Since Warner Bros. is developing a live-action movie about the most famous doll of all time, one would think they would get everything classic that pertains to Barbies. While they just might include most of that, the upcoming film Barbie will not include the one song many think of when they think of the Barbie doll.
The Aqua hit song "Barbie Girl" from 1997 is reportedly not going to be included in the upcoming Barbie film. While Warner Bros. has not commented on why the popular song will not be included in the film, many believe it stems from Barbie's toy company Mattel and their bad blood with the Danish pop band since the song's release.
Aqua's manager was the one who told Variety the classic song would not be included in the Barbie film. In spite of the song's immense popularity when it was first released, Mattel was not happy with some of the song's supposedly suggestive lyrics, believing Barbie was coming off as "promiscuous" and "singing in a flirtatious tone." Mattel believed this supposed sexualizing of Barbie would hurt the brand as a whole, so they sued MCA records (which is now part of Universal Entertainment) for trademark infringement, to which MCA countersued claiming Mattel's public statements about the song were defamation and that the song was a parody, thus protected under the First Amendment. Both lawsuits were dismissed. Mattel tried to appeal but made no headway. When it was all said and done, both parties were as displeased with each other as it gets.
Even though it's been 25 years, reports like these show that fences certainly haven't been mended. Because Mattel is Barbie's distributor, they of course will be involved heavily with the film's production, so they get the final say on whether to include the hit song in the Barbie film or not. Since Mattel made a very public ordeal about Aqua's song potentially hurting Barbie's brand, it would seem odd for them to suddenly include a song they've expressed much distaste for since its release.
For all we know, this isn't the end of it. Since it will be over a year before this film gets its release in theaters, there's no telling what could happen. We live in the digital era where fans come up with petitions to get what they want. Sometimes it's worked. Sometimes it hasn't. We also live in an era where every popular song and movie gets remade, so for all we know, Mattel might ask for Aqua's permission to make their own iteration of the song.
Where this gets even weirder is that Mattel was apparently concerned that Barbie's image would be tarnished when "Barbie Girl" came out? Hasn't the Barbie doll set unreasonable female body standards for decades on end? Hopefully, this upcoming film will confront those standards head-on, and perhaps to emphasize their point, they'll include "Barbie Girl" to some capacity.
Barbie will be released in theaters on July 21st, 2023.
Source: Variety