More than 25 years after its premiere, the musical success of the 90s, Barbie Girlfrom the Danish group Aqua once again broke reproduction records, thanks to the premiere of the film Barbiethe Warner.
The song, which was originally released in 1997, was a catchy hit that in its time caused a worldwide sensation, playing on radio stations on all continents and catapulting the group, whose international success was reduced to that song alone.
After the premiere of the film directed by Greta Gerwig, and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the song once again became a trend, and although a new version with Nikki Minaj was released for the soundtrack albumthe original is the one that has shone on the platforms.
The video, which was re-released by the group on their YouTube channel in 2010, surpassed 1 billion views this week, with 1.295 billion views to be exact. This means that the video has gathered 400 thousand views daily, on average, for the last year.
The furor over the tape about the most famous doll in the world makes these figures credible, with several box office records which include being the second biggest feature film debut, behind only Avengers: Endgamein 2018.
The movie has become the first led by a woman to achieve more than a billion dollars in profitsand the Warner Bros. production that has done it the fastest.
After 26 years, “Barbie Girl” gets 3 platinum records in 🇺🇸. In addition, “Aqua” reaches #1 globally on Spotify for the first time. pic.twitter.com/ho6OHyb4Ee
— Real Time 📈 (@RealTimeRating) August 5, 2023
In this sense, from the trailer references to the famous 90’s theme were predicted, with the iconic “Hi Barbie, Hi Ken” that can be heard in the same jovial tone when introducing the song, something that did not go unnoticed by the public, who really expected listen to the original theme on the tape.
In the end, Mattel, which at the time had a fierce legal battle over the song that mentioned its product and finally got the rights to it in 2009, reluctantly gave in to the public’s requests, putting up a remix version. of it in the credits of the film.
However, there is profit for the four members of the group, Søren Rasted, Claus Norreen, René Dif and Lene Nystrøm, who appear in the video against backdrops in garish pastel colours, giving the doll’s artificial atmosphere, the same one that also achieved the Gerwig tape.
On the Spotify music platform, playbacks also skyrocketed, and Barbie Girl It has more than 406 million views, 240 million more than its second most listened to song, which is the remix of it with Nikki Minaj (from 160 M views), and more than 300 million more than the third place, Doctor Joneswith 81 million.
With this, the song earned three Platinum records and the #1 position in Spotify’s Global Top, all more than two decades after its premiere. This case is reminiscent of those that occurred with the success of the series Stranger Thingswhich led to the eighties hits Running Up That Hill y Master of Puppets to top positions in a revival nearly 40 years after its release.
At the time, Aqua’s hit positioned them on the main music charts, selling more than 8 million copies worldwide, where Barbie Girl appeared as a single on their first album “Aquarium”. Today, the band celebrates the return of their song on social networks.
