What Toni Basil, Singer Of Hit '80s Song Mickey, Looks Like Today

With her doe eyes, pigtails, and cheerleader outfit, Toni Basil became a staple of early MTV, all thanks to the energetic music video she created to go along with her endlessly catchy song, "Mickey." The tune, a genderswapped cover of the Racey song "Kitty," was a big success, going double platinum in many countries and continuing to be a sung around the world decades later. While "Mickey" may be seen as a fun song for the whole family these days — it was even used in a Forever 21 ad for Disney clothing — the song was a hotbed of controversy when it originally released, with some claiming the hit's lyrics alluded to sexual acts. Basil denied the claims, telling Vulture in 2012, "That's ridiculous. Everyone reads s*** into everything. It's not about anything dirty." One thing no one can argue is that "Mickey" is a poppy tune that will stick in any listener's head, and that it's what Basil will always be remembered for. And while there are plenty of '80s rock stars who are barely recognizable today, Basil looks like she hasn't aged a day.

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The photo above was snapped in 2023 at the Grammy Museum, for a celebration of the 40th anniversary of "Mickey." With the same doe eyes and energetic attitude that made her famous, Basil showed up on "Dancing with the Stars" two years afterward, helping "The Parent Trap" star Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten prepare to impress for their routine to her hit song during Season 34's "One-Hit Wonders Night." Basil told Hendrix, "You've got to be sassy to him." Basil's advice clearly worked: the dancing duo made it to the finals. Also in 2025, Basil attended the first ever Dance Hall of Fame ceremony to see a number of her contemporaries be inducted.

While "Mickey" is undoubtedly what Toni Basil is best known for, it's far from her only accomplishment. Basil was 38 when her hit song was released as a single, and she'd been working as a dancer for nearly 20 years by that point. In 1964, she was hired as an assistant choreographer on the Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret classic "Viva Las Vegas," and even got a moment to show off her own skills as "the girl with the red dress on" that the King sings about in "What'd I Say." That same year, Basil was a dancer in the Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack movie "Robin and the 7 Hoods." For that movie, Basil told the Guardian, "I started out in the back line, and the next day I was in the centre line. By the third day, I was front and centre."

As the 1960s continued, Basil's career kept moving forward, as she appeared alongside Jack Nicholson in "Easy Rider" and "Five Easy Pieces" and danced with Davy Jones in the Monkees movie "Head." Even as she was getting ready to take the world by storm with "Mickey," Basil was also helping choreograph another classic music video: The Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime." From the 1970s, '80s, '90s, and beyond, Basil also crafted routines for many other big artists, including David Bowie, Linda Ronstadt, and Tina Turner. In more recent years, Basil crafted the famous "Bend and Snap" scene in "Legally Blonde," helped Margot Robbie perfect the classic '60s dance moves in "Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood," and, in a full circle moment, taught Austin Butler how to dance like Elvis for his audition for the Baz Luhrmann movie of the same name.