Barbie Girl

"Barbie Girl"
Single by Aqua
from the album Aquarium
Released8 April 1997
Genre
Length3:16
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Johnny Jam
  • Delgado
  • Søren Rasted
  • Claus Norreen
Aqua singles chronology
"My Oh My"
(1997) 		"Barbie Girl"
(1997) 		"Doctor Jones"
(1997)
Music video
"Barbie Girl" on YouTube
Audio sample

"Barbie Girl" is a song by Danish-Norwegian dance-pop group Aqua. It was released in April 1997 by Universal and MCA as the third single from the group's debut studio album, Aquarium (1997). The song was written by band members Søren Rasted, Claus Norreen, René Dif, and Lene Nystrøm, and was produced by the former two alongside Johnny Jam and Delgado. It was written after Rasted saw an exhibit on kitsch culture in Denmark that featured Barbie dolls.[9][10] The accompanying music video was directed by Danish directors Peder Pedersen and Peter Stenbæk.

The song topped the charts worldwide, particularly in European countries such as the United Kingdom, where it was a number-one hit for four weeks and remains one of the best-selling singles of all time. It also reached number two in the group's homeland and peaked at number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100. It is Aqua's most popular work and was also performed as the interval act in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. Mattel accused Aqua's label of diluting the image of Barbie, leading to the controversial lawsuit Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc.. Twenty-five years later, Mattel licensed the song in the 2023 film Barbie and additionally sampled it for a new song, "Barbie World". Same year, Billboard magazine ranked it among the "500 Best Pop Songs of All Time".[4]

  1. ^ "Aqua Greatest Hits Tour | The Powerstation". www.powerstation.net.nz. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  2. ^ "The 100 Greatest Pop Songs of 1997: Critic's Picks". Billboard. 29 June 2017.
  3. ^ Molanphy, Chris (29 September 2017). "The Great War Against the Single Edition". Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia (Podcast). Slate. Retrieved 9 July 2023.
  4. ^ a b "The 500 Best Pop Songs: Staff List". Billboard. 19 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  5. ^ "Reviews: Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 4 October 1997. p. 30. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  6. ^ Hyman, James (13 September 1997). "Hot Vinyl" (PDF). Music Week, in RM (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). p. 4. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference allmusic.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Myers, Justin (23 June 2016). "EU referendum special: The biggest selling singles by European acts". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  9. ^ Aqua: the official book. [S.l.]: Back Stage Watson-Guptill. 1998. p. 38. ISBN 9780823078486.
  10. ^ Ewing, Tom. "Aqua – "Barbie Girl"". Freakytrigger. Retrieved 23 March 2017.