"Barbie World" is a song by Trinidadian rapper
Nicki Minaj and American rapper
Ice Spice from Barbie the Album, the soundtrack of the film Barbie (2023). It was released by
Atlantic Records,
10K Projects, and
Capitol Records as the soundtrack's third single on June 23, 2023, and was serviced to United States radio on June 27, 2023. The song heavily samples the 1997 single "
Barbie Girl" by Danish
Europop band
Aqua, who are credited as performers and co-writers in the song.
"Barbie World" debuted at number seven on the US
Billboard Hot 100, becoming Minaj's 23rd, Ice Spice's fourth, and Aqua's second top-ten hit. Elsewhere, the single also reached the top ten in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, top twenty in Iceland, Finland, France and Hungary, top thirty in Czech Republic and Lithuania, top forty in Belgium and Slovakia and top fifty in Portugal and Italy. The song earned nominations for
Best Song Written for Visual Media and
Best Rap Song at the
66th Annual Grammy Awards.
Background
In 1997, Danish-Norwegian band
Aqua released "
Barbie Girl", a song about two fashion dolls manufactured by
Mattel named
Barbie and
Ken.[1] The song was a massive success, thrusting the band into worldwide fame.[2][3] Per
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, "Barbie Girl" was an "inexplicable
pop culture phenomenon",[4] and Bree Player of
Marie Claire Australia wrote it helped solidify the Barbie doll as a cultural icon.[5] However, Mattel reacted negatively to "Barbie Girl" and
sued Aqua's US label, MCA Records, claiming the band violated their trademark and the lyrics' sexually suggestive nature stained the company's reputation as a child-friendly brand.[6]
Since the beginning of her career, rapper
Nicki Minaj has made the Barbie doll a significant part of her public persona.[7][8][9] A widely known aspect of her artistry is her use of
alter egos,[10][11] one of whom is named
Harajuku Barbie. Through this alter ego, Minaj showcases her feminine, fashion-savvy side[12] with wigs, makeup, and nails that are bright and vibrant in color.[13] Her Barbie image extends to her fanbase's name, the "
Barbz", derived from Harajuku Barbie's name.[14] Mattel has interacted with Minaj once: the two worked on a custom-made Harajuku Barbie-inspired doll auctioned for a charity for people affected with
HIV/AIDS.[15]
Making a live-action Barbie film had been an endeavor Mattel sought to pursue for over 10 years, with many failed tries.[16] In another attempt, the company struck a partnership with
Warner Bros. Pictures by early 2019 to create
a film that would star actress
Margot Robbie.[17][18] Production began in March 2022;[19] initial discussions for the soundtrack followed four months later. Barbie the Album, executive produced by
Mark Ronson, was to encompass several stylings of contemporary
pop music, from
dance and
K-pop to
drill and
Reggaeton.[20] Moises Mendez II of
Time described many of the songs as "tongue-in-cheek girl power pop".[21]
Music and lyrics
There are 16 songs on the soundtrack, and the third is named "Barbie World".[22] It samples Aqua's "Barbie Girl",
looping the chorus's vocals from the band's lead singer,
Lene Nystrøm.[23][24] Making the song began with figuring out how to integrate the sample, so Ronson turned to producer RiotUSA to create a beat around it,[23] though the plan was not in the script the film's director,
Greta Gerwig, had.[25] Initially, in 2022, Nystrøm's manager stated "Barbie Girl" would not be used on the film, to an indignant reaction from fans. Variety speculated bad relations between Mattel and MCA Records were the cause.[26] Nevertheless, the team behind the soundtrack, including Robbie, were passionate for it to be included in some way.[25][27] They were faced with a dilemma: whether to include "Barbie Girl" on the soundtrack directly, or to instead reimagine it.[28] When asked why they chose the second, Ronson said: "I don't know, you'd have to ask Greta. But everything about this film is trying to be a reinvention or an evolution of what we think Barbie is, so maybe [the sampling] was a way of doing that."[29]
Minaj is one of the 19 musicians that appear on Barbie the Album and one of the performers on "Barbie World". Mark Ronson's goal from the start of curating the soundtrack, was to include Minaj.[30] Ronson, alongside Gerwig, deemed Minaj an "obvious choice" for artists to include in their "dream list" of potential collaborators due to her long-time association with the Barbie brand.[21][31] He also alluded to her fanbase's "Barbz" name as further solidifying their choice.[20][29] In an interview with Music Week, Ronson remarked, "there's no way we can have a Barbie soundtrack without Nicki Minaj—the person who's literally kept the term 'Barbie' alive in music and pop culture for 15 years."[32] At first, Minaj was reluctant to make a song for the team, rejecting several
demos from the team.[33] As she revealed in a red carpet interview, people have sent her samples of "Barbie Girl" on which they wanted her to rap for years, but she never liked any of them.[34] She said every sample made her feel uncomfortable or gimmicky.[35][36]
Ronson and his team invited another rapper,
Ice Spice, to contribute to "Barbie World". They had been eyeing her since she rose to fame with the single "
