Ryan Gosling's 'Barbie' Power Ballad About Being "Just Ken" Has ...

11 Jul 2023
Ryan Gosling
Ryan Gosling Sings A Power Ballad In 'Barbie' And He's So Our Ken

Adding to our Spotify playlist ASAP.

Jul 11, 2023 1:07am

If you didn't think you could be any more excited for the upcoming Barbie movie, we're about to prove you wrong.

A new preview of Greta Gerwig's film shows Ken (aka Ryan Gosling) singing a power ballad about being "just Ken."

Ryan Gosling sings "I'm Just Ken" in Barbie. Warner Bros.

The dramatic clip sees Gosling shirtless and emotion while he sings about coming in second place to Barbie and ultimately wondering who he is without her.

The song, titled "I'm Just Ken" is the latest song to be released from the official Barbie soundtrack, which also includes songs from Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish.

Ken's ballad doesn't only see Gosling sing his heart out but also includes a feature from Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash. The Barbie soundtrack producer, Mark Ronson, told Variety that the famous guitarist agreed to play on the track after hearing it and finding it cool.

"[Ryan Gosling is] a huge star of this movie and only has three hours on a Tuesday afternoon to cut the vocals. He just went in and as he started to get warmed up I was like, 'This guy is going to murder this song!' Of course he would," Ronson told the publication.

"I'm so psyched. We worked on it for about a year after he did the vocals. After I sent him the final version, with Slash on it, he was psyched and satisfied, which is what you want to do when you're making a sound for someone."

Ryan Gosling as Ken in Barbie. Warner Bros.

While the first Barbie reviews have high praise for Gosling's Ken performance, the actor faced some backlash for his age of 42, which some fans believed was too old to play the doll.

Gosling however, was quick to defend his character, telling GQ, "I would say, you know, if people don't want to play with my Ken, there are many other Kens to play with."

"It is funny, this kind of clutching-your-pearls idea of, like, #notmyken. Like you ever thought about Ken before this?…suddenly, it's like, 'No, we've cared about Ken this whole time.' No, you didn't. You never did. You never cared. Barbie never fucked with Ken. That's the point. If you ever really cared about Ken, you would know that nobody cared about Ken. So your hypocrisy is exposed. This is why his story must be told."

For us, there's no argument about Gosling being 'our Ken'.

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