Aqua has a theory about why their hit song "Barbie Girl," which recently turned 25, is not featured in the upcoming Barbie movie.
Singer Lene Nystrøm told Variety she thinks combining the novelty hit with the Margot Robbie-led film would be "cheese on cheese."
"I totally understand why they didn't use it," she said, adding there's no hard feelings. "It's going to bring us a lot of attention, no matter what!"
Søren Rasted, the guy who rocked the spiked hair, said, "We should say we turned it down. Ryan Gosling is not good enough!" Gosling stars as Barbie's on-again, off-again boyfriend Ken.
Reflecting on their hit song's 25th anniversary, the Danish-Norwegian Euro pop band revealed the hit came out before autotune changed the game. Rasted explained singers "had to hit it" every time, which vexed their lead singer.
Nystrøm admits the high-pitched song tested her nerves. "I don't know how many headsets I smashed," she laughed. "I was furious for months!" Despite that, she's thankful her vocals were pitch perfect. "It made the whole track magical, but it took me a long time to admit it," she said.
The group also opened up about experiencing backlash for the song, with feminists slamming the hit. "We weren’t prepared for all the negative reactions," Nystrøm said. The criticism "was a little bit tough to swallow."
She also remembers being sued by Mattel, adding, "You had to watch what you were saying all the time, sometimes our words were twisted." That lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
Despite this, Aqua knows their song, which has over 1 billion YouTube views, will have a long life. "A good melody never dies, it just keeps on giving. And ‘Barbie Girl’ is a perfect example of that," said Nystrøm.
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