Barbie: The Album Makes History In The UK Charts

Dua Lipa, Billie Eilish, Ice Spice, HAIM: what more could a Barbie girl want? Barbie: The Album has clearly proved popular, making history on the UK singles chart, breaking two records according to the BBC: the highest number of songs in the top five from a single album (three), and the highest number of songs in the top 40 from a single album (six). 

The album, which was released in tandem with Greta Gerwig’s hotly anticipated Barbie movie, was produced by Mark Ronson and includes a song by none other than Ryan Gosling (the main Ken to Margot Robbie’s Barbie) himself. The hits that have climbed the charts are:

• Billie Eilish, ‘What Was I Made For?’ – number three
• Dua Lipa, ‘Dance The Night Away’ – number four
• Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice, ‘Barbie World’ – number five
• Charli XCX, ‘Speed Drive’ – number 19
• Ryan Gosling, ‘I’m Just Ken’ – number 25
• Lizzo, ‘Pink’ – number 39.

Speaking to the BBC, the film’s music supervisor George Drakoulias said on the star-studded album: ‘Nobody said no. Everybody was really excited.’ George – who also wrote the film’s score and its closing song, ‘Dance The Night Away’, sung by Dua Lipa – commenced the project with a wish list, including Nicki Minaj and Lizzo, with hopes that Mark Ronson would produce. To entice the latter, he sent a simple text message: ‘Hey Barbie?’. ‘He called me right back and we sent him a script,’ says George. ‘That started the ball rolling.’

According to the BBC, George is very proud of the album and its chart success. ‘It’s Barbie’s world, we just live in it,’ he says.

Barbie: The Album Is The Soundtrack To Our Summer

Extra! Extra! The latest from Barbie News is a star-studded soundtrack to your summer, featuring:

• Ava Max
• Charli XCX
• Dominic Fike
• Dua Lipa
• FIFTY FIFTY
• GAYLE
• HAIM
• Ice Spice
• Kali
• KAROL G
• Khalid
• Lizzo
• Nikki Minaj
• PinkPantheress
• Ryan Gosling
• Tame Impala
• The Kid Laroi

Executively produced by Mark Ronson, with more artists (or ‘Barbies and Kens’) to be revealed, we think this is shaping up to be an incredible soundtrack – to accompany the most hotly anticipated film of 2023. This is clearly the opposite of a half-hearted soundtrack endeavour: superfans can even visit barbiethealbum.com to pre-order vinyl, cassette and CD copies of Barbie: The Album.

 

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Announced exclusively on Instagram by Rolling Stone with an image of Margot Robbie as Barbie peering over a pink-hued issue of faux newspaper Barbie News, a much-noted exclusion from the list is AQUA, the band behind the 1997 hit, ‘Barbie Girl’. This is in line with 2022 reports that the song would not appear in the movie. However, the new full-length trailer teases a remix of the famous track featuring rappers Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice.

The hot pink soundtrack follows the previous announcement that Dua Lipa would be recording a new song for Greta Gerwig’s hotly anticipated film, which was teased in the week leading up to a music video reveal. Dua’s track, ‘Dance the Night’, was released a few hours after the soundtrack line-up was announced, accompanied by a Barbie-tastic, glittery music video. Watch below.

The video sees British singer Dua, who plays Mermaid Barbie in the film, arriving on set to film a music video. The song commences with words on screen reading, ‘This Barbie is making a music video’, harking back to the film’s promotional campaign earlier this year introducing the ensemble cast with captions such as ‘This Barbie is a doctor’ (Hari Nef) and ‘This Barbie has a Nobel prize in physics’ (Emma Mackey).

Don’t miss the video’s very special cameo: movie director Greta Gerwig appears in a hot pink utility suit, with matching pink headphones around her neck. At the end of the video, she stands up from a director’s chair reading ‘GRETA GERWIG’, saying, ‘Cut! That was amazing! Great job everyone. Dua, that was great. Are you ready to do another one?’.

We’re taking this as a signal that the film, which arrives in cinemas on 21 July 2023, will break the fourth wall. Also featuring glimpses of the film, with Margot Robbie as Barbie dancing at a party, the music video is set in a studio with two sets of grand pink stairs; viewers can glimpse a miniature replica of this set in the video, which we are interpreting as Barbieland’s version of the room. In true Dua fashion, there’s a strong disco theme accompanying the Barbie vibes: along with dancers dressed in disco ball costumes and a recurring smashed disco ball, Dua (and her legion of matching backup dancers) wears a glittery pink halterneck top, shimmery blue skirt and silver cowboy boots.

Dua isn’t the only British singer contributing to the soundtrack: hyper pop singer Charli XCX and drum and bass musician PinkPantheress also feature on the line-up, and their songs are available to stream now. Plus, you read that right, we can expect to hear a song by Ryan Gosling – the film’s main Ken – himself. His track is rumoured to be titled ‘I’m Just Ken’. Likewise, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice have please fans with their track, ‘Barbie World’, featuring cute mini me Barbie dolls. 

WATCH

Watch the all-new Barbie trailer below.

Barbie arrives in cinemas on 21 July 2023, and Barbie: The Album is released on the same day.

Featured image: (L-r) RYAN GOSLING as Ken and MARGOT ROBBIE as Barbie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “BARBIE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release © 2023 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved (cropped).