Aqua formed in 1995 and went on to sell more than 33 million records worldwide, becoming one of the defining pop acts of the late 1990s with chart hits including Doctor Jones, Turn Back Time, My Oh My and Cartoon Heroes.<\/p>\n
The split announcement comes less than a year before the 30th anniversary of their debut album Aquarium, which transformed the group into international stars and cemented their place in pop culture history.<\/p>\n
The Danish-Norwegian group, famous for hits such as Barbie Girl, sold more than 33 million records worldwide. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Aqua\u2019s lineup in recent years consisted of Rene Dif, Soren Rasted and Lene Nystr\u00f8m, after founding member Claus Norreen departed in 2016 to pursue other projects.<\/p>\n
In the statement, the group said the decision to end the band had been reached amicably.<\/p>\n
They wrote: \u201cWhen you\u2019ve been together for this long, you also learn when it\u2019s time to protect what you\u2019ve created together.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, this feels like the right moment to say goodbye, while the memories are still strong, and while the love for the music, the story, and each other remains intact.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement concluded: \u201cFrom the bottom of our hearts: thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey over the past 30 years. Thank you for the love, the energy, the support, and for all the moments we\u2019ve shared together.<\/p>\n
\u201cNothing but love and gratitude from here on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fans reacted emotionally online, with many describing the break-up as \u201cthe end of an era\u201d.<\/p>\n
One supporter said: \u201cDevastated\u2026 but also so grateful to have seen your brilliant live show several times\u2026 your incredible catalogue of songs will live on forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another wrote: \u201cSo disappointing and sad for the fans and unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third fan posted: \u201cEnd of an era! I have so many beautiful memories over decades and I\u2019m so grateful I\u2019ve been able to see you a few times. Your shows are incredible and your music will be a treasure always.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Aqua\u2019s biggest commercial peak came in the late 1990s, the band experienced a major resurgence in 2023 when Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice sampled Barbie Girl on the single Barbie World for the movie Barbie.<\/p>\n
The film, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, reignited global interest in Aqua\u2019s music and introduced the group to a younger audience.<\/p>\n
Barbie World reached No 4 in the British charts and marked Aqua\u2019s highest chart success in more than two decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aqua formed in 1995 and went on to sell more than 33 million records worldwide, becoming one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3589,74,696,121856,39805,95809,29861,9060,156,6868,209,305,130,157,111,139,69,4913,8692,195324,131,8229,1529,12637,1530],"class_list":["post-434528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-3589","tag-after","tag-announced","tag-aqua","tag-barbie","tag-breakup","tag-confirm","tag-decades","tag-entertainment","tag-girl","tag-group","tag-have","tag-more","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pop","tag-split","tag-splitting","tag-than","tag-they","tag-three","tag-together","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434528","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=434528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}