Pro tennis star Coco Gauff just won her first major title at the US Open. Yesterday, Gauff beat Aryna Sabalenka to become the youngest American to win the US Open since Serena Williams in 1999. During the tournament, the 19-year-old has proven herself to be a big pop culture fan, and even revealed she gets ready for her matches by watching anime. After her big win, Gauff decided to channel Barbie by holding her trophy, wearing pink, and lip-syncing to Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice’s “Barbie World.”
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“This Barbie is the US Open champion 💞,” the official account for Barbie shared on Instagram. You can view Gauff’s video in the post below:
“Barbie Girl” Band Aqua Announces Barbie World Tour:
Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice’s “Barbie World” samples the Danish pop band Aqua’s 1997 hit “Barbie Girl.” Last year, it was revealed that Aqua’s song wouldn’t be featured in the movie, so fans were thrilled when it still made it onto the soundtrack. With Barbie becoming such a phenomenon, it’s no surprise to learn that Aqua is going back on tour. While “Barbie Girl” may have been sampled in Barbie, there is a possible reason why the full version didn’t make it into the movie.
“The song will not be used in the movie,” Ulrich Møller-Jørgensen, who manages Aqua’s lead singer Lene Nystrøm, told Variety last year.
At the time, Nystrøm did not expand on why the song would not be included, but it’s likely due to the fact that Mattel sued Aqua over the release of the song. Mattel claimed the song violated the Barbie trademark and turned the doll into a sex object. Ultimately, the case was dismissed, and it sounds like things have healed between Mattel and Aqua.
“We thought it would be like butter on bacon. We totally understood that they wanted something fresh and new,” Nystrøm explained to The Guardian when asked about “Barbie Girl” and the collaboration with Ice Spice. “And then, just two months ago, we were asked to do the [Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice] collab. It happened really quickly.”
Another member of Aqua, René Dif, also saw Mattel approaching the band as a kind of olive branch moment after all that drama. They said, “It’s just nice to have Mattel come to us and say: ‘Hey, that’s cool.’”
Congrats, Coco Gauff!
Barbie will be available to purchase on digital starting September 12th.
