Ryan Gosling makes it to Billboard Hot 100 with I’m Just Ken from the Barbie movie
LOS ANGELES – After lamenting about being “always number two” in the song I’m Just Ken, the emotional tune by Canadian actor Ryan Gosling has cracked the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at No. 87.
Penned by British music producer Mark Ronson, the 1980s-inspired ballad is taken from the hit blockbuster Barbie, with Australian actress Margot Robbie as the famous doll. A line in the song about Barbie’s boyfriend goes: “Is it my destiny to live and die a life of blonde fragility?”
Ronson, 47, told Vanity Fair magazine he connected with Ken immediately after reading the Barbie script. “You really fall in love with this hapless, but immediately sympathetic, figure. I instantly had this idea for this lyric: ‘I’m just Ken/Anywhere else I’d be a 10.’”
When Gosling heard the demo version of I’m Just Ken, he asked to perform it in the film, Ronson added.
The seven-time Grammy winner said of the actor’s performance: “He was really amazing, and when he really did start hitting the big notes, I was like, this dude is a vocal powerhouse.”
This is not the first time Gosling has impressed with his singing. The 42-year-old actor showed off his singing and dancing skills in 2016’s La La Land. His solo version of City Of Stars from the Oscar-winning film spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Jazz Digital