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For anyone who lived through the early 1980s, Toni Basil’s “Mickey” is difficult to forget. The infectious pop hit arrived with an equally memorable music video featuring Basil in a cheerleading uniform, complete with pigtails, colorful makeup, and choreography that became inseparable from the song itself. According to Yahoo Entertainment, more than four decades later, Toni Basil today still looks remarkably familiar to fans who remember that era. When she appeared at the Grammy Museum in January 2023 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of “Mickey,” her playful fashion sense and recognizable features immediately brought back memories of the video that made her a pop-culture fixture. What is Toni Basil doing now? Updated October 15, 2026: She is still dancing, and she has no plans to quit. Basil lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches dance classes and judges street dance competitions, according to a 2024 interview with The Telegraph. "I'll never stop dancing if I can help it," she said. "If I stopped for two weeks it would take me six months to get back into shape. So I just won't stop!" She told the paper she was "that kid who couldn't sit still," and that hasn't changed one bit. In her words, "dancing has always been my drug of choice." Shortly before that interview, she had been in a dance session with David Lee Roth. Toni Basil. ImageCollect She won the rights to "Mickey" in court For years, Basil fought for control of the song that made her famous. In 2013, she filed a notice to take back the U.S. rights to her 1981 debut album, Word of Mouth, which includes "Mickey." Copyright law lets artists reclaim rights they signed away decades earlier. A UK company called Stillwater Ltd. objected. It claimed it owned half of the recordings through the album's producer, Greg Mathieson. The courts didn't agree. On May 11, 2022, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that Mathieson was not a co-author. That left Basil as the sole copyright owner of the recordings. The win didn't come cheap. Basil told The Telegraph the legal battle "cost a fortune." Tarantino took her back to the '60s Toni Basil. Courtesy Everett Collection Long before "Mickey," Basil was a go-go dancer and choreographer in 1960s Hollywood. She was assistant choreographer on Elvis Presley's Viva Las Vegas, and she pops up in the film as "the girl with the red dress on," CBS Sunday Morning reported. That history made her a natural fit when Quentin Tarantino hired her to choreograph Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019. She taught Leonardo DiCaprio the Pony, the '60s dance craze. She told The Telegraph that the shoot "was like being on an LSD trip back in time to 1969." When she looks back on all of it, she still sounds amazed. "I actually go, 'Wow! How lucky can a girl get?'" she told CBS. Toni Basil Was Nearly 40 When “Mickey” Became a Hit THE SINGING BEE, Toni Basil (center), 'One Hit Wonders' (Season 2, Episode 1, aired October 2, 2007), 2007-, photo: Paul Drinkwater/©NBC/courtesy Everett Collection One of the most surprising facts about Basil’s breakthrough is that she was around 39 when “Mickey” became a smash. Her energetic cheerleader performance made her seem perfectly at home in the role, and there was a good reason for that. Long before the music video, Basil had actually served as captain of the cheerleading squad at Las Vegas High School. Sean Mcdowell/X She also brought years of professional dance and choreography experience to the video. Rather than simply following someone else’s routine, Basil choreographed the moves herself, helping create the distinctive look that audiences still associate with the song. Her real cheerleading background and knowledge of movement gave the performance an authenticity that helped “Mickey” stand apart from countless other pop videos of the decade. Toni Basil Today Still Has Her Signature Sense of Style Sean McDowell/X At the Grammy Museum celebration, Basil opted for understated makeup with a soft raspberry lip while showing off the quirky fashion instincts fans have long associated with her. She paired polka dots with stripes and finished the look with a playful hat, proving that her willingness to experiment with clothes never disappeared with time. Even decades after her biggest pop hit, she continued to project the same individuality that made her memorable in the first place. Perhaps even more impressive, Basil still demonstrated the dance skills that helped build her career long before “Mickey” reached the charts. Her lasting connection to movement makes sense considering that she was already an accomplished dancer and choreographer before becoming a recording star. Looking at Toni Basil today offers more than a simple before-and-after moment. It serves as a reminder that the famous cheerleader routine was never just a novelty—it came from a performer whose creativity, style, and dance experience helped turn one catchy song into an enduring piece of ’80s nostalgia.

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