{"id":383946,"date":"2026-04-06T00:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T00:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/383946\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T00:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T00:54:20","slug":"we-were-very-secretive-about-the-song-title-it-was-such-a-great-idea-and-we-didnt-want-anyone-else-to-know-about-it-so-for-a-long-time-we-called-the-song-burger-king-the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/383946\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe were very secretive about the song title. It was such a great idea and we didn\u2019t want anyone else to know about it. So for a long time we called the song Burger King!\u201d: The story of controversial \u201990s pop banger Barbie Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the late \u201990s, Danish-Norwegian group Aqua sold over 30 million albums and singles and topped the charts throughout the world \u2013 and the song that kickstarted that phenomenal success was Barbie Girl.<\/p>\n

The group was formed in 1989 by multi-instrumentalist songwriters S\u00f8ren Rasted and Claus Norreen with singers Lene Nystr\u00f8m and Ren\u00e9 Dif. And in 2009, the foursome discussed their approach to music and the creation of Barbie Girl.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As Rasted stated, from the beginning they set out to do something unique in pop music.<\/p>\n

Article continues below <\/p>\n

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\u201cWe started out doing very hardcore dance,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we became more pop. And lyrically, instead of writing straight-down-the-alley songs, we wanted to make them more like fairytales \u2013 songs like Barbie Girl and Doctor Jones, hits for kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe liked the sound and the energy from dance music,\u201d said Norreen, \u201cbut we were writing classical pop songs with a verse and a chorus, not just a short hook like a lot of dance music, and that became a huge part of our success and our identity as a group.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that time the European club style was very much a pretty singer and an angry rapper, and we wanted to change that a little bit, so we had Ren\u00e9 sing too.”<\/p>\n

Rasted continued: \u201cWe had our look and our sound. Lene and Ren\u00e9 are very characteristic in their image and in their voice. And our videos were very tongue-in-cheek.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe never had the urge to be credible. Most bands suffer because they want that. We never did \u2013 it\u2019s just not us!<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we met Ren\u00e9 he was DJing. He was playing all these Euro-dance bands like Snap!”<\/p>\n

SNAP! – The Power (Official Music Video) – YouTube
\n\"SNAP!<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe liked the energy of that which we combined with classic writing. It sounds like a clich\u00e9, but I just like a good pop tune that\u2019s well written and has something distinctive in it.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

\u201cLene and Ren\u00e9 have very distinctive voices, which immediately means either you hate it or you love it. The people that love us really love us, and the people that hate us really hate us! But I love things that are a little bit quirky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rasted said of his writing partnership with Norreen: \u201cWe always had a special procedure in writing songs. Many songs have been written in major and when we started we wrote in minor. When we did uptempo, happy songs it was mostly in minor. We changed it when we did something with lyrically more heaviness \u2013 the ballads, we would do in major.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barbie Girl made Aqua a household name from Europe to America and beyond, selling over a million copies in the UK alone \u2013 and it took just one hour for Rasted and Norreen to write the song.<\/p>\n

As Norreen remembered it: \u201cWe were in our small studio in Copenhagen. Soren had been to an art exhibition where there was a lot of Barbie dolls in it. He came back to the studio and we started working on the music, and within an hour we\u2019d nailed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you work days and days on a song and it turns out horribly. But this was one of those songs that just happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

He laughed: \u201cWe were very secretive about the title. It was such a great idea and we didn\u2019t want anyone else to know about it, so for a long time we called the song Burger King!\u201d<\/p>\n

Aqua – Barbie Girl (Official Music Video) – YouTube
\n\"Aqua<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Inevitably, a song named Barbie Girl, with lyrics referring to Barbie and Ken dolls, attracted the interest of the toys\u2019 manufacturer Mattel. In addition, the video for the song featured Nystr\u00f8m and Ren\u00e9 Dif playing the roles of Barbie and Ken.<\/p>\n

A lawsuit duly followed in which Mattel accused Aqua\u2019s record label MCA of diluting the image of Barbie. The case was eventually dismissed, and Mattel would later license Aqua\u2019s song for the 2023 fantasy comedy movie Barbie. What\u2019s more, for the movie soundtrack Barbie The Album, a sample of Barbie Girl was incorporated into a new song by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice \u2013 titled Barbie World.<\/p>\n

Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice \u2013 Barbie World (with Aqua) [Official Music Video] – YouTube
\n\"Nicki<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

The release of Barbie Girl in April 1997 coincided with the launch of Auto-Tune, but S\u00f8ren Rasted later confirmed that no pitch correction was used for Nystr\u00f8m\u2019s vocal on the track.<\/p>\n

Barbie Girl was not the first single lifted from Aqua\u2019s debut album Aquarium. In Denmark, the first single was Roses Are Red; the second, My Oh My.<\/p>\n

Rasted admitted: \u201cWhen we released Barbie Girl as the first single in other countries, I was very afraid that we would end up being a one-hit wonder band. That would be a terrible thing, but it can happen when you have such a big song. So it was a huge relief when Doctor Jones became number one as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

More huge hits followed over the years, including Turn Back Time and Cartoon Heroes.<\/p>\n

Aqua – Cartoon Heroes – YouTube
\n\"Aqua<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

But of course, Barbie Girl will always be the song that defines Aqua.<\/p>\n

In 2009, Claus Norreen shared a funny story involving this and another famous song, Gloria Gaynor\u2019s I Will Survive, the \u201970s disco classic and gay anthem.<\/p>\n

Norreen said of Barbie Girl: \u201cIt\u2019s surreal to write something that goes around the globe on that scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then elaborated: \u201cI live in the centre of Copenhagen and recently there was a Gay Olympics in the city. I was sitting outside with a friend when a bunch of Korean guys, athletes, came walking down the street singing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told my friend, \u2018If you can persuade them to sing I Will Survive, I\u2019ll start dancing!\u2019 And I\u2019m a terrible dancer! The funny thing is, these guys didn\u2019t know I Will Survive \u2013 but they knew Barbie Girl!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the late \u201990s, Danish-Norwegian group Aqua sold over 30 million albums and singles and topped the charts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-383946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}