Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj remade Aqua’s iconic Barbie anthem for the new movie
In 1997, for almost no reason at all, Danish pop group Aqua released the song “Barbie Girl,” a work of bubblegum perfection that went on to become a worldwide sensation, a chart-topping single that is impossible to forget the moment you hear it. Endlessly covered and parodied, the song was a pop culture meme before internet memes were a thing, and it’s unthinkable that Greta Gerwig’s Barbie would premiere without some sort of homage to it.
Fortunately, the legendary track is getting its due in the form of “Barbie World,” a new track by rappers Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice that both samples Aqua’s song and features a video that closely resembles the Europop band’s original attempt to emulate the Barbie dollhouse aesthetic.
There’s also a fascinating bit of history here. Mattel, the owner of Barbie, sued Aqua’s label MCA Records in 1997, claiming that “Barbie Girl” violated the Barbie trademark with its sexual lyrics — Mattel argued that the song damaged the Barbie brand, among other things. The case, Mattel v. MCA Records, was ultimately dismissed, with a federal appeals court declaring in 2002 that “Barbie Girl” was protected as parody.
Eventually, Mattel chilled out, using a reworked version of “Barbie Girl” for a 2009 ad campaign — and now once more, as part of the marketing blitz for its highly anticipated film Barbie, with the help of two of the most popular women in hip-hop.
Funny how times change.
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