Here’s how ‘Barbie Girl’ might have sounded, if it had been written by Mozart

13 July 2023, 17:19 | Updated: 17 July 2023, 16:22

Pianist plays ‘Barbie Girl’, in the style of Mozart

An iconic 90s pop hit meets 18th-century piano music, in a mashup for the ages...

Since her arrival in 1959, Barbie has played a seminal role in countless childhoods, inspiring young people worldwide with her vast portfolio career.

She has been a surgeon, an astronaut, an Olympic swimmer, and has even run for office as US President. But there’s one career she hasn’t tried her hand at (at least not yet): composing music.

Now, with a brand new film on the horizon, Classic FM’s own Tim Lihoreau has given Barbie the classical moment she truly deserves, seamlessly blending a Mozart piano sonata with Aqua’s 1997 pop hit, ‘Barbie Girl’.

Read more: Lizzo just played Mozart on the Glastonbury stage, and it was an iconic moment

Tim begins to play Mozart’s Piano Sonata No.16, nicknamed the ‘Sonata Facile’ – a classic Alberti bass, or oscillating broken chord, paired with a pleasantly simple melody.

But this isn’t your average Mozart piano sonata.

In a flawless transition just four bars in, Tim replaces Mozart’s melody with that of ‘Barbie Girl’, which fits surprisingly well over the composer’s original meandering bass.

After some harmonic exploration, and a brief reprise of the music Mozart actually wrote, Tim returns to a soft repetition of the main ‘Barbie Girl’ theme before ending on a little tune familiar to many of us...

Listen to Tim Lihoreau every weekday morning, on Classic FM’s More Music Breakfast, 6am–9am.