Though “Barbie Girl” was eventually included in the final Barbie film via “Barbie World,” Aqua’s original song was not always expected to be heard in the film at all. In fact, Nystrøm’s manager had announced that “Barbie Girl” would not be featured in the Barbie movie, shocking many fans. Margot Robbie later said, however, that Gerwig’s film was always meant to incorporate “Barbie Girl,” because one cannot “do a Barbie movie and not have a nod to Aqua’s ‘Barbie Girl’.”

Whether “Barbie Girl” was always going to be in Barbie or not, the uncertainty surrounding the song’s inclusion is unsurprising given Aqua’s complicated relationship with Mattel. When the song was first released in 1997, Mattel feared that “Barbie Girl” oversexualized the popular children’s toy. As a result, the company ended up filing a trademark infringement lawsuit against MCA Records, which then responded with a counterclaim. The cases were dismissed, with the song ruled on appeal to be legally protected as a parody.

Eventually, Mattel, which co-produced the Barbie movie, likely realized the same thing that Robbie did: a Barbie movie without “Barbie Girl” wouldn’t have felt right. Similarly to the cultural phenomenon that the movie has become, “Barbie Girl” became part of the zeitgeist. Thus, ostracizing Aqua and their song from the film would have ultimately seemed like a major oversight in Barbie, and audiences ultimately benefited from this reconciliation.