Barbie Soundtrack Nearly Debuts at Top of Billboard Hot 200 List

The Billboard charts are officially feeling the Kenergy. On Wednesday, it was announced that the Barbie soundtrack has officially debuted at the #2 spot on the Billboard Hot 200 list, which tracks the best-selling albums of a particular week. The full Barbie soundtrack, which premiered on the same day as the film’s theatrical release in the US, sold a total of 126,000 units in a single week. The Barbie soundtrack was beaten out by Get Up, an EP from the Korean all-girl group NewJeans, which ended up selling only 500 more units.

Still, the Barbie soundtrack has now officially broken the record for the biggest opening week for a theatrical film soundtrack in the 2020s, and in more than four years.

Who Is on the Barbie Soundtrack?

As was announced back in May, Barbie features new songs from Ava Max, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Dua Lipa, FIFTY FIFTY, Gayle, HAIM, Ice Spice, Kali, KAROL G, Khalid, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, PinkPantheress, Sam Smith, Tame Impala, and The Kid LAROI, as well as “I’m Just Ken”, an original power ballad sung by Ken actor Ryan Gosling. Ronson based his pitch for the album on the reception and backlash around Disco music.

“You just see the Bee Gees so crestfallen and thinking, ‘Wait, why does everyone hate us so much?’ Which is such a strong parallel to Barbie,” Ronson explained in the same interview. “In the film, she just wants to make everybody happy and can’t understand why she’s so problematic or why people hate her.”

Why Was Matchbox Twenty in Barbie?

In a recent interview with USA Today, Matchbox Twenty frontman Rob Thomas revealed that although he was originally skeptical of agreeing to include Gosling’s cover of their song “Push” in Barbie, his love for director and co-writer Greta Gerwig helped convince him.

“I want to preface this by saying that I thought it was hilarious. But in Bring It On, (Kirsten Dunst’s character) has this douchey boyfriend. And there’s a scene where he was in his dorm room with a Matchbox Twenty poster in the background. There was a whole period during the ’90s where the more successful we got, the bigger target we were. We were an easy takedown,” Thomas told USA Today after Barbie was released on Friday, July 21. “When I got the call for “Barbie,” they told me, “Ken’s by the fireside, he’s playing the song and it’s his favorite band.” So I did this thinking I’d be the butt of the joke, and I was fine with that. I’m pretty thick-skinned. But Julie Greenwald (from Atlantic Records) came to the Hollywood Bowl a month or two ago. She had just seen the movie and was like, “You come out of it loving Ken and loving ‘Push.’” And I was like, “Aww. Alright, really good!” Also, Greta Gerwig has been one of my crushes forever, to the point where I was on a plane one time and I called my wife, like, “Baby, Greta Gerwig just came on the plane, oh my god.” So just the fact that it didn’t diminish my crush of Greta, that’s even better.”

What Is the Barbie Movie About?

In Barbie, to live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken. From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig comes Barbie, which hits theaters on July 21st. Barbie stars Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell. The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans, Jamie Demetriou, Connor Swindells, Sharon Rooney, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren. Gerwig directed Barbie from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach, based on Barbie by Mattel.