Aqua (ribbon)

Aqua
Aqua (2008)
General information
Genre (s)	Eurodance
founding	1989, 2007
resolution	2001
Founding members
singing	Lene Grawford Nystrøm Rasted
Rap , singing	René Dif
Drum computer , keyboard	Claus Norreen (1989-2016)
Drum computer, keyboard	Søren Rasted

Lene Nystrøm (2008)

René Dif (2008)

Søren Rasted (2008)

Claus Noreen (2008)

Aqua is a Danish - Norwegian Eurodance music group. Her biggest hit was Barbie Girl from 1997.

Band history

The band was formed in 1989. The keyboardist and drummer Claus Norreen and Søren Rasted were working together on a soundtrack for the Danish film Fraekke Frida . At this time they met René Dif, who later contributed the group's rap parts. Dif introduced them to the Norwegian singer Lene Grawford Nystrøm , and together they first formed the group Joyspeed, whose first single Itzy Bitzy stayed in the Norwegian charts for a week.

After the failure of Joyspeed, the band members decided to rename themselves Aqua. The name comes from a poster with an aquarium printed on it. Aqua was published by Universal Music , who released Aqua's first single Roses Are Red in September 1996. The song stayed in the charts for two months and reached platinum status. The following single, My Oh My , went gold in Denmark within six days . With their song Barbie Girl , they made their international breakthrough in 1997 and reached number one placements in over 35 countries. Due to the sexual allusions in the song and the accompanying video, Aqua was sued by the toy company Mattel , but this had no further impact on the success of the song or the band. Mattel's lawsuit was finally dismissed in 2003 (after the band split up). The debut album Aquarium was in the top 100 of the German album charts for almost a year.

After a break of a little over a year, Aqua released their second album Aquarius and its first single Cartoon Heroes at the beginning of 2000 . Overall, the music on Aquarius should be more serious than on Aquarium and contain less bubble gum pop . Probably because a draft horse like Barbie Girl was missing as a single, Aquarius sold worse than the debut album and only reached number 16. In Germany, an attempt was made to release Bumble Bees as the third single, which was very similar to the old Aqua songs was like turning things around again. At this point it was too late; Bumble Bees only reached number 96 in the German charts.

On May 12, 2001 Aqua appeared as a guest at the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen . In August 2001, the band split surprisingly, but amicably while working on the third album. A short time before the dissolution, Nystrøm and Rasted married. A daughter was born on November 6, 2004 and a son in spring 2006.

Nystrøm released their own album in the summer of 2003 called Play with Me , which contained two moderately successful singles: It's Your Duty and Pretty Young Thing . However, these only had a notable success in the Scandinavian area ( It's Your Duty 3rd place in Denmark). Play with Me was not published in Germany and is only available as an import version.

Rasted worked as a producer for some time. In 2004 he started the Lazyboy project . He released the album Lazyboy TV in 2004 , the single Underwear Goes Inside the Pants was notably successful. In 2007 he started the Hei Matematik project with his nephew Nicolaj Rasted, in which his wife Lene worked as a background singer and supported Norreen as a producer in the joint studio.

On October 26, 2007, the band announced their reunion. In 2008 they organized a tour with 30 concerts. On May 25, 2009, the first single, Back to the 80s , was released in Denmark from a compilation entitled Greatest Hits , which also contains three new songs. Both the single and the album reached number one on the Danish charts and made it into the top 10 of the Norwegian charts. In Germany, Back to the 80s was released on September 4, 2009 as a download single. On March 14, 2011, the band released their first single How RU Doin? from her third album Megalomania . In March 2012 Aqua completed a tour of Australia.

In September 2016, the band announced a comeback for 2017 for their 20th anniversary. In addition, Claus Norreen announced that he was leaving the band. In April 2017, the remix single Roses Are Red ( Svenstrup & Vendelboe Remixes) was released . On April 26, 2017, Nystrøm and Rasted announced their separation after 16 years of marriage. On June 22, 2018, Aqua released the new single Rookie .

Members

Lene Grawford Nystrøm

→ Main article : Lene Nystrøm

Lene Grawford Nystrøm was born in Tønsberg (Norway) on October 2, 1973. She took over the female singing in the group.

René Dif

René Dif was born on October 17, 1967 in Copenhagen (Denmark). He took over the male vocals and the rap parts. He played the role of Thomas in the film The Good Cop .

