After almost 30 years in music, Aqua have announced they won’t be performing again.
The Danish Eurodance group famous for the 1997 hit Barbie Girl shared that they were breaking up in a statement posted to Instagram on Monday.
“After many incredible years, we have decided to close the chapter of Aqua as a live band,” the group wrote. ” Aqua has been such a huge part of our lives, and together we’ve had the chance to experience more than we ever dared to dream of.”
“For 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.”
The three core members, Soren Rasted, Rene Dif and Lene Nystrom, soared to chart success in 1997 with their debut album, Aquarium, which featured the single, Barbie Girl, with its lyric, “I’m a blonde bimbo girl in a fantasy world.”
In 2000, Barbie’s parent company, Mattel, sued Aqua’s then-label, MCA Records, claiming the song violated Barbie’s trademark and sexualised the doll with its suggestive lyrics. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2002 after a court ruled it was protected as a work of parody under the First Amendment.
Nystrom opined in an interview with Variety that “sometimes our words were twisted” during the legal battle, and that the band members “weren’t prepared for all the negative reactions” to the song’s anti-feminist lyrics.
“You know in your heart what your intentions were, and reading all that was a little bit tough to swallow,” she said at the time.
