Aqua, December 2023 — Sara Denny

In the year of 1997 and music single was released: Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” was released and it changed my brain chemistry. I purchased the single on cassette. As soon as the eponymous CD came out it was in my hands. The VHS “Aqua Diary: Official Aquarium Home Video” was played so many times on my CRT TV/VCR combo. Which is how I got to see so many of the music videos as I grew up without cable and didn’t have internet access quite yet.

Click the Tape, someone uploaded it to Youtube!

In December of 2023 a miracle occurred for my 12 year old inner self: Aqua was having it first US tour. And as a full-ass adult you better believed I immediately purchased a ticket to go. They were coming to Detroit, I did not care if it was in the middle of a mid-western winter. Come hell or high snow, I would be there.

And there I was! After some difficulty with parking and finding the venue (The Fillmore, Detroit) , I had balcony seats to bask in my childhood favorite band. It was honestly one of the best concerts I’ve been to. The theater was beautiful, we had a great view, and Aqua was perfect.

I am the happiest, childhood dreams are coming true! And while freezing, it was fairly mild weather for Michigan in December!

Lene, the lead singer, her voice has gotten even more beautiful as time has passed. Rene has such a fantastic stage presence, and Soren is great musician. The way they edited the music videos to play in the back as they performed was so cool. They have great showmanship that they have just perfected in their other tours. The two videos below are clips of “Cartoon Heroes” and “Barbie Girl” They played so much of their catalogue of hits (which in my opinion, is basically ALL of their songs) and it was amazing.

I didn’t take too many videos or photos as I wanted to really lose myself in the experience. It was so much fun and I’m very happy that Aqua is now on the short list of live concerts I’ve been to in my life. I also purchased my first Liquid Death drink, which is just fancy water, which I didn’t know until I went to this concert and that was my only water option!

All in all it was a successful concert experience. We left during the encore to beat the traffic because this area, is like, concert Venue city and we had quite the drive back to our house afterwards. I didn’t end up purchasing any merchandise because it didn’t actually feel…special enough? It was very basic stuff and I would’ve hope for some more fashionable t-shirts or fun designed posters.