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Barbie the Album

Barbie the Album is the soundtrack album for the 2023 film Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig. It was released by Atlantic Records on July 21, 2023, the same day as the film's North American theatrical release. The album was produced by Mark Ronson, Kevin Weaver, and Brandon Davis. It was met with generally favorable reviews from critics.

The album was promoted by the release of six singles; the album's lead single "Dance the Night" by Dua Lipa topped the charts in 10 countries including the UK and Ireland as well as reaching the top ten in 25 countries including the US. The second single was "Angel" by PinkPantheress and the third was "Barbie World", a collaboration by Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice with Aqua, which reached the top ten in 15 territories including the UK and US. A fourth single "Speed Drive" by Charli XCX was a top ten hit in the UK and Ireland. The fifth single "What Was I Made For?" by Billie Eilish topped the charts in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, and Australia, and entered the top ten in 15 countries. Ava Max's "Choose Your Fighter" was serviced to airplay radio as the album's sixth single on July 28, 2023.

Upon release, the album was met with critical and commercial success. It debuted at number one in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand and reached the top ten in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, and the United States. At the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, the album won Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, while four of its songs ("Dance the Night", "Barbie World", "What Was I Made For?", and "I'm Just Ken") received nominations for Best Song Written for Visual Media. "Dance the Night" and "What Was I Made For?" were additionally nominated for Song of the Year and the latter for Record of the Year. At the 96th Academy Awards, two of its songs "What Was I Made For" and "I'm Just Ken" received nominations for Best Original Song, the former winning the Academy Award.

Background

On May 25, 2023, Rolling Stone reported that the Barbie soundtrack would be produced by Mark Ronson and would feature original songs by Ava Max, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Fifty Fifty, Gayle, Haim, Ice Spice, Kaliii, Karol G, Khalid, the Kid Laroi, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, PinkPantheress, Tame Impala, and cast members Dua Lipa and Ryan Gosling, with additional surprise artists being revealed at a later date. That evening, the soundtrack's partial tracklist was released.

On July 6, 2023, Billie Eilish was announced as the soundtrack's first surprise artist. Eilish's inclusion on the album had been speculated after she posted a neon pink Barbie sign on her Instagram account a week prior. On July 10, Sam Smith was announced as the soundtrack's second surprise artist.

Production

Before signing on to the Barbie project, producer Mark Ronson received a text message from his friend, Barbie music supervisor George Drakoulias, that simply stated, "Barbie?" Before Barbie rehearsals could begin in two weeks' time, director Greta Gerwig needed a disco song that would form the basis of highly-choregraphed dance number. She sent Ronson a playlist of what she had in mind for the soundtrack—"guilty pleasure music" or "Peloton pop"—including songs from Andrea True Connection and Xanadu. Ronson and colleague Andrew Wyatt created a backing track that Gerwig loved and used for the cast's dance rehearsals. This song would later become "Dance the Night" by Dua Lipa.

Over the course of a year, Ronson was tasked with curating a soundtrack that matched Gerwig's vision for Barbie. Gerwig and Ronson made a "wish list" of artists they wanted on the soundtrack, and as the film was being edited in post-production, they would show scenes from the film to these artists. Ronson stated, "Everybody would watch the scene and come back a week or two weeks later, and got exactly to the heart of everything we were trying to do."

In April 2022, Aqua's manager Ulrich Møller-Jørgensen stated that the band's 1997 hit "Barbie Girl" would not be included on the film’s soundtrack. However, actress Margot Robbie, who plays Barbie, reportedly begged Gerwig to include the song in the film, and Gerwig assured Robbie that she would find a way to incorporate the song in "a cool way." Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice were then signed to perform a remix of the song for the soundtrack, titled "Barbie World". Aqua are credited as both co-writers and performers on the track.

Release

Barbie the Album was released on July 21, 2023. In addition to several variants of vinyl records and cassette tapes offered on the soundtrack's official website, the album was also released in exclusive colors and designs for Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Hot Topic, and Urban Outfitters. Ahead of the soundtrack's release, official listening parties were held at select record stores in the United States, Latin America, and Europe on July 18.

Singles

On May 22, 2023, English-Albanian singer Dua Lipa announced that her single "Dance the Night" would be released at midnight on Friday May 26 BST. The accompanying music video was also released that day and included a cameo by Gerwig. Ronson shared a screenshot of a direct message he sent to Lipa on Instagram in 2022, asking her to co-write and perform a song on the soundtrack for a "huge 60-person dance number", which would later become "Dance the Night". "Dance the Night" peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart and number six on the US Billboard Hot 100.

The following week on June 2, Colombian singer Karol G released the soundtrack's first promotional single "Watati". Rolling Stone reported that Karol G had visited Ronson's studio to watch scenes from the film on April 15, 2023, the same day she performed on Saturday Night Live. The accompanying music video for the single was released on June 15. "Watati" charted in Spain and various Latin American countries, peaking at number two in Panama and number four in Honduras. The soundtrack's second single, "Angel" by English singer PinkPantheress, was released one week later on June 9, and serviced to Italian radio stations the same day.

On June 10, Trinidadian rapper Nicki Minaj and American rapper Ice Spice announced that their single "Barbie World" would be released on June 23. The soundtrack's third single, it is performed by the two rappers and remixes the 1997 song "Barbie Girl" by Danish band Aqua, who are also credited as performers. The music video, which featured Barbie likenesses of Minaj and Ice Spice, was also released on June 23. "Barbie World" debuted at number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart.

