Here’s What ‘Barbie Girl’ and Aqua Singer Lene Nystrom Looks Like Today

It has been over two decades since Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” dominated the radio airwaves, and looking at singer Lene Nystrom now you would think she has barely aged a day.

In one recent photo, Nystrøm snapped a selfie while wearing a lavish crown and her skin appears to be near flawless as her jet black hair falls around it.

Another photo Nystrøm shared just last month saw her channeling her inner “Barbie Girl.”

In the snap, the singer is posed inside of an oversized doll box, similar to what a Barbie might come packaged inside of.

Aqua seemed to emerge on the music scene out of nowhere in 1997 with “Barbie Girl,” off of the debut record Aquarium, but the origin of the band actually goes back to around a decade prior to that.

Before they were known as Aqua, the group was known as Joyspeed ans only contained founding members Claus Norreen (who eventually left) and Søren Rasted.

In the early 1990s they met René Dif and Nystrøm and changed their band name to Aqua.

They put out a single in 1994, after signing with a small Swedish record label, but it was not a success.

Working harder than ever, they started over, writing and performing new music, and they eventually caught the eye of Universal Music Denmark.

With a major label backing them, Aqua began to generate some hype and garner interest among dance and pop music fans.

Finally, they released Aquarium in ’97, with the single “Barbie Girl” becoming a massive success and skyrocketing to pop-culture-icon status.

In 2017, Aquarium reached its 20-year milestone and Nystrøm spoke to Nylon about the album and her feelings on it in retrospect.

“In many ways, it feels like 20 years ago. And, in another sense, it also feels like it was really close by because there are so many feelings attached it. But mostly, when I see the photos and see the videos, it feels like ages ago. But also it’s been 20 years filled with so many experiences… So, it’s both,” she said.

When asked how her “relationship with the album changed since its release,” Nystrøm responded, “We’ve always been super-proud of it, but I do believe when we became successful overnight, it was hard to deal with all the opinions of something we made on our own. We released our baby into the world and, in America, it was a different point of view than Asia… it was very strong opinions.”

Finally, Nystrøm also spoke about how the thing she is most proud of, career-wise, is “coming out on the other side and still loving the other guys with all of my heart.”