About

Barbie Girl is a song released in 1997 by the Danish-Norwegian Europop group Aqua. The song was a smash hit and grew notorious for its catchiness. It remained popular for decades after its release and inspired several fan covers and parodies online.

History

"Barbie Girl" was first released in Denmark on April 22nd, 1997,^[1] on the group's debut album Aquarium, and was released in the United States on August 12th, 1997.^[2] A music video for the song (shown below) was also released in 1997, and was posted to the official Aqua YouTube channel on August 20th, 2010, where it received over 1.2 billion views in over twelve years.

The song was critically well-received^[3] and peaked at Number 1 in several countries around the world. In the U.S., it peaked at Number 7. Aqua was sued by Mattel for the use of its IP in the song, but the case was thrown out in 2002.^[4] A remake of the song titled "Barbie World," featuring Aqua, Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj appeared on the soundtrack for Barbie in 2023 (shown below).

Online Presence

The song has long been the inspiration for parodies on social media. On April 29th, 2017, YouTuber Tridashie posted a My Little Pony parody of the song, gaining over 20 million views in six years (shown below, left). On January 17th the same year, YouTuber Maestro Ziikos posted a parody where Barack Obama and Donald Trump sing the song, gaining over 28 million views in the same time frame (shown below, right).

On July 21st, 2023, YouTuber Todd in the Shadows uploaded a video essay about the song and the career of Aqua, gaining over 282,000 views in three days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References