Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Ice Spice, Charli XCX, and Even Ryan Gosling Feature on ‘Barbie’ Soundtrack
The movie of the summer is almost here — and now has an all-star soundtrack lineup to go with it.
Rolling Stone exclusively reveals that Barbie: The Album will feature Ava Max, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Dua Lipa, Fifty Fifty, Gayle, Haim, Ice Spice, Kali, Karol G, Khalid, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, PinkPantheress, Ryan Gosling, Tame Impala, and the Kid Laroi. The compilation project releases July 21, the same day the movie, starring Margot Robbie and Gosling, arrives in theaters worldwide.
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What a lineup … and also Gosling. Jokes aside, the star has been known to flex his vocal chops —Gosling sang, danced, and played piano in the Oscar-winning La La Land.
And the list isn’t even complete — more artists will be announced as the album’s release date draws near. The project will be executively produced by Mark Ronson, who collaborated with Lipa on the platinum-certified “Electricity” as one half of the electronic duo Silk City.
On Monday, Lipa (who stars in the film as Mermaid Barbie) announced that her single from the soundtrack, “Dance the Night,” will be released Thursday. The Grammy-winning multi-hyphenate kept the Barbie vibes going this week, living her plastic fantastic life at Cannes, where she unveiled her new collaboration with fashion house Versace.
A first glimpse of the song made its way into the latest Barbie trailer, which finally reveals some gritty, existential details about the plot beyond shiny plastic and picture perfect parties. Dancing at her own giant blowout party — her version of a small get-together — Barbie spins and twirls to Lipa’s smooth vocals, singing: “You can find me under the lights, diamonds under my eyes.”
“It is the best day ever — and so is yesterday, and so is tomorrow, and every day from now until forever,” Barbie exclaims on the dance floor, keeping the good times going until she asks: “Do you guys ever thinking about dying?” With a loud record scratch indicating the sudden vibe-shift, “Dance the Night” is immediately replaced with the sound of crickets to go with everyone’s horrified looks.
For some on the project, being involved in Barbie is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Barbie moniker is one of Nicki Minaj’s long-standing alter egos, punctuated by 2018’s “Barbie Dreams,” which flipped Biggie’s “Just Playing (Dreams).” Now, she’s on the soundtrack.
A brief clip of her contribution to the project closes out the trailer. As the release date flashes across the screen in the classic Barbie font, Minaj spits: “It’s Barbie, bitch, if you still in doubt.”
Sadly, no sign of Aqua on the project. The previously unknown group from Denmark exploded when its cheeky track “Barbie Girl,” which included the unforgettable “life in plastic, it’s fantastic” bars, became a global sensation in 1997. The track was sampled in 2017’s “Not Your Barbie Girl” by Ava Max, who appears on Barbie: The Album. Read the oral history of the infamous track, which turned a quarter-century last year, here.
The movie’s first trailer arrived last month, introducing a Barbie multiverse and a star-studded cast: Issa Rae as President Barbie, Ana Cruz Kayne as Supreme Court Justice Barbie, Kate McKinnon as a Barbie who’s always “in the splits,” and others. The Greta Gerwig-directed flick takes place in Barbie Land and has a log line: “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.”
The Barbie fun doesn’t stop here — the film’s global trailer drops Thursday at noon ET. Plus, Barbie is just one movie on Rolling Stone’s “40 Movies You Need to See This Summer” list. See what else made the cut here.
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