Rob Thomas Dedicates Performance to Ryan Gosling After Barbie Success

Barbie made its debut in theaters over the weekend, becoming nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. A lot of elements surrounding Barbie have been praised, including the soundtrack filled with new and surprising songs. Spoilers for Barbie below! Only look if you want to know! One song that was hidden from the Barbie soundtrack until its release was Matchbox Twenty's "Push", which is established to be the Kens' favorite song that plays on a constant loop while they're taking over Barbieland. "Push" was then covered by the Kens at a key moment of the film, as the Barbies took the opportunity of being serenaded to turn the Kens against each other.

The movie has already provoked a newfound love for "Push", and it looks like Matchbox Twenty lead singer Rob Thomas is joining in on the positivity. In a viral TikTok, Thomas can be seen dedicating the band's latest live performance of "Push" to Ryan Gosling, who portrayed the main Ken in the Barbie film.

@hannahcroteau

“i’d like to dedicate this next song to ryan gosling” – rob thomas #matchbox20 #matchboxtwenty #robthomas #ryangosling #barbie #barbiemovie #push #fyp

♬ original sound – Hannah

Why Was Matchbox Twenty in Barbie?

In a recent interview with USA Today, Thomas revealed that although he was originally skeptical of agreeing to include "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 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.