Aqua (band)

Aqua

Aqua was a Danish dance/pop group, best known for their 1997 breakthrough single "Barbie Girl". The group formed in 1989, and achieved huge success across the globe in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Although often criticised by the media, the group managed to top the UK Singles Chart with their first three singles, a feat few artists have achieved. The group released two albums, Aquarium in 1997 and Aquarius in 2000, before splitting up in July 2001. The group sold an estimated 28.7 million albums and singles.^[1]

In their prime, Aqua managed to make the singles chart top ten in a number of countries where European pop acts would not normally succeed, including the United States, Australia and Japan. The group also caused controversy with the double entendres in their "Barbie Girl" single, with the Barbie doll makers Mattel filing a lawsuit against the group. The lawsuit was finally rejected in 2002.

The group consisted of Lene Nystrøm, René Dif, Søren Rasted, and Claus Norreen. All the members were Danish except Lene, who was Norwegian. Since their 2001 split, Lene, René and Søren have all achieved solo chart success, and Claus has continued in the music industry remixing other artists' material.

History

File:Itsybitsyspidercover1.jpg

The cover of the Joyspeed single "Itsy Bitsy". The single was a flop, and the CD single is now a collector's item, with only a few known surviving copies

Although Aqua formed as a group called Joyspeed in 1989, their history together dates back to 1985, and the recording of the soundtrack for a little-known film called Frække Frida og de frygtløse spioner (Naughty Frida and the Fearless spies). At the time René was working in Holland as a club DJ, and Søren and Claus were both starting out as producers. The three were brought in to make part of the soundtrack for the film, and after getting along well, decided that they wanted to work together again on a future project.

The future project would not come to fruition for several years, though, with the three pursuing their chosen career paths (production for Søren and Claus, and DJing for René). The three still intended to work together, and had discussed the possibility of forming a group, but lacked a lead vocalist to front them. The project looked like it was never going to happen, but in 1993, René discovered a young Lene Grawford Nystrøm whilst working in Norway on a cruise ship. Lene had been singing on the cruise ship, and after being sufficiently impressed by her vocal ability, he approached her with the offer of her joining the 'project'. She accepted, and the four decided that they would form as Joyspeed the following year.

The formation of Joyspeed was that both Claus and Søren would do the production for the group, with René rapping and Lene performing the main vocals. A small Swedish record label signed them in 1994, and their dancy first single "Itsy Bitsy" released in Sweden. The single failed to become popular, despite its being based around a popular nursery rhyme, and after one week at the lower end of the Swedish charts the single disappeared completely. The four were disappointed and cancelled their contract with the record label (although the label wanted to keep the group on for further releases).

The birth of Aqua

Following their cancellation of the contract with the label, the four began to change their musical style, having all agreed that it had been the main reason for the failure of "Itsy Bitsy". The four had been managed up until this point by the often controversial Swedish manager Michael Brinkenstjärna, who had got them the record deal in Sweden. Brinkenstjärna had also been very influential in choosing their musical direction, and as a result the group decided to change managers, feeling that he was becoming a burden to their chances of success.

With a new manager and no record deal, the group started from scratch, and began to develop their famous bubblegum pop sound. The four began to produce and write melodic, catchy European pop songs, attracting the attention of the major record company Universal.

The four renamed themselves Aqua, choosing the name having seen a poster for an aquarium in their dressing room. The four eventually accepted Universal Denmark's offer of a recording contract in 1996.

The group's first release under their new name would be "Roses Are Red", a dance song with a distinct pop sound. The single was released in Denmark in September of 1996, and was expected to possibly scrape into the Danish top ten. The single far surpassed all expectations set by the label, though, by staying in the charts for over two months and eventually selling enough copies to be certified platinum. The success of the single was further proven when Aqua received a nomination for "Best Danish Dance Act", although the group wouldn't win.

The instant success of "Roses Are Red" had proven to Aqua that their new sound was popular with the public, and a result their follow-up single followed the same formula. Titled "My Oh My", the single again featured catchy lyrics paired with a soft, melodic beat. "My Oh My" would, upon its release in February 1997, break all Danish sales records by being certified gold within six days. The single went straight to number one in Denmark, and made Aqua a household name in the country. The first two singles had proven to Universal that Aqua was a very marketable group, and as a result the label looked to start marketing their music across the continent.

