Album, Mr. Ronson seemed to run out of time. Any soundtrack consisting of tracks by pop stars gives the impression of a spontaneous and not always logical selection, and here is also a selection not for five points.

One of the best songs was performed by Ryan Gosling, who played Ken in the film. Mark Ronson was the author of the music, and it turned out to be a downright dramatic work, which, especially in a pink context, sounds very intriguing. But no one came up with a song about Barbie that could become a big hit for the soundtrack. Apparently, therefore, they decided to take what had already been invented in the last century. And we have to admit that the backing from Aqua’s 26-year-old hit Barbie Girl, used on the track Barbie World, sounds much more expressive than Nicki Minaj’s and Ice Spice’s nasal rapping. This is surprising in its own way, but the song, which in the nineties annoyed many with its cloying, is not outdated at all, and its tune will give odds to many champions of modern charts.

By the way, the band itself is still in good health and even in touring form. Until the end of the summer, you can catch them in Canada and be surprised that the same people who became Aqua in 1993 are on stage. Only Klaus Norren left the team, who went freelancing in 2016, but vocalist Lene Nyström and her associates Rene Dif and Søren Rasted, despite their mature age (Lene will exchange her sixth decade in October, Sørena – 54, Rene – 56), do not embarrassed to jump to bubble gum pop and sing about Barbie.

Aqua is sometimes referred to as a one-hit band, referring, of course, to Barbie Girl. This is not entirely fair, after all, there are Roses Are Red, and My Oh My, as well as the teary ballad Turn Back Time. But it is, of course, difficult to rank Aqua among the teams that are not greedy for products. The group has three original albums (Aquarium (1997), Aquarius (2000) and Megalomania (2011), but the main achievement was the first big release, which included the very song about Barbie.

The incredible success of Barbie Girl can be considered a good example of the fact that even in completely commercial music there is a bit of magic, so it is quite difficult to predict the fate of a new song. Barbie Girl at first did not really like even the musicians themselves. Lene Nyström said in an interview that the key in which the track was recorded was too high for her, she asked several times to change it to make it easier to sing, but the other members of Aqua refused her. Apparently, this song from the very beginning was conceived as something full of excesses.

Søren Rasted recalled how he felt unexpected inspiration after visiting a kitsch culture exhibition. The event was held in one of the department stores in Copenhagen, and probably the most striking exhibit was a kind of Barbie planet – the artists put an incredible variety of dolls into a ball, and it turned out to be a whole mountain of plastic and outfits of the most ridiculous colors. Soren recalls that the phrase “Life in plastic, it’s fantastic” came to his mind when he saw this art object.

When the song was ready, the Universal bosses saw it as just another number from the album, and even the decision to release Barbie Girl as a single did not involve shooting a video. Visualization, of course, is an important trump card in influencing the public, but the recording authorities stubbornly did not consider it a potential hit, which means that money for promotion was allocated with great reluctance. It can be said that the song was saved by its first fans in Denmark. The little thing quickly became a radio hit, and only after that it was decided to shoot a video.

The clip, which has now been viewed over a billion times, has become one of the breakthrough pop music videos of the nineties. Directed by Peter Stenbeck and Peter Pedersen, they shot a not very kind and absolutely kitsch parody of world famous toys. All this was designed for a European sense of humor, but American doll manufacturers did not understand the joke so much that they ran to court.

Puppet tycoons in something can be understood. In the text of the song, on behalf of the vocalist in the role of Barbie, it is reported that she can be undressed anywhere, in the finale of the video, during a party in the Barbie house, the doll’s hand is torn off, besides, the main image for Barbie Girl was created not in the likeness of an American plastic blonde, but inspired by Lilly Bild, a German doll for not quite childish games.

The lawsuit from Mattel included sexualization of the image and the use of a trademark without permission. In the final verdict of the judge, it was about the parody nature of the video, and therefore, the inappropriateness of the accusation of violating rights. However, the following notice can be seen on the album’s liner notes: “Barbie Girl’s song is a social commentary. The makers of the doll didn’t create it and didn’t approve of it.” However, approval did happen over time. In the advertising campaign of dolls in 2009, it is the song Aqua that sounds, although with a slightly changed text.

Together with the clip, Barbie Girl plowed the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, provoking the public to manifestations of both love and hate. The song has repeatedly made it to the lists of the most annoying songs of the nineties, and this is one of the markers that a simple melody and lyrics, written as if written by a schoolboy, hooked the audience in earnest.

There is also a secular detail in the history of Barbie Girl. In the video, Barbie and Ken are played by Lene Nyström and Rene Dif. And then they really met, moreover, it was Rene who brought Lene into the group, turning the life of a Norwegian casino employee into something more exciting. True, Lene went down the aisle with her friend Rene and another Aqua member Soren Rasted. In 2017, the couple divorced, but before that they lived together for sixteen years and became the parents of two children.

Relations in the group, all its members are also called family. They collectively decide when to stop working together for solo projects and when to get back together and tour. According to rumors, the musicians did not have any serious conflicts. And this is a reasonable approach. Conflicts take a lot of strength, and Aqua participants need excellent tone in order to dance to a peppy beat on the new Barbie wave.