It has been 25 years since Danish dance-pop group band Aqua hit it big with their notorious hit “Barbie Girl” — and lead vocalist Lene Nystrøm still has some mixed feelings about the song that continues to cause a phenomenon.
“I would be compared with ‘Barbie Girl’ all the time,” explains Nystrøm, 48, while sitting next to her color-coordinated bandmates Rene Dif and Søren Rasted during a Zoom interview with PEOPLE. “It really made me into the darkest drug chick in the world with skulls all over because I had to do something opposite than that!” She laughs. “So yeah, that time definitely had its rough patches.”
Indeed, it was 1997 when Aqua found itself thrust into the global spotlight merely three years after the band’s creation via the release of their debut album Aquarium! But while singles such as “Turn Back Time” and “Doctor Jones” saw success around the world and the album itself went on to sell more than 17 million copies worldwide, it was “Barbie Girl” alone that would end up making waves here in the states.
And that still sort of hurts.
“It’s hard to make something and have your own truth about it, send it into the world and get so many interpretations around it,” says Nystrøm. “That can be tough.”
“‘Barbie Girl’ kind of over shined all the other hits we had,” adds Rasted, 53. “We didn’t have any other hits in America. We put ‘Lollipop (Candyman)’ out as the second single and it never worked. It was a bit disappointing because in America, suddenly we became a one-hit-wonder band. Do we wish things would’ve worked out differently in America? Absolutely.”
Of course, with time also comes understanding.
“We were being pulled upon from so many sides of the world at that time, and the fact is that we needed to go to do promotion is so many other places,” admits Nystrøm of the somewhat chaos that came with the release of the smash hit released back in May 1997. “You really have to stay, live, and work in America for such a long time to make the whole country work. We needed to go make a concert in America, but you can’t make a concert with one song.”
However, even after all these years, it’s that one song that continues to find its way into the American psyche. In fact, there is a generation of music lovers that are just now being entranced by the addictive melody and somewhat seductive lyrics of the long-lasting hit.
“It’s amazing to see how much people are embracing [it], especially on TikTok because they’re so creative,” says Dif, 54. “They will do it with the guitar or a bass or on a bucket, or they will do a dance — all sorts of stuff that at some point goes viral. I think that’s their main goal, but you never know what goes viral! We are just sitting here as spectators.”
Certainly, Aqua serves as far more than spectators at the moment, with the group continuing to tour after taking a five-year break from touring from 2001 to 2006.
“We are playing 30 to 40 concerts a year,” says Rasted. “Every year, I’m just really surprised that we are still so popular. When we go out and play concerts and festivals, the people we are playing for are young. It’s pretty crazy to see that. The rest of the world does not consider us a one-hit wonder band.”
But they have yet to give up on the good ole U.S.A.
“We have big goals,” says Nystrøm.
“It’s no secret,” adds Dif. “I would love to go to the States. I would love to see Aqua do two weeks in Vegas and I would like to see Aqua on the stage at Coachella. Things like that would definitely be on the bucket list of Aqua.”
And they are working on new music — sort of.
“Yeah, that’s a stretch,” Nystrøm admits with a laugh. “That’s probably going too far. We have a couple of tracks we’re working on. I believe we have a goal. Every time we go on stage and every time we see an audience, we want to do our best and be the best. That’s always been our goal as a band, to continue this amazing ride for as long as we can.”
