Aqua breaks silence on use of their song in Barbie movie after Mattel lawsuit

Aqua breaks her silence on Barbie’s creative use of their song “Barbie Girl”. Danish band Europop first released “Barbie Girl” in 1997 on their debut album Aquarium. It became extremely popular and many fans expected it to be used in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie. Barbie ended up using a remixed version of the song, adding rap stars Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice to Aqua’s ’90s classic.

Now the Aqua members are talking about using their song on the Barbie movie soundtrack after initial hesitation. In an interview with The Guardian, band member Lene Nyström explains that the collaboration with Minaj and Ice Spice “happened very quickly” after they initially thought the song would not be included at all. You can read Nyström’s full quote below:

“We thought it would be like butter on bacon. We knew very well that they needed something fresh and new. And then, just two months ago, we were asked to collaborate with (Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice). It happened very quickly.”

Also Aqua band member René Dif, noting that they interpreted the collaboration as an official way to make peace with Mattel, added:

“It’s nice that Mattel comes to us and says, ‘Hi, this is great.’

Because the inclusion of “Barbie Girl” in “Barbie” was uncertain.

Although “Barbie Girl” was eventually included in the Barbie movie through “Barbie World”, the original Aqua song was not always used in the movie. Indeed, Nyström’s manager announced that “Barbie Girl” would not be featured in the Barbie movie, which confused many fans. However, Margot Robbie later stated that Gerwig’s film always had to include Barbie Girl because you can’t “make a Barbie movie and not make a reference to Aqua’s Barbie Girl”.

Whether or not “Barbie Girl” was meant to be included in Barbie, the uncertainty surrounding the song’s inclusion is not surprising in light of Aqua’s complicated relationship with Mattel. When the song was first released in 1997, Mattel was concerned that “Barbie Girl” would overly sexualize the popular children’s toy. As a result, the company filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against MCA Records, which responded with a counterclaim. The cases were dropped and the song was declared legally protected as a parody.

After all, it’s likely that Mattel, who co-produced the Barbie movie, did what Robbie did: a Barbie movie without Barbie Girl wouldn’t be right. Like the cultural phenomenon that the film became, Barbie Girl became part of the zeitgeist. So expelling Aqua and their song from the movie would have been a big mistake for Barbie, and the audience ended up benefiting from this reconciliation.

Source: Guardian