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Dance the Night

"Dance the Night" is a song by English-Albanian singer Dua Lipa from Barbie the Album, the soundtrack of the film Barbie (2023). Lipa and Caroline Ailin wrote it with its producers Andrew Wyatt and Mark Ronson, and the Picard Brothers also contributed production. Atlantic and Warner Records released it as the soundtrack's lead single on 25 May 2023. A pop and disco song that features cello, violin, viola, guitar and bass in its instrumentation, "Dance the Night" is about dancing throughout the night despite enduring sadness. Its release was accompanied by a music video, which features a cameo appearance of Barbie writer and director Greta Gerwig. Dua Lipa performed "Dance the Night" at the 66th Grammy Awards.

"Dance the Night" reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Dua Lipa's fourth number-one single in the country. In the United States, the song peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the singer's fifth top-ten single in the country. Elsewhere, "Dance the Night" reached number-one in Ireland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Israel, Luxembourg, and the Commonwealth of Independent States, while it peaked within the top-ten in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland. The song also peaked at number three on the Billboard Global 200. It was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards and for Best Original Song at the 81st Golden Globe Awards.

Background and release

In April 2023, it was announced that Dua Lipa had joined the cast of Greta Gerwig's upcoming fantasy comedy film Barbie. She recorded original music for the film's soundtrack, Barbie the Album. On 22 May 2023, Lipa announced its lead single, "Dance the Night", would be released on 26 May. This marked her first musical output since the conclusion of her Future Nostalgia (2020) album release cycle. Official Charts Company's George Griffiths commented the song's snippet sounded like a return "to the disco-soaked sonics of Future Nostalgia...with a plastic sheen, of course". The snippet soundtracked a clip in which Lipa steps out of fleecy heels, recreating a shot of Margot Robbie's arched foot in the second Barbie trailer, before blowing a kiss to the camera; the lyric "Just come along for the ride!" plays over a glinting disco groove. Vulture's Jennifer Zhan remarked its release marked the death of a viral meme about Lipa's hip twist, as news about it replaced the latter atop search results.

Before signing on to produce the Barbie soundtrack, producer Mark Ronson received a text from his friend George Drakoulias that simply stated, "Barbie?" Before production, director Greta Gerwig needed a disco song that would be the basis of highly choreographed dance number, so she sent Ronson a playlist of what she was looking for. Ronson and colleague Andrew Wyatt created a backing track that Gerwig loved and used for dance rehearsals. This song would later become "Dance the Night".

A 10-second instrumental snippet of the song was included in the first teaser of Barbie.

Composition

"Dance the Night" is two minutes and 56 seconds long. Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson, and the Picard Brothers produced the song. Wyatt plays bass and synthesizer, Ronson plays guitar and Rhodes piano, the Picard Brothers play keyboards and programmed it with its engineer Brandon Bost. It features cello, violin, and viola in its instrumentation, and it was mixed by Serban Ghenea with assistance from Bryce Bordone.

"Dance the Night" is a pop and disco song, written in the key of B dorian with a tempo of 110 beats per minute. Lipa's vocals ranging from G♯₃ to B₄. The song incorporates "classic strings and funky bass". Variety's Thania Garcia described it as "a slick, disco-pop number". In the chorus, Lipa sings the lyrics: "Watch me dance the night away / My heart could be burnin' but you won't see it on my face / Watch me dance, dance the night away / I still keep the party running". She compares the tears streaming down her face while she cries to diamonds.

Reception

On 28 May 2023, Billboard listeners voted "Dance the Night" as their favorite new release of the week.

Year-end lists

Commercial performance

"Dance the Night" debuted at number 20 on the UK Singles Chart issued for 2 June 2023. On the chart issued dated 28 July 2023, the song ascended to number four, becoming Dua Lipa's 13th top-ten single in the country. On the chart issued dated 25 August 2023, the song reached number one, becoming Lipa’s fourth UK number-one hit. In Ireland the song debuted at number 12 on the Irish Singles Chart, peaking at number one on 18 August 2023, becoming the singer's fourth number-one hit in the country.

On 10 June, "Dance the Night" debuted at number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the week ending 16 September 2023, the song peaked at number 6 on the chart, becoming Dua Lipa's fifth top-ten hit in the country. In the week ending 16 September 2023, the song hit number one on the Pop Airplay chart as well as the Adult Top 40 as her fifth number one single on both charts. In Canada, "Dance the Night" reached number four on the Canadian Hot 100, becoming the singer fourth top-five song.

In Australia, the song made its debut at position 22 on the ARIA Singles Chart, peaking at number three for week of 7 August 2023. It peaked at number five in New Zealand. Elsewhere, "Dance the Night" reached the top 15, at number one in Bulgaria, Croatia, Israel, and Wallonia, number two in Lebanon, Paraguay, and CIS, number six in Slovakia, and number 11 in Uruguay.

Music video

The accompanying music video for "Dance the Night" was released alongside the song. It features a cameo appearance of Barbie director Greta Gerwig, and clips from the film featuring Margot Robbie, Issa Rae, Emma Mackey, and other cast members. The video has a pink set, and Lipa learns new choreography in it after discovering a disco ball that had been ordered for the shoot has crashed to the ground. She dances atop a huge Barbie heel, and the cameos occur during a disco party, after which Gerwig vacates her director's chair to praise Lipa's performance and question the events that led up to the disco ball's destruction. Fans theorized that the smashed disco ball signaled the end of Lipa's Future Nostalgia era; the theory was corroborated by Ronson in an interview with Vulture. Pitchfork's Evan Minsker summarised the clip: "Lipa lead[s] a troupe of dancing disco balls, get[s] behind the wheel of a Barbie-pink convertible, and dance[s] on a hot pink stage." It features life-sized perfume bottles, and Larisha Paul of Rolling Stone stated that it is "as much glitter and glam as it is escapism and unease".

Accolades

Credits and personnel

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Barbie the Album.

Andrew Wyatt – producer, composer, bass, synthesizer
Mark Ronson – producer, composer, guitar, Rhodes piano
Picard Brothers – producer, programming, keyboards
Dua Lipa – lyricist
Caroline Ailin – lyricist
Clarice Jensen, Alan Stepansky, Caitlin Sullivan, Susannah Chapman, Joel Noyes, Sarah Kwon – cello
Lisa Kim, Matt Lehmann, Jungsun Yoo, Jennifer Kim, Joanna Maurer, Annaliesa Place, Ann Kim, Tallie Brunfelt, Henry Wang, Kristi Helberg, Jeongmin Lee, Peter Bahng, Angela Lee, Julia Choi, Sein Ryu, Jeremia Velazquez – violin
Danielle Farina, Michael Roth, Robert Meyer, Alexis Sykes, Will Frampton, Torron Pfeffer – viola
Brandon Bost – engineer, programming
Cameron Gower-Poole – vocal engineer, vocal producer
Alex Venguer – additional recording
Serban Ghenea – mixing
Bryce Bordone – mixing assistant
Kostas Michaloudis – assistant engineer