The Off-Brand Aqua

by Alexandra Molotkow

Toy-Box was a Danish duo who reportedly met at a New Year’s Eve party in 1996, and broke out in 1998 with the single “Tarzan and Jane.” As the site Bubblegum Dance — “your guide to the happiest music in the world, bubblegum eurodance!” — notes, “Toy-Box’s Aneela [Mirza] sings with a high-pitched voice and Amir [El-Falaki] with a dark rough voice, just like Aqua’s Lene and Rene,” and “Toy-Box’s Aneela and Aqua’s Lene had both crazy hair styles in their band area.”

“Best Friend” was Toy-Box’s second hit, and it went to #1 in the Netherlands. It lacked the social resonance of “Barbie Girl” or the deep eroticism of “Lollipop (Candyman),” but its video features CGI pals and exemplary butt marksmanship, and it spawned the great pantyhose-and-bra fad of the late ‘90s.

Mirza launched a solo career in the mid-2000s (click that link! It’s good). El-Falaki seems to have founded a dance academy. As for me, I’m going deep into bubblegum eurodance. “Let’s get this party on, hit me with laser gun.”