English singer Charli XCX released "Speed Drive" on June 29, which was serviced to Italian radio on June 30 as the soundtrack's fourth single. The song peaked at number 9 on the UK Singles Chart. On July 6, South Korean girl group Fifty Fifty released the soundtrack's second promotional single, "Barbie Dreams" featuring American rapper Kaliii.

American singer Billie Eilish was revealed to be the first surprise artist of the soundtrack on July 6. That day, she announced that her song "What Was I Made For?" and its accompanying music video would be released as the soundtrack's fifth single on July 13. Eilish teased the single in a July 12 tweet previewing the music video. "What Was I Made For?" peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the UK Singles Chart.

The second surprise artist of the soundtrack was revealed to be English singer Sam Smith on July 10. Their song "Man I Am" was released alongside the album as its third promotional single on July 21, peaking at number 58 on the UK Singles Chart.

On July 28, "Choose Your Fighter" by American singer Ava Max was serviced to Italian radio as the sixth single from the soundtrack, and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 90.

Best Weekend Ever Edition

On the same day as the soundtrack's release, a cover of Indigo Girls' "Closer to Fine" performed by Brandi Carlile and her wife Catherine Carlile and a cover of Matchbox Twenty's "Push" performed by Ryan Gosling were released as part of the deluxe edition of the soundtrack, titled Best Weekend Ever Edition.

Critical reception

Barbie the Album received a score of 69 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on 13 critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reception. Many critics cited the album's diversity of sound. Jim Pollock of AP News called it an "eclectic sprawl of a soundtrack that can be enjoyed from start to finish." He also noted, "The soundtrack works because the contributors understood the assignment. Collectively, they deliver a dreamhouse of songs that are each at least a little better than they have to be. The tracks succeed both as cinematic elements and as standalone songs. The result is a worthy, danceable bookend to the classic Saturday Night Fever soundtrack of a generation before." On the contrary, some critics felt that the album lacked coherence. Adam White of The Independent called the soundtrack "erratic" and noted that tracks like "Home" by Haim and "What Was I Made For?" by Billie Eilish felt "slightly jarring when surrounded by hot-pink boppery, like a pair of Negative Nancys showing up to spoil your birthday party."

Some critics have emphasized the album as a commercial operation and not an artistic one. Shaad D'Souza of The Guardian found in the project an "union of art and advertising" writing that it "makes it clear that there are charts to beat, goals to reach, and, of course, dolls to sell" believing that "someone like PC Music head and Beyoncé collaborator A. G. Cook might have been able to do for the album what Gerwig has supposedly done for her film, bringing self-referential, existentialist pathos to mainstream art". D'Souza also points out that it is a "pretty good promo for many of the pop A-listers signed to Warner Music Group (Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Charli XCX), as well as some of the C-listers (Gayle, Ava Max)."

Negative reviews also felt that the album contained several weak links. Outside of "a few cute selections" like PinkPantheress's "Angel" and Dua Lipa's "Dance the Night" and "more clever than the rest of Barbie’s selections" Charli XCX's "Speed Drive", Cat Zhang of Pitchfork stated that "these throwaway products should largely be left on the shelf". Tomás Mier of Rolling Stone stated that Khalid's "Silver Platter" and The Kid Laroi's "Forever & Again" "felt out of place on the record and [didn't] enhance the LP’s Kendom portion." Madeline Roth of The Daily Beast wrote, "It's not as excellent or as fine-tuned as it could have been, thanks to a few busted interlopers, but there’s plenty to enjoy as the Summer of Barbie rages on." Alex Rigotti of NME wrote, "The soundtrack has some wonderful highs and some miserable lows – but then again, it’s not all rosy in Barbie Land."

Reviewing the film, Courtney Howard of The A.V. Club wrote, "Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt's pop soundscape bolsters the synthetic atmosphere in Barbie Land, but they thread the needle perfectly in the Real World, blending musical themes from Billie Eilish's ballad 'What Was I Made For?' to land the palpably moving moments."

In September, Rolling Stone listed the soundtrack as one of the best albums of 2023 so far.

Commercial performance

In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number one on the Official Compilations Chart and had six songs enter the Top 40 on the Official Singles Chart. It also become the first soundtrack album to have three songs on the Top 5 of the Singles Charts simultaneously: "What Was I Made For?" (3), "Dance the Night" (4), and "Barbie World" (5). In the United States, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 in the issue dated August 5, 2023. The album opened with 126,000 album-equivalent units, of which 70,000 were streaming equivalent album, 53,000 were pure album sales, and 3,000 were track equivalent album.

Accolades

Track listing

Notes

"Barbie World" contains a sample of "Barbie Girl", written by Søren Rasted, Claus Norreen, René Dif and Lene Nystrøm, and performed by Aqua.
"Speed Drive" contains interpolations of "Mickey", written by Michael Chapman and Nicholas Chinn, and "Cobrastyle", written by Klas Åhlund, Joakim Åhlund, Patrick Arve, Ewart Brown, Fabian Torsson, Troy Rami, Paul Rota, David Parker and Sylvia Robinson.
"Watati" is stylized in all caps, and misspelled as "Watiti" on the first edition vinyl back covers.
"Butterflies" is stylized in all lowercase and contains an interpolation of "Butterfly", written by Seth Binzer, Bret Mazur, Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante and Chad Smith, which itself is based on a sample of "Pretty Little Ditty", written by Kiedis, Smith, Frusciante, and Flea.
"Barbie Dreams" contains an interpolation of "Together Again", written by Janet Jackson, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and René Elizondo Jr.
"Push" is a cover of the song by Matchbox Twenty.
"Closer to Fine" is a cover of the song by the Indigo Girls.
"Barbie Dreams" is not included on select versions of the physical album.