International breakthrough and debut album

Aqua released their debut album Aquarium in Denmark on March 26, 1997. The album contained 11 tracks, including their first two singles and their then upcoming third single "Barbie Girl". Universal Music had by now begun to market the group in other countries, releasing "Roses Are Red" in Japan in February 1997 and in various countries across Europe in late 1996. The single had proven popular everywhere it was sold, convincing Universal that the group should not just focus on the Danish market, but instead on the general European market.

Aqua released their third single "Barbie Girl" in May of 1997. The song, at first glance, appears to be about the popular children's doll Barbie. However, at second glance, the song contains several sexual overtones, and clear double meanings. This caused some controversy upon its release in Denmark, but despite the controversy and perhaps partly due to it, it still sold well and easily made number one in the charts.

Universal Music decided to ignore complaints about the double meanings in "Barbie Girl", and successfully released the single across the world in September 1997 and October 1997. The release was highly successful, making number one in the United Kingdom for four weeks, in Australia for three weeks, and even managing to make the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, something rarely achieved at the time by European pop acts. The song and group became a household name overnight, although to most of the world were instantly written off as a one-hit wonder. The double meanings in "Barbie Girl" caused the expected controversy, with many complaints aimed at Universal for releasing the track.

The makers of the Barbie doll, Mattel, also filed a lawsuit against the group's record label (Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, 296 F.3d 894 (9th Cir. 2002)), claiming that the song had damaged the reputation of the Barbie brand. Judge Alex Kozinski writing for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the district court finding the use of the Mattels's doll mark in "Barbie Girl" fell within the noncommercial use exemption to the Federal Trademark Dilution Act. Judge Kozinski concluded his opinion by writing, "The parties are advised to chill."

Aqua released their album Aquarium across the world in the Autumn of 1997. Although the album sold well, many still wrote the group off as a one-hit wonder. Despite this, and much criticism from the media, Aqua had made their international breakthrough, and were now known across the world.

The "Aquarium Age"

File:Sliding Doors film.jpg

Aqua's third UK single "Turn Back Time" received a large amount of radio airplay, and featured on the soundtrack to the film Sliding Doors.

Aqua's follow-up to "Barbie Girl" in most countries would be "Doctor Jones", although in the United States it would be "Lollipop (Candyman)". "Doctor Jones" entered at number one in several countries, including the United Kingdom, where it stayed at the top spot for two weeks, and Australia, where it spent seven weeks at #1. "Lollipop" wouldn't fare as well in the USA, performing poorly in comparison to "Barbie Girl", however the song peaked at #3 in Australia. In Japan both songs were released as a double-A side, and achieved reasonable success in the singles chart.

"Doctor Jones" would be followed up by "Turn Back Time", a song which would prove to be accepted well by both Aqua fans and critics. The song, unlike all other previous releases, dropped the bubblegum pop sound in favour of a slow, mainstream rhythm. The song was featured on the soundtrack to the film Sliding Doors, and unlike many other Aqua releases achieved a large amount of radio and video airplay. The song became their third single to make it to number one in the United Kingdom. As of 2005, only a handful of other artists have managed to achieve that kind of initial success in the UK (acts that have included Westlife and the Spice Girls). Elsewhere, the song also performed well, including reaching #10 in Australia, however it would not be a huge success in the US and thus marked the end of Aqua's involvement Stateside.

"My Oh My", Aqua's second Danish single was resurrected in August 1998. The single was also released in several other European countries where it had not been released initially. "Good Morning Sunshine" was then released in some countries, including the United Kingdom, where it was released for the Christmas market and peaked at #18.

Following the release of "Good Morning Sunshine", Aqua decided to concentrate on their second album, and on touring around Europe. "My Oh My" was also released in October 1998 in Australia, to very moderate success, and marked the end of a period Aqua's fans dubbed the "Aquarium age". The group also released a documentary on December 1, containing several live performances of songs from the Aquarium album and interviews with the members.

