The Early Years
in 1989, when S�ren and Claus went together to
compose music for the Danish movie �Fr�kke
Frida�.
Meanwhile, Ren� was in Norway, working as a
DJ. He once met Lene at �Danskeb�ten�, a boat
that goes regularly between Norway and Denmark,
but it wasn't until later, in 1991, he discovered
Lene had a talent for singing. He saw, together
with thousands of Norwegians, Lene sing Randy
Crawford's �Almaz� at the very popular norwegian
TV-Show �Casino�, where Lene had been a silent
hostess. It was her last show as a hostess in
�Casino�, and therefore Leif-Erik Forberg, who
lead the show, let her sing, as he wanted to show
that Casino-hostesses aren't only good-looking.
Ren� took contact with Lene after the
performance, and in Denmark they got together
with S�ren and Claus. They then formed the band
�Joyspeed�.
�Joyspeed�
record company in Sweden. Their debut single,
�Itzy Bitzy�, was one week only on the Swedish
Top 60 Singles Charts, and the flop was a fact.
They had to reconsider their music style.
The Name �Aqua�
They got their name after a poster they saw when
they went through a hall. It was printed
�Aquarium� on it, and then they got the idea to
call their group �Aqua�. Not long after they came
up with the music.
Conquering Denmark and Norway
Not long after they got the name �Aqua�, they got
a contract with Universal Music in Denmark, and in
September 1996 their debut single �Roses Are
Red� was released there. It was several weeks on
the top of the chart, and the success was about to
start. Less than half a year later, it was released in
Norway, and it became a huge hit there too,
though it didn't make it to the very top. Later on,
several singles has been released in both of these
countries, and �Barbie Girl� and �My Oh My�
went all the way to top the danish singles charts,
while �Barbie Girl� is still Aqua's only norwegian
number one.
Going stateside
to send a copy of the �Barbie Girl� single over to
different American radio stations. They sent it out
to about 40-50 radio stations, and some of them
immediately put them on their playlists. As time
passed by, more and more radio stations, big as
small, put �Barbie Girl� up on their playlists, and
the request became enourmos. It went on to
become one of the most requested songs ever,
and on some radio stations, it was the most
played song for more than two months! As a result
of this heavy airplay, after people requesting it all
the time, the request for the single was enourmos.
�Barbie Girl� went straight in at number 7 on the
Billboard Hot 100 Singles, which is the highest
position ever for an act's debut single! To avoid
Aqua becoming one-hit-wonders, the record
company decided to print 350,000 copies of the
single only. This meant it was not able to climb
any higher up, as it was already sold out many
places. The record company wanted to make the
people buy the album instead of the single, and
when �Aquarium� finally was launched, it shipped
gold after only two days in the stores! The
American break-through was a fact.
UK number one
UK was released. Their debut single, �Roses Are
Red�, never got any attention and therefore never
reached the top 40. �Barbie Girl� was different
though. In competition with the Spice Girls' first
single not to be taken from the album �Spice�,
Aqua went straight in at number two, as they were
unable to beat the Spice Girls, though it made
Elton John's �Candle In The Wind 1997� drop
down to number three, after being at the top.
Almost everyone in the UK was very surprised that
it would actually hit that high, and nobody believed
it would beat Elton John's Diana-single! The next
week, Aqua denied the Spice Girls a second week
at the top, and went on to be the first artist whose
mothers tongue is not english to reach the top ever
since A-ha in the 1980's. It stayed there four a
massive four weeks, one week less than �Candle
In The Wind 1997, and in a chart commentary this
was written : ��Barbie Girl� is the single nobody
admits to like, but still is selling 100,000 copies a
week�. Because the success of �Barbie Girl�
lasted extremely long for the UK to be, as it
refused to leave the Top 40 until February 22,
1998. Then it had been on the chart for 18 weeks!
�Doctor Jones� was due to release before
Christams 1997, but was finally released on
January 26, 1998. It went straight in at the top,
knocking Usher's hit �You Make Me Wanna...�
down to number two, as Aqua sold 25,000 more
than Usher. It stayed there for two weeks, and was
the first single to hold on to the number one spot
for two consecutive weeks this year.
The Singles
Roses are Red
This was their debut single in most of the world,
except America and Australia. It went all the way
to the top in Denmark, and in Norway it was a top
three hit. In these two countries the breakthrough
came with �Roses Are Red�.
My Oh My
Their second danish single was �My Oh My�. It
went on to become a huge hit, as �Roses Are
Red�. It was released in Norway in August, though
it managed one week only at the norwegian
singles chart, Topp 20. It is their upcoming
European single, and the video is just launched on
MTV.
Barbie Girl
Rumors has it S�ren got the idea for this song
riding his bicycle on his way down to the recording
studio. The song is also rumored to being written
in just 15 minutes! �Barbie Girl� was the most
sweet and annoying pop-tune of 1997, and a huge
worldwide hit. It was number one in more than 30
countries, including the UK and Australia. Has
sold more than 4 million copies worldwide, though
it was only printed 350,000 copies in the US. So
far, it is their biggest hit.
Doctor Jones
Track number five on �Aquarium� was going to be
the song that should prove to all the doubters in
Europe and Australia that Aqua haven't just made
one hit-song. And it proved it. It hit number one in
several countries, and among them, again, the UK
and Australia. Aqua are the 16th artist to ever have
two consecutive number one singles in the UK,
while in Australia, people were more crazy than
ever about Aqua! Not quite as huge as �Barbie
Girl�, nut it proved that Aqua has something to do
at the top of the charts, they're not just another
one-hit-wonder.
Lolipop(Candyman)
This song was starting to get request on American
radios already just after �Barbie Girl� was released
as a single. It was their second single in America,
though at peaked at number 23, which meant it
didn't do quite as good as �Barbie Girl�. In Canada
though, who is one of the countries where Aqua
are most popular, it went on to become a new
hitsingle. �Lollipop (Candyman)� is just released in
Australia, whose single features �Doctor Jones�
and �Barbie Girl� videos and the official Aqua
screensaver, and has already climbed up to
number three, and it's not likely to stop the climb
there.
Turn Back Time
What probably is the last American single from
�Aquarium�, is �Turn Back Time�. Aqua has now
become so popular, that one of their songs have
become the theme for a film. The film �Sliding
Doors� is due to premiere in a very near future,
and the single will probably be released then. In
Sweden, it has already been released, and it
became a hit, peaking at number 4.