Barbie Girl Artists Respond To Barbie Movie Soundtrack

Barbie managed to sneak in “Barbie Girl” by Aqua and the band reacted to making the cut for the movie’s soundtrack. From the moment the Margot Robbie movie was announced, fans expected the famous pop song to make an appearance. And, it does, but not in the way you would think. Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s “Barbie World” is effectively a remix of Aqua’s song that actually features the Danish band. The Guardian caught up with them to talk about the full-blown Barbie-mania sweeping the world right now. Lene Nystrøm and René Dif have had some legal troubles with Mattel in the past, so this is just really cool to see for fans.

“We thought it would be like butter on bacon. We totally understood that they wanted something fresh and new,” Nystrøm explained. “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.’”

Crafting The Score For Barbie

Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt handled the score of the mega-hit movie. Ronson spoke to Waxwork Records, the label behind the vinyl release of the movie, about what went into creating the sounds for Barbie Land. In stark contrast with the actual soundtrack, most of these are original compositions. But, it’s hard not to hum along to the tracks when you encounter them on social media.

“Greta’s Barbie overflows with emotion in a way that inspired us to no end, not just with harmony and melody but also textures, sonics and rhythms,” Ronson said. “Sometimes Greta wanted us to elicit tears, sometimes she wanted it to feel like a disco. Sometimes she loved the warmth of vintage analogue synthesizers, sometimes she wanted the richness of the orchestra. Often, she wanted both.

“The late nights and crazy hours we put into Barbie were all worth it to us, because we were so in love with this film,” he added. “And we truly hope listening to our score from beginning to end will give others the same emotional, whimsical experience they had watching this magical film.” 

Barbie The Movie Continues To Crush at The Box Office

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which hit theaters on July 21st. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera , Kate McKinnon , Michael Cera , Ariana Greenblatt , Issa Rae , Rhea Perlman , and Will Ferrell. The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey , Hari Nef , Alexandra Shipp , Kingsley Ben-Adir , Simu Liu , Ncuti Gatwa , Scott Evans , Jamie Demetriou , Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya , Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren . Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach , based on Barbie by Mattel . 

Were you expecting Barbie Girl to play during the movie? Let us know down in the comments!