Claus Norreen

Claus Norreen was born on June 5, 1970 in Charlottenlund, Gentofte municipality (Denmark).

Søren Rasted

Søren Rasted was born on June 13, 1969 in Blovstrønd, Allerød municipality (Denmark).

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)								Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	DK	NO	SE
1997	Aquarium	DE6th gold (46 weeks)DE	AT4th gold (31 weeks)AT	CH3 gold (47 weeks)CH	UK6th platinum (48 weeks)UK	US7th × 3 Triple platinum (50 weeks)US	DK1 (59 weeks) DK	NO1 × 4 Quadruple platinum (68 weeks)NO	SE1 × 5 Quintuple platinum (66 weeks)SE	First published: September 9, 1997
2000	Aquarius	DE16 (13 weeks) DE	AT11 (10 weeks) AT	CH8th gold (18 weeks)CH	UK24 (4 weeks) UK	US82 (6 weeks) US	DK1 (17 weeks) DK	NO1 × 2 Double platinum (21 weeks)NO	SE2 platinum (22 weeks)SE	First published: February 28, 2000
2011	Megalomania	-	-	-	-	-	DK2 gold (7 weeks)DK	-	-	First published: October 3, 2011

Remix albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		NO	SE
1998	Aquamania Remix	NO4th gold (… Where.)NO	SE31 (7 weeks) SE

More remix albums

• 1998: Bubble Mix
• 2002: Remix Super Best

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DK	NO	SE
2009	Greatest hits	DK1 × 2 Double platinum (39 weeks)DK	NO7th gold (13 weeks)NO	SE24 (6 weeks) SE

More compilations

• 2002: Cartoon Heroes: The Best of Aqua

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)								Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	DK	NO	SE
1996	Roses Are Red Aquarium	-	-	-	-	-	DK1 gold (… Where.)DK	NO2 (15 weeks) NO	SE5 (19 weeks) SE
1997	Barbie Girl Aquarium	DE1 platinum (27 weeks)DE	AT2 platinum (21 weeks)AT	CH1 platinum (27 weeks)CH	UK1 × 3 Triple platinum (27 weeks)UK	US7 (16 weeks) US	DK1 gold (… Where.)DK	NO1 × 2 Double platinum (16 weeks)NO	SE1 × 3 Triple platinum (22 weeks)SE
	Lollipop (Candyman) Aquarium	-	-	-	-	US23 (17 weeks) US	-	-	SE10 (13 weeks) SE
	Doctor Jones Aquarium	DE7th gold (19 weeks)DE	AT8 (13 weeks) AT	CH11 (15 weeks) CH	UK1 platinum (18 weeks)UK	-	DK1 (... week) DK	-	SE2 platinum (17 weeks)SE
1998	My Oh My Aquarium	DE12 (13 weeks) DE	AT15 (11 weeks) AT	CH19 (8 weeks) CH	UK6 (12 weeks) UK	-	DK2 (... weeks) DK	NO20 (1 week) NO	SE4 (9 weeks) SE
	Turn Back Time Aquarium	DE42 (10 weeks) DE	AT19 (12 weeks) AT	CH26 (11 weeks) CH	UK1 silver (10 weeks)UK	-	DK3 (... weeks) DK	-	SE4 (10 weeks) SE
	Good Morning Sunshine Aquarium	DE94 (3 weeks) DE	-	-	UK18 (7 weeks) UK	-	-	-	-
2000	Cartoon Heroes Aquarius	DE13 (14 weeks) DE	AT6 (13 weeks) AT	CH11 (15 weeks) CH	UK7 (14 weeks) UK	-	DK1 (... week) DK	NO1 gold (10 weeks)NO	SE2 platinum (12 weeks)SE
	Around the World Aquarius	DE56 (5 weeks) DE	-	CH42 (12 weeks) CH	UK26 (8 weeks) UK	-	DK1 (... week) DK	NO16 (2 weeks) NO	SE4th gold (15 weeks)SE
	Bumble Bees Aquarius	DE96 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	-	DK16 (... weeks) DK	-	SE34 (7 weeks) SE
	We Belong to the Sea Aquarius	-	-	-	-	-	DK19 (... wk.) DK	-	-
2009	Back to the 80s Greatest Hits	-	-	-	-	-	DK1 platinum (27 weeks)DK	NO3 platinum (16 weeks)NO	SE25 (5 weeks) SE
	My Mamma Said Greatest Hits	-	-	-	-	-	DK4th gold (… Where.)DK	-	-
	Spin Me a Christmas Greatest Hits	-	-	-	-	-	DK14 (... weeks) DK	-	-
2011	How RU Doin? Megalomania	-	-	-	-	-	DK4th Gold + Gold (streaming) (9 weeks)DK	-	-
	Playmate to Jesus Megalomania	-	-	-	-	-	DK13 Gold (streaming) (3 weeks)DK	-	-

