The secrets of ‘Barbie Girl’: dancing with Xuxa, criticism of sexism, lawsuit and cover of Kelly Key

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At g1, Aqua recalls ‘crazy’ program and approves empowered versions. Hit resulted in a legal dispute with Mattel, was criticized for sexism and made the band sell 15 million records. “Barbie Girl”, the biggest hit inspired by the famous doll, made a Danish band with a cartoon look sell more than 15 million copies of their debut album. The song gained empowered versions, resulted in a Mattel lawsuit and received criticism for sexism. Now, it has returned to being talked about (and re-recorded) due to the success of the movie “Barbie”. The beats and lyrics were simple. The relay of voices was mesmerizing. In 1997, “Barbie Girl” was one of the most played songs in Brazil. The fantastic plastic world of the lyrics even got a Portuguese version, sung by Kelly Key, eight years later (see excerpts from the two clips in the video below). René Dif, a 55-year-old former DJ, became famous for his bald head, deep voice and big smile. Lene Nystrøm, 49, changed her hair like someone changing clothes. She became a singer after being a model and stage assistant on a famous Norwegian TV show, her homeland. “Aqua had a lot of irony, we tried to put colors in the words. It was very visual and everything always played with it”, explains Lene to g1 (listen to the interview in the podcast above). “It’s like the music is a canvas and you start painting with the words and the vocals. It’s a big part of Aqua, working like that.” Lene always seems to be two shades below her bandmate, who she dated in the beginning of Aqua. René is much more plundered than his partner. When I hit: Aqua remembers ‘Barbie Girl’ and praises Kelly Key Dancing with Xuxa Aqua only came to Brazil once, in 2000. They performed on TV shows like “Planeta Xuxa”. “The program was crazy. I remember that the girl, the presenter, she was blonde and had already dated a Formula 1 driver, maybe”, ventures René. The guess is accurate: Xuxa dated Ayrton Senna for almost two years, in the late 1980s. “It was a huge show, right? There were a lot of people, all dancing. It was an incredible experience”, he adds. René and Lene are the voices and faces of Aqua, but the songs are created by the other two members. Keyboardist Søren Rasted and guitarist Claus Norren pen almost all of Aqua’s songs, including “Barbie Girl”. Aqua was a pop band that was different from the others at that time, because they almost didn’t make songs with the participation of other artists… They already had in the band the melodic voice of a singer and the bad voice of a rapper. And they wrote and produced their own songs: because they already had a producer duo in the band. The band Aqua in the video for ‘Barbie Girl’ Playback Aqua’s keyboardist had the idea of ​​writing “Barbie Girl” when he went to an art exhibition in a store in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. The artist responsible for the exhibition took a bunch of Barbies and formed a giant ball, as if the dolls had given rise to a planet. Looking at that oddity, he thought of a phrase, which would later become part of the song’s chorus: “Life in plastic, it’s fantastic”. At the same time, he also hummed “Come on, Barbie, let’s go party”. The backbone of this classic dance music from the 90s was created there. Crazy Eurodance The arrangement was all created from a synthesizer called Roland JV-2080, which was one of the most modern equipment at the time and had been released a year before. If the letter a is simple, the sonority may be even simpler. “Barbie Girl” is a typical Eurodance, a typically European dance song that appeared in the early 90’s. The Danish band Aqua Divulgation Vocals usually oscillate between spoken and sung to the sound of a pulsating bass, frenetic beats and whistled melodies. Another thing about eurodance is that it’s kind of loud, cheesy, even kind of strident (see examples of hits in the style above). You can say, pardon the pun and exaggeration, that Aqua was a watershed in Eurodance. After them, the style totally lost track. Post-Aqua eurodance went wild, with hits like “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Italian group Eiffel 65; “Stereo Love”, by the Romanian Edward Maya and “Dragostea Din Tei”, by the group O-Zone, directly from Moldova. The lyrics of “Barbie Girl” were very criticized for being considered sexist. The woman is being objectified, treated as if were a doll. There are lines like: “I’m a dumb blonde”, “You can undress me everywhere” and “Dress me, squeeze me, I’m your doll”. is that it’s not a lyric to be taken seriously. Their idea was just to sing fun verses, create funny images. Lene already said that a woman has the right to do what she wants: including wanting to pretend to be a doll and being objectified. legal dispute The most bizarre thing about this story is that in 2009 Mattel recreated “Barbie Girl” for a campaign for a new line of the doll. The lyrics, of course, were toned down, without any sexual or objectifying connotations. Other versions were created trying to hitch a ride on the pink convertible cart (and in the movie). It has a remix by Dutch DJ Tiësto and a more indie version, sung by Canadian singer Alice Glass, who was from the band Crystal Castles. Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice in the ‘Barbie Girl’ clip It plays at the end of the film, when the credits roll. The two rhyme over snippets of the chorus and pre-chorus of “Barbie Girl” that play very softly in a loop. And it’s a really short song… it’s only one minute and 49 seconds. Kelly Key ‘beautiful’ At the end of the interview, g1 showed Lene and René the clip for “Sou a Barbie Girl”, a version sung by Kelly Key. The two approve, but the singer is more excited: “She is absolutely beautiful, first thing. It’s a good, funny and beautiful version of the ‘Barbie Girl’ video. Great merit of hers.” Kelly Key in the video for ‘Barbie Girl’, from 2005 René says he is always flattered when he hears versions of Aqua songs: “I certainly congratulate her.” “We hope that if we go back to Brazil one day and maybe we can meet her… Then we take her on stage to sing together for all the Brazilian fans.” In Portuguese? He laughs and replies: “I do speak a little Spanish, but that’s it.” After a break, they returned in 2016, but with one less founding member: guitarist Claus Norreen. Between 2011 and 2021, the band only released one song, “Rookie”. In their 25-year career, Aqua has recorded other hit singles such as “Dr. Jones” and “My oh my”. They did well in the charts, but without repeating the success of “Barbie Girl”. “Since 2008, we’ve been touring the world”, says René. “We were lucky to see the whole world again. We haven’t been to Brazil, because we haven’t been invited yet. But as soon as they invite us, we will go.” The Danish band Aqua Disclosure During the interview, Lene was interrupted twice by her daughters. It was partly because of them that Aqua decided to take a risk on TikTok. She says that her 15- and 16-year-old daughters live with their cell phones on their faces. “They don’t look up, they’re always watching TikTok,” she explains, mimicking the two. “I used to say I would never get on TikTok. But now the band is on TikTok and you have to follow what’s hot. But I don’t have a personal account, it’s just for the band. It would be too much of a waste of time.” She reveals that the band is preparing new songs. “But I think we are not going to release an album anymore, we are going to continue releasing singles… It’s easier today, with the phase the market is in.” VIDEOS: When I hit Initial plugin text

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