{"id":434054,"date":"2026-05-18T22:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/434054\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T22:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T22:34:10","slug":"aqua-the-group-behind-barbie-girl-announces-band-breakup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/434054\/","title":{"rendered":"Aqua, the Group Behind ‘Barbie Girl,’ Announces Band Breakup"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Barbie Girl’ Band Aqua
\n Breaks Up After Over 30 Years<\/p>\n

\n Published
\n May 18, 2026
\n 12:22 PM PDT\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"aqua<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Aqua<\/a> — the European dance-pop group behind the hit song “Barbie Girl” — is breaking up almost 30 years after the release of their global hit.<\/p>\n

Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.<\/p>\n

Band members Lene Nystr\u00f8m, Ren\u00e9 Dif, and S\u00f8ren Rasted took to social media to announce the end of a 3-decade era, writing … “AQUA has been such a huge part of our lives, and together we\u2019ve had the chance to experience more than we ever dared to dream of.”<\/p>\n

They thanked fans for their support and noted that they’ve got “nothing but love and gratitude” for their time in the group.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“Barbie Girl” topped charts across the globe when it came out in 1997 … and was even remixed by Nicki Minaj<\/a> and Ice Spice<\/a> for the “Barbie” movie soundtrack in 2023.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"aqua<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The group hasn’t put out an album since “Megalomania” in 2011, but Ren\u00e9 will be playing a solo DJ set in Stockholm next month.<\/p>\n

And while they may be hanging up their Barbie and Ken hats, their music will live on … a stage adaptation of their hits — “Aqua the Musical<\/a>” — is scheduled to premiere in Copenhagen in 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘Barbie Girl’ Band Aqua Breaks Up After Over 30 Years Published May 18, 2026 12:22 PM PDT Aqua…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-434054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}