More singles

• 2018: rookie

Awards for music sales

Golden record  Australia 1998: for the single Turn Back Time 2000: for the album Aquarius 2000: for the single Cartoon Heroes  Belgium 1998: for the single My Oh My  Brazil 1998: for the album Aquarium 1998: for the single My Oh My  New Zealand 1998: for the single Turn Back Time 2000: for the single Cartoon Heroes  Netherlands 1997: for the single Dr. Jones

Platinum record  Australia 1998: for the single Lollipop  Belgium 1998: for the album Aquarium 1998: for the single Doctor Jones  Europe 2000: for the album Aquarius  France 1998: for the album Aquarium  New Zealand 1997: for the single Barbie Girl 1997: for the album Aquarium 1998: for the single Doctor Jones  Netherlands 1997: for the single Barbie Girl 1998: for the album Aquarium 2 × platinum record  Finland 1997: for the album Aquarium  Canada 2000: for the album Aquarius

3 × platinum record  Australia 1997: for the single Barbie Girl 1997: for the single Doctor Jones  Canada 1998: for the video album The Official Aquarium Video Diary 4 × platinum record  Belgium 1998: for the single Barbie Girl  Europe 1998: for the album Aquarium 5 × platinum record  Spain 1998: for the album Aquarius 6 × platinum record  Australia 1998: for the album Aquarium Diamond record  France 1997: for the single Barbie Girl  Canada 1998: for the album Aquarium

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	diamond	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
Australia (ARIA)	-	3 × gold3	13 × platinum13	-	1,015,000	aria.com.au
Belgium (BEA)	-	gold1	6 × platinum6th	-	325,000	ultratop.be
Brazil (PMB)	-	gold1	-	-	100,000	pro-musicabr.org.br
Denmark (IFPI)	-	7 × gold7th	3 × platinum3	-	181,500	ifpi.dk
Germany (BVMI)	-	2 × gold2	platinum1	-	1,000,000	musikindustrie.de
Europe (IFPI)	-	-	5 × platinum5	-	(5,000,000)	ifpi.org ( Memento from October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
Finland (IFPI)	-	-	2 × platinum2	-	72,757	ifpi.fi
France (SNEP)	-	gold1	platinum1	diamond1	1,300,000	infodisc.fr snepmusique.com
Canada (MC)	-	-	5 × platinum5	diamond1	1,230,000	musiccanada.com
New Zealand (RMNZ)	-	2 × gold2	3 × platinum3	-	60,000	nztop40.co.nz
Netherlands (NVPI)	-	gold1	2 × platinum2	-	225,000	nvpi.nl
Norway (IFPI)	-	3 × gold3	9 × platinum9	-	310,000	ifpi.no ( Memento from November 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
Austria (IFPI)	-	gold1	platinum1	-	75,000	ifpi.at
Sweden (IFPI)	-	gold1	11 × platinum11	-	645,000	sverigetopplistan.se
Switzerland (IFPI)	-	2 × gold2	platinum1	-	100,000	hitparade.ch
Spain (Promusicae)	-	-	5 × platinum5	-	500,000	promusicae.es
United States (RIAA)	-	-	3 × platinum3	-	3,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	silver1	-	5 × platinum5	-	2,900,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	silver1	25 × gold25th	76 × platinum76	2 × diamond2

swell

1. ↑ Chart positions for greatest hits
2. ↑ Chart placements for Back to the 80s
3. ↑ Back to the 80s as a download single
4. ↑ Aqua-Lene and Søren Rasted shall be skills after 16 days
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US DK NO SE

Web links

Commons : Aqua  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Aqua at Allmusic (English)