Munch (Feelin' U)" in August 2022, considering her status as the "most exciting new thing in music" something that would prove useful for the soundtrack.[21] RiotUSA, her long-time collaborator, connected her to Ronson after working on the sample.[23] The three were slated to, on one evening, meet at a studio at 9 pm, so Ronson can show Ice Spice a 20-minute snippet of the film and she can send her verses. The viewings, according to Ronson, would help artists match the tone and theme of their lyrics to the scenes assigned to them.[30] There was a conflict in schedule between him and other two: Ronson waited until around 11 pm for updates from them, to no response.[21][33] He prepared for bed only to get a message shortly afterward, biking to the studio and meeting them by midnight.[25][30] Whereas Ronson failed to convince Minaj to work on "Barbie World", he succeeded in doing so with Ice Spice, due to the two rappers' amicable work relationship.[21][23]
The final result is a drill and pop song[20] that incorporates elements of Jersey club music.[35] It combines
syncopated percussion with loud
bass drums,[24] with uncredited contributions from Ronson, who played keys.[29] In the words of Melissa Ruggieri of USA Today, a "slithering beat that weaves in and out of its bass-heavy pulse" makes up the production.[37] The use of drums, apart from how "Barbie World" did not sound like a gimmick to Minaj, is another thing she cited as to why she was drawn to the song. She said: "I just wanted it to have a dope drum, and so the one that they sent me, I loved!"[38] The song begins with back-and-forth rapping between Ice Spice ("And I'm bad like the Barbie") and Minaj ("I'm a doll but I still wanna party"). The two namedrop
Jazzie,
Stacie, and
Nikki, three dolls who are Barbie's cousin, sister, and friend, respectively. The Nikki namedrop doubly acts as a reference to Minaj. Afterwards, Minaj raps, "all of the Barbies is bad".[39] One of the lyrics, teased at the end of the film's trailer, reads "it's Barbie, bitch, if you still in doubt".[40] As observed by Natalee Gilbert of
XXL, Minaj came up with "it's Barbie, bitch" as a way to say goodbye to people, influenced by her alter ego, Harajuku Barbie.[41] Due to the sample, Aqua received performing and writing credits on the song.[42][43]
Release
In April 2022, it was announced that the live-action Barbie film would be released on July 21, 2023.[44] In May 2023, a second trailer for the film was released, which featured a snippet of a new song with vocals from Minaj. Media speculated the composition to be a remix of "Barbie Girl".[45][46] On May 25, Barbie the Album, the soundtrack to the film, was announced.[47] Minaj and fellow rapper Ice Spice were revealed among multiple artists to be performing new original material on the record.[47] Following the tracklist release, it was confirmed that the new song was a collaboration between Minaj and Ice Spice, titled "Barbie World".[48]
On June 10, both rappers announced the song's release date as June 23, 2023, marking the fourth single from the film's soundtrack.[49] Minaj previewed "Barbie World" twice on her social media, on June 12 and 22.[50][51] It marks the second collaboration between Minaj, Ice Spice, and producer RiotUSA, following the remix of "
Princess Diana" (2023).[35]
In the United States, "Barbie World" debuted at number seven on the
Billboard Hot 100 with 16.2 million streams, 37,000 digital downloads sold, and 4.7 million airplay audience—matching the peak of "Barbie Girl". With this, Minaj extended her record for the most top-ten entries by a female rapper (23), she also broke her tie with
Eminem and
Jay-Z to become the rapper with the third most top ten entries only behind
Lil Wayne (25) and
Drake (68).[57][58] She also tied
Whitney Houston as the woman with the sixth-most top-tens on the chart. The song also became Ice Spice's fourth and Aqua's second top-ten. As Aqua's second top-ten, it marked the sixth-longest gap between two top-10s in the chart's history, with a span of almost 26 years. It additionally marked the second-longest gap among groups and the longest since
Nat King Cole's "
The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" in 2022 (59 years, 6 months).[59] It went on to become Ice Spice's third song to top the US
Spotify chart, making her the female rapper with the most number one hits in the region, and the first for Minaj since "
Bang Bang" in 2014.[60]
The song also debuted atop the
Digital Songs chart, becoming Minaj's 16th, Ice Spice's second, and Aqua's first number-one.[59]
Across Europe, the song achieved commercial success. In Ireland, the song debuted at number 28 on the
Irish Singles Chart on the weekly issue ending June 30, 2023, and leaped 15 spots to a new peak of number six during its fifth week on the chart.[63] Similarly, it charted at number 25 in its opening week in the United Kingdom. It eventually leaped to number five on its fifth week on the chart, ascending 15 spots and reached a new peak of number 4 the following week.[64] It became Ice Spice's first credited top-five hit, Aqua's sixth and Minaj's fifteenth.[65]
"Barbie World" went on to peak at number three in Australia and New Zealand.[66][67] It became Spice's second top-five hit in both countries and Minaj's first top-five hit in both countries since "
Super Freaky Girl" topped the charts of both countries in 2022.
^Hyman, James (September 13, 1997).
"Hot Vinyl"(PDF). Music Week, in RM (Dance Update Supplemental Insert). p. 4.
Archived(PDF) from the original on October 14, 2022. Retrieved July 18, 2023.
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – SINGLES DIGITAL – TOP 100 and insert 202331 into search. Retrieved August 7, 2023.
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 202330 into search. Retrieved July 31, 2023.