Remember “Barbie Girl” by Aqua? That Euro-dance song was all the rage when it was released in 1997, and 25 years later, it’s getting renewed attention thanks to the upcoming live-action Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie as the title beauty. However, earlier this year, Aqua’s manager stated that “Barbie Girl” will not be used in the upcoming 2023 movie, and now the group’s members have responded to the exclusion.
With Barbie boasting a sprawling cast that includes Ryan Gosling and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ Simu Liu, as well as Greta Gerwig directing and co-writing the script with Noah Baumbach, this is shaping up to be one of summer 2023’s more high-profile cinematic offerings. Alas, “Barbie Girl” will not be included on the soundtrack, which prompted Søren Rasted to jokingly tell Variety the following:
We should say we turned it down. Ryan Gosling is not good enough!
In case you weren’t aware, Mattel sued MCA Records, the label that released “Barbie Girl,” for trademark infringement, claiming that the song turned the popular doll into a sexual object with its suggestive lyrics. This prompted MCA to countersue over defamation, but it was ultimately ruled that “Barbie Girl” was a parody and both lawsuits were tossed out, with the judge concluding that “the parties are advised to chill.” While Lene Nystrøm, the woman who sang the majority of the lyrics, theorized that using “Barbie Girl” in the Barbie movie might’ve simply been “cheese on cheese,” she and the other group members are ok with their song not being heard in the theatrical presentation, with Nystrøm saying:
I totally understand why they didn’t use it, but it’s going to bring us a lot of attention, no matter what.
She’s probably right; once Barbie comes out, expect to hear “Barbie Girl” blasted out a lot more. Between that, Aqua releasing a 25th anniversary edition of their first album “Aquarium” and ramping up their touring schedule, the pop group will be getting a lot more coverage in the next year. And hey, it’s a good bet that once Barbie is available on home media, someone will put together a video that lays “Barbie Girl” over scenes from the movie.
No specific plot details about the Barbie movie have been revealed yet, but principal photography unfolded from March to July of 2022, and Margot Robbie was “mortified” by the set photos of the production that went viral. Speaking of Robbie, we got our first look at her as Barbie towards the end of April, and the first look at Ryan Gosling as Ken followed in June. It’s also worth mentioning that while Robbie and Gosling are the movie’s leads, there will be multiple versions of Barbie and Ken appearing.
Barbie opens in theaters on July 21, 2023, the same day that Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s next movie, comes out. Before that, Robbie will appear in Amsterdam and Babylon, and Ryan Gosling’s latest movie, The Gray Man, can be streamed with a Netflix subscription.