Aqua Australia tour: Fans slam ‘painful’ final show in Melbourne and claim iconic 90s group sounded like a ‘drunk karaoke’

Fans of iconic 90s band Aqua have been left disappointed after the group’s Melbourne show on Wednesday night. 

The Danish-Norwegian took to the stage at the Margaret Court Arena for their final performance on their Australian tour. 

One concertgoer described the gig as ‘painful’.

In a video shared to TikTok, lead singer Lene sounded shaky and nervous as she attempted to belt out the first verse of their song Cartoon Heroes. 

‘This is painful,’ user @xoxomissflo wrote over the clip, but noted that the intro ‘looked promising’.

‘The opening really showed what we were in for tonight … it was not the vibe,’ they wrote in their caption. 

Several fans took to the comments to share their thoughts and experiences of seeing the band live, some years ago and more recently.

‘Cartoon Heroes wasn’t the best but they got better as the night went on. That or I got more drunk. I thoroughly enjoyed them,’ one wrote.

‘Jesus Christ this sounds like drunk karaoke,’ added another.

‘What a shame,’ one commented, while someone said: ‘The crowd goes mild.’

Several fans took to the comments to share their thoughts and experiences of seeing the band live, some years ago and more recently 

Another said: ‘They look so bored with themselves in every video I’ve seen.’

Meanwhile, others chimed in full support of the artists who have been performing for 30 years.

‘Personally, I think they were amazing. I was at the show and I had an amazing time!’ someone said.

It comes after Lene sparked concern when she walked off stage at the group’s Perth gig last week, before returning crying in her pyjamas an hour later.

It comes after Lene sparked concern when she walked off stage at the group’s Perth gig last week, before returning crying in her pyjamas an hour later 

Attendees described the show as ‘awkward’ and ‘horrendous’ after a series of strange incidents left the crowd confused.

Mix94.5 producer Shelby Brady recounted the performance on Pete & Kymba for Breakfast on Friday morning, telling the hosts the show was ‘instantly bad’ but got worse when singer Lena Nystrom left the stage and returned crying in her pyjamas.

The Euro-pop band is best known for their 1997 hit single Barbie Girl and kicked off their Australian tour in Perth at Metro City on Thursday evening. 

Brady said the show got off on the wrong foot before the band had even stepped on stage, with the crowd spotting an embarrassing error on a stage screen.

Attendees described the show as ‘awkward’ and ‘horrendous’ after a series of strange incidents left the crowd confused 

After an hour, lead singer Lene returned in her pyjamas

‘I knew they were off to a bad start when the screen behind them said “Hello Adelaide”,’ she said.

While she described the first song Cartoon Heroes as a ‘vibe’, the show continued to go downhill when Lene disappeared from the stage, saying the departure was the result of a ‘sound issue’.

‘You could see that the main woman was taking her head piece out throughout the song but it didn’t seem like a big issue,’ she said

‘She walks off and she’s the lead singer so they have to continue without her.’

Shelby said the remaining singers were ‘floundering’ before they all left the stage for an hour, leaving hundreds of concert goers confused.

‘It’s so awkward, nobody knows what’s happening,’ she said. 

The pop group are best known for their hit single Barbie Girl

‘They shut the bar so you couldn’t get drinks, there was nowhere to sit.

‘People left because there was no communication at all. It was just an empty stage with nobody there.’

But the show took a turn for the worse when the lead singer returned to the show visibly upset and donning her pyjamas.

‘They come back on at 10pm. The lead female singer was wearing pleather before, she’s dressed out of that and she’s now in her actual pyjamas,’ Brady said.

‘She was crying … heavy breathing for the whole time and that was for the entire hour performing.’

Host Kymba Cahill was empathetic to the singer, suggesting she may have been having an ‘episode’ and attempting to get through the performance.

‘Do you think it might have started as a sound issue? But to me that sound’s like she’s having a bit of an episode,’ Cahill said.

‘If you go from your tight pleather outfit and you’re off stage for an hour and you come back crying and in your pyjamas that indicates something has gone wrong. She’s not okay.’

The onstage blunder comes as the group was forced to downsize their shows in Australia due to underwhelming demand.