• Aqua are a group of Scandinavian musicians and DJs who had originally formed under the name Joyspeed. This yielded some small chart success in their native region, but the group grew disillusioned and started over as Aqua.
• This was written after the group saw an exhibit on Kitsch culture that featured Barbie dolls.
• Mattel sued the band, saying they violated the Barbie trademark and turned Barbie into a sex object, referring to her as a "Blonde Bimbo." Aqua claimed that Mattel injected their own meanings into the song's lyrics. In 2002, a judge ruled the song was protected as free speech under the first amendment, and also threw out a defamation lawsuit Aqua's record company filed against Mattel. The judge said in the ruling that "The parties are advised to chill." The case was dismissed, and in the process, it garnered loads of media attention for the song and the band.
• In late 1997, a few months after this song peaked on the American charts, Mattel announced that they were changing Barbie's body for just the third time in her history. Barbie's new body had a bigger waist, slimmer hips and breasts that were shrunk to an honest B cup.
• Aqua had commercial success in Denmark and Sweden with their first single, "Roses Are Red," going to #1 there. The group is considered a one hit wonder in the United States, but in England, they followed "Barbie Girl" with two more #1 hits: "Doctor Jones" and "Turn Back Time."
• Blender magazine rated this the 33rd worst song ever in its 2004 article "Run for Your Life! It's the 50 Worst Songs Ever!" in a section entitled "Scandi-wegian pedo-pop alert! Erk!" They suggest that "perhaps the gambit sounded acceptable in helium-huffing singer Lene Nystrom's native Norwegian," but that "in English it's just plain wrong." They labeled "'rapper' Rene Dif's basso profundo 'come on, Barbie, let's go party'" as the worst part of the song.
• The music video was directed by Peder Pedersen and Peter Stenbæk.

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