Ryan Gosling’s ‘I’m Just Ken’ song from Barbie has been nominated for a Grammy today.
- READ MORE: ‘Barbie’ review: Greta Gerwig’s grown-up toy story is fantastic fun
The nominations for the 67th annual Grammy Awards were shared this afternoon (November 10) with SZA leading the way with nine nominations.
The official Grammys YouTube hosted a livestream for the announcement, with the winners set to be announced at the ceremony on February 4, 2024 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California. See the full list of nominations here.
Among the nominations was Ryan Gosling for his song ‘I’m Just Ken’ that appeared in Greta Gerwig’s hit film Barbie this summer. Gosling is nominated in the ‘Best Song Written for Visual Media’ category.
Three other songs from the Barbie soundtrack were also nominated in the category, including Billie Eilish for ‘What Was I Made For’, Dua Lipa for ‘Dance The Night’, Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice Featuring Aqua for ‘Barbie World’. Rihanna is also included for ‘Lift Me Up’ which appeared in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Back in October, Gerwig revealed she had to fight to keep the ‘I’m Just Ken’ dance sequence in Barbie.
During a Screen Talk conversation at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday (October 8), Gerwig said she was asked whether the sequence led by Ryan Gosling’s Ken was necessary during a “big meeting”.
2/2: Congratulations 66th #GRAMMYs Best Song Written For Visual Media nominees: “I’m Just Ken” [From ‘Barbie The Album’] – @ryangosling; “Lift Me Up” – @rihanna; and “What Was I Made For?” [From ‘Barbie The Album’] – @billieeilish. Watch live: https://t.co/zovEzgeZPG
— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) November 10, 2023
“It just said in the script, ‘And then it becomes a dream ballet and they work it out through dance,’” Gerwig told Succession creator Jesse Armstrong at the event (via Variety). “There was a big meeting that was like, ‘Do you need this?’ And I was like, ‘Everything in me needs this.’
“They were like, ‘What do you even mean? What is a dream ballet?’ And I was like, ‘A dream ballet? Where do I begin!’”
Gerwig said the sequence, which is soundtracked by the song ‘I’m Just Ken’ written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, was inspired by 1952’s Singin’ In The Rain which featured a “dream ballet inside of a dream ballet”.
“I was like, if people could follow that in Singin’ In The Rain, I think we’ll be fine,” Gerwig said. “I think people will know what this is. So that was the big reference point. Even though everything felt right to me and was giving me so much joy in the way we were doing it, it was also like, ‘Oh no, this could be just terrible, but now I’m committed.’”
Barbie has become the highest-grossing movie of the year worldwide so far, and the highest-grossing film ever by a female director.