Stevie Nicks gets her own Barbie: ‘I am her and she is me’
Music legend, 75, grew emotional as she unveiled doll on stage at New York’s Madison Square Gardens
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Your support makes all the difference.Stevie Nicks is the latest star to be given the Barbie treatment.
The Fleetwood Mac singer has been immortalised in plastic form as a doll for Mattel’s Signature Music series.
The collectors’ item features Nicks in her trademark Seventies style, donning a flowing black dress and tambourine in hand.
Nicks, 75, introduced the doll on Sunday (1 October) night while performing at New York’s Madison Square Gardens. On stage, she explained that Mattel had first approached her a year ago, before the release of the Barbie movie.
“I have something very exciting to share with you a few hours before the rest of the world,” Nicks told the crowd. “I was very overwhelmed. Will she be like me? Will she have my spirit? Will she have my heart?”
Nicks explained that she had been carrying the doll with her for the past three months. “When I look at her I see my 27-year-old self,” she said. “I am her and she is me.”
The doll is instantly recognisable as the music legend, whose career with Fleetwood Mac and as a solo performer has spanned five decades.
Her doll is depicted with bouncy blonde hair, a blunt fringe, and dark eye make-up. Nicks’s signature gold moon necklace hangs around the Barbie’s neck, with her nails painted a shiny red.
Most impressive, however, is the flowing, witchy dress worn by Nicks. The garment features a velvety wrap bodice with a layered skirt and long chiffon sleeves.
The dress was inspired by the album cover of 1977’s Rumours, which is widely considered to be one of the greatest albums of all time.
Nicks revealed that she sent the original dress and boots worn on the Rumours cover to Mattel who strived to faithfully recreate the iconic look.
Mattel also looked to the band’s 1975 song “Rhiannon” for inspiration, referencing the song’s lyrics in the doll description: “Stevie looks ready to take to the sky like a bird in flight with her flowing chiffon statement sleeves”.
The look is finished off with a pair of heeled black leather boots and a tambourine adorned with cascading red and purple ribbons.
The collectible’s description reads: “Barbie honours the iconic ‘Queen of Rock and Roll’ Stevie Nicks, with a collectible doll that emulates her signature spellbinding style.” The doll is on sale for $55 (£45).
Speaking to USA Today, Nicks explained that she was given a lot of creative control when it came to the doll’s design.
“When Mattel first sent her to me, I told them her eyebrows are a little too arched and my eye makeup, if you go back to the Seventies, it was very Twiggy with lots of eyelashes and that doe-eyed look,” she said. “So I said you need to raise that dark eyeshadow above the fold in her eye and that will fix it. And I said we need to see a little bit of teeth.
“And then when I got her on June 22, I opened her up and I went, ‘She’s just perfect.’ This little Barbie is so precious and they helped her have my soul. If nobody else in the world got her but me, I’d almost be OK with that.”
Nicks explained that Mattel’s offer to create a doll in her likeness had been particuarly significant given that her mother used to collect Barbies.
“Honestly, I tend to think all the women in the world would love to have a Barbie made of them, but they know that isn’t going to happen,” Nicks said.
“When I found out, I was really catapulted back to when the first Barbies came out in 1959 and my mom bought me a Barbie. She collected dolls forever and I came into Fleetwood Mac a doll collector.”
Nicks recalled watching Greta Gerwig’s box office smash Barbie, which arrived in cinemas this summer, and the moment in the film that Margot Robbie’s character appears as the first ever Barbie doll from 1959, donning its signature black-and-white swimming costume.
“When I saw Margot Robbie standing in that bathing suit, I was like, that’s my doll,” Nicks said. “All these years, that’s exactly who I wanted to be and look like – Margot Robbie in a bathing suit and high heels with my hair on my head.”
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