It’s no exaggeration to say that Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has been wildly successful. The film is currently the highest-grossing film of 2023 and continues to break records. But while the Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie starring film is a phenomenon, so is its soundtrack. The Barbie soundtrack has been a huge hit with music from artists including Billie Eilish, Ava Max, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Dua Lipa, FIFTY FIFTY, Gayle, HAIM, Ice Spice, Kali, KAROL G, Khalid, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, PinkPantheress, Tame Impala, and The Kid LAROI and even among that incredible lineup, there have been some real standout tracks. Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” has taken on a life its own, but Nicki Minaj’s “Barbie World” has also been huge and now, the soundtrack’s producers are explaining how the track came to be — and it has to do with Gerwig herself.
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“Barbie World” features Minaj along with Ice Spice and also remixes Aqua’s iconic and sometimes controversial hit “Barbie Girl.” As it turns out, the producers always had Minaj in mind for the song and the involved Gerwig to make it happen.
“From the very beginning, we had felt like having Nicki, who is Barbie essentially, be a part of this thing. We kind of continued to hone in on the idea of having her do the flip of ‘Barbie Girl,’ and it’s just interesting because there were many moments when she was doing it and there were a lot of moments when she wasn’t doing it and it kind of was happening and not happening,” Kevin Weaver said. “We were getting to a point where Nicki actually cut the record and it was incredible. We knew we loved it and Greta loved it, it was cutting the end of the picture [but] we were having a hard time getting it done.”
“We went to Greta and asked Greta if she would write a letter to Nicki, and Greta wrote this beautiful note to Nicki and basically said like, ‘You are Queen Barb and when I set out to make this film, as I was thinking of artists, you were the first artist that really came to me as somebody that I felt was going to be an important collaborator and contributor to this,’” he continued. “I sent that letter to Nicki and the next morning Nicki hit us back and said that she was 100 percent in.”
Gerwig Was Also Involved in “I’m Just Ken”
Mark Ronson also revealed that Gerwig, along with Noah Baumbach, had sent a PDF of ideas for Barbie and Ken’s songs, ultimately leading to “I’m Just Ken”.
“[Greta Gerwig] sent me this funny PDF that her and Noah [Baumbach] had scribbled, like Barbie’s song should be about the world is perfect and everything’s great and there are no shadows and everything’s great because everything’s always great and that will be great. Like just all these silly lyrics,” Ronson explained (via THR). “The Ken song was like, ‘I love horses but they also make me mad.’ And it said Barbie and Ken hit songs, which is always like a funny thing to send to a songwriter, ‘Just give us two hit songs.’”
“Next thing I know, she’s like, ‘Ryan wants to sing the song.’ And I was like, ‘Really?’” Ronson recalled after sending the initial demo to Gerwig. “She goes, ‘Yeah, he said it speaks very deeply to him.’ And I was like, ‘Is he being ironic?’ And she was like, ‘I don’t think so.’”
“He kind of feels like someone who doesn’t get caught up in the hype from the little bit that now I know about him,” Ronson shared, explaining that he would send Gosling updates on the milestones reached by “I’m Just Ken.” “Even he’d be like, ‘This is so surreal, I don’t even know what to tell you.’ I think he’s a real musician, he loves music, and I think he was really touched by that and like when Slash played on it, you know? So, there’s certain things that he’s been really, I think, excited about.”
What Is Barbie 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 hit 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.