The release of the second album

File:Aqua-Aquarius albumcover.jpg

Aqua's second album, Aquarius, was released in February 2000.

Aqua was relatively quiet during 1999, deciding to concentrate on recording their second album. According to promotional interviews with the group, over 30 songs were recorded for the album, although eventually only twelve made it onto the final version. The group released their second album Aquarius in February 2000. The album instantly proved popular with their fan base, despite some changes to their sound. Unlike Aquarium, the Aquarius album didn't just follow one formula, and instead contained several different musical styles. Tracks such as "Cartoon Heroes" and "Bumble Bees" preserved the pop sound of their debut album, but experimental tracks were also included, such as the Latin-influenced "Cuba Libre". Tracks similar to "Turn Back Time" also featured. The album also featured less of René's rapping, with Lene performing more vocals than on the previous album. The album was still, however, well-received by their fan base.

The single "Cartoon Heroes" was released along with the album. The song featured some 'anthemic' tones, but kept most of the features that had made Aquarium so successful. The single made #7 in the United Kingdom, a minor disappointment, and sold well across Europe and Australia, peaking at #16 on the Australian charts. The song is often best remembered for its music video. The album charted in the United Kingdom at #10. Aqua released their UK follow-up single "Around The World" in June 2000, although would be disappointed when it only managed to chart at #26. #62 in Australia. Although it was not expected to be at the time, "Around The World" would be Aqua's final UK single release.

Aqua released "Bumble Bees" and "We Belong To The Sea" as singles in Scandinavia, mainland Europe and Australia, achieving reasonable success with both. The group planned to release "Freaky Friday" as a third UK single in early 2001. "Freaky Friday" was scheduled for release but was pulled at the last minute, however, for undisclosed reasons. "Freaky Friday" was released as a single only in Japan. Aqua then decided that they would concentrate on starting work on their third album, as opposed to releasing further singles from Aquarius.

Plans for third album and sudden split

Aqua spent the first few months of 2001 touring around the world, and working on material for their third album. The group also performed at the Eurovision Song Contest 2001, collaborating with the Safri Duo and providing the music during the voting stages of the competition. During a couple of low-key events in Denmark the group performed live versions of songs intended for inclusion on the third album, including "Couch Potato" and "Shakin' Stevens (Is A Superstar)", the latter a tribute to the 1980s performer Shakin' Stevens. The songs were said to have incorporated a rock sound into their music. By the summer of 2001, however, problems between the members of Aqua were becoming apparent. René had, when the group first started releasing material under the Aqua name, been dating Lene. Lene had by now begun dating Søren, however, and reports of a rift between the three had been reported in the Danish press. Other reports had included that René was annoyed at his having a lesser role on the Aquarius album, and that the group was beginning to have other creative differences. Lene had also had some health problems, having collapsed on stage during their 2001 tour due to the exhaustion of the group's busy schedule. Despite the reports, most of their fans were surprised when, in July 2001, the group announced that they were going to be going their separate ways.

The group's split proved to be quite a major event across Europe, and many media sources speculated as to why the four had decided to call it a day. René, in an interview after their split, had denied any rift between the members of the group, and stated that the four had split on good terms. The four had allegedly agreed to split when having dinner together, deciding that it was the "best thing to do". Regardless, many fans of the group still believe a rift between the band members was at least a partial cause for the breakup, especially given the past sexual relations between Lene and both René and Søren.

Following the split

After the group's split, all four members of Aqua continued within the music industry, with three former members all having successful solo careers. René was the first to release a single, releasing "Let It All Out (Push It)" in early 2003 in his native Denmark. The single performed well, and an album was planned, but the comparative failure of his next solo singles "The Uhh Uhh Song" and "Uhh La La La" made him decide to not continue working on the album. René, in 2004, began to pursue a career as an actor, and appeared in the Danish films Den Gode Strømer, Inkasso and Pistoleros. He was also awarded the Zulu Achievement Award in the same year. Lene released her debut album Play With Me in mid-2003. The album's first single, "It's Your Duty", showed a clear change in her musical direction, dropping the bubblegum pop vocal in favour of a rock and R&B influenced sound. The single performed well, making #3 in the Danish charts, but the album performed disappointingly, only making #74 in her native Norway. Although further singles like "Pretty Young Thing" and "Here We Go" were released from the album, none made much of an impact. Lene has not indicated any intention to release a second album in the near future. Lene performed on a Danish charity single to benefit victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake in 2005.

Søren continued producing material for other artists up until 2004, before starting the Lazyboy Project. The project's first album Lazyboy TV was released in late 2004 to good reviews, and the first single "Underwear Goes Inside The Pants" made the top five of the Australian charts, also achieving airplay across Europe, Canada and the United States of America.

Claus Norreen has been the quietest of the former members, although he has also remained in the industry, remixing material for other artists under the alias Danny Red.

The lawsuit filed by Mattel over the song "Barbie Girl" was thrown out in 2002, with the judge refusing Mattel's claims that the song harmed the doll's reputation. The judge claimed that, as the song is a parody of the doll, it is legally acceptable. He also advised the parties involved "to chill."

In 2005, a Danish director got the band together for a Aqua-documentary called Turn Back Time. Filmed in a summerhouse, the band stayed together inside for twelve hours, talking about subjects a computer randomly picked including Lene and Søren's marriage and René's book. In between the band talking about the subject, there were clips of music videos and live performances.

In February 2007, René announced plans to resume work on his very new solo album. It is due for release in 2007. The first single, "Way To Go" is currently playing on his Myspace page.[2]

Music videos

Aqua is well-known for their music videos, most of which followed a storyline of some sort. Due to their being one of Universal's biggest-selling pop groups, their budget for making videos has always been quite high. This has been reflected in their videos, which often appear to be cheesy, but tend to be accepted as fitting in well with their musical style.

The video for "Barbie Girl" is undoubtedly their most famous, considering the amount of parodies made of it. The video features Lene as Barbie, and René as Ken. René asks Lene to "go party", and Lene informs René that he can "touch" and "play", and calls herself a "blonde bimbo". The music video caused a lot of the controversy surrounding the song, as it made the double meanings in the lyrics clear . "Doctor Jones" also followed a storyline featuring René and Lene as persons in love, with René (as Indiana Jones) saving Lene from an African tribe. The "My Oh My" video also featured a plotline where the two become lovers.

Aqua's early videos had several distinguishing features, and events which would be repeated in each video. One of these features is the way the video starts: a tympani beat and a screen informing the viewer that the video is brought to you in "Aquascope". Also, their first videos, with the exception of Lollipop (Candyman), all featured a Lene and René kiss at the end. In videos from the Aquarius album this kiss wasn't present. Later videos also tended to gradually show the group in a more serious light, with their last video for "We Belong To The Sea" being presented in a serious manner, unlike other videos which always appeared to be put across in a light-hearted way. Also in the earlier videos they were presented in "AQUASCOPE". In the later videos, except "Bumble Bees", it was not used. Aqua wanted their videos on the later CD to be a little more professional.

Toy Box, a similar band, has been noted to have videos that also include the cartoonish style, the tympani beat and a screen informing the viewer that the video is brought to you in "Toy-Box Digital" like "Superstar," "The Sailor Song," "Tarzan and Jane" and "Best Friend." Toy-Box also had serious-type videos like Aqua, one being "Teddy Bear."

Greatest Hits/New CD Rumors

The greatest hits album, Cartoon Heroes: The Best of Aqua, was released on May 22nd 2002 in Japan and re-released in the US in 2006. The album does not include the singles "Good Morning Sunshine" and "We Belong to the Sea". It does, however, include 10 other singles as well as non-singles such as "Back From Mars", "Happy Boys And Girls", "Halloween", "Calling You" and "An Apple A Day". Furthermore there is a Hampenberg Remix of their hit single "Cartoon Heroes" and music videos for "Cartoon Heroes" and "Around the World" .

Musical style

Aqua was musically influenced by the eurodance genre that was popular in Europe, Oceania and South America in the 1990s. The style of eurodance was dance music with a female singer and a male rapper. Often the lyrics would be meaningless and not follow the pattern of a traditional pop song. This however was what Aqua changed. Influenced by the recent wave of bubblegum pop started by the Spice Girls, Aqua followed a more traditional verse-chorus structure. Usually, the verse would consist of Lene starting and finishing, while René would sing in the middle. The chorus was mostly sung by Lene. René would sometimes sing a few words, but that was it. Because of the traditional pop structure on top of the eurodance inspiration, Aqua is considered to do bubblegum dance-pop more than eurodance.

Even though most people know Aqua for the dance tracks such as "Barbie Girl", "Doctor Jones", "Lollipop (Candyman)" and "My Oh My" they also made slower tracks like "Turn Back Time", "Good Morning Sunshine" and "We Belong to the Sea". These tracks do not belong to the general bubblegum pop genre. There is also a difference between the first album Aquarium and the second album Aquarius. Aquarium had many similar tracks whereas Aquarius experimented with acoustic instruments and genres like country and Latin music.

The lengths of all the songs were made so they were suitable for radio play. The average length for the tracks on Aquarium is 3:43^[3]. This is also a characteristic of pop music.

Unreleased songs include "Wow, Wow, Wow", "Shakin' Stevens (Is A Superstar)", "Couch Potato", "Hi-Fi Stereo", "Here Comes The Birds" and some others.

At the end of the 1990s the interest for eurodance music was dropping. Aqua's second album, Aquarius, which was released in 2000, was therefore not as well timed as the first one.

Discography

Albums

• Frække Frida og de frygtløse spioner Soundtrack (1994) (as Joyspeed)
• Aquarium (1997) (3x Platinum) U.S. #7 UK #6
• Aquarius (2000) U.S. #82 UK #10

Singles

1. "Itzy Bitsy Spider (1995) (as Joyspeed)
2. "Roses are Red" (1996) (not released as a single in the United Kingdom)
3. "My Oh My" (1997)
4. "Barbie Girl" (1997)
5. "Didn't I" (1997) (not released as a single in the United Kingdom. Only released as a single in Norway, Sweden and Denmark)
6. "Doctor Jones" (1997/1998)
7. "Lollipop (Candyman)" (1997/1998) (not released as a single in the United Kingdom)
8. "Turn Back Time" (1998)
9. "Good Morning Sunshine" (1998)
10. "Cartoon Heroes" (2000)
11. "Around the World" (2000)
12. "Bumble Bees" (2000) (not released as a single in the United Kingdom)
13. "Freaky Friday" (2000) (not released as a single in the United Kingdom. Only released as a single in Japan)
14. "We Belong to the Sea" (2000) (not released as a single in the United Kingdom)

Other

• The Aqua Diary (1998) - A VHS release of Aqua's story up until December 1998
• Aquarium Bubble Mix (1998) - Remix album of songs from Aquarium
• Aqua Mania Remix (1998) - Remix album of songs from Aquarium, and the new song Didn't I
• Remix SuperBest (2002) - Remix album of songs from both Aquarium and Aquarius
• Aqua Video Collection (2002) - Released as a VHS and DVD, it has all of Aqua's music videos except We Belong To The Sea
• Cartoon Heroes: The Best of Aqua (2002) - Compilation CD released in Japan and in the US including the most successful hits of Aqua and a remix of Cartoon Heores.

Notes

1. ^ René Dif's official website - look under bio.
2. ^ AllMusic.com - a total running time of 40:38 divided by 11 tracks gives 3:43 on average.

References

• Aqua: The Official Book by Jacqui Swift
• The Aqua Diary, a 1998 VHS release
• René Dif's official website
• The Official Single/Album Charts of the UK, US, Japan, Australia, Denmark and various other countries
• Lazy-B's official website
• http://www.lenemusic.com Lene Nystrøm Rasted's official website doesn't exist anymore...

External links

• Aqua
• Aqua 2001
• Aquarama
• René Dif
• Aqua at Bubblegum Dancer
• Aqua at Rolling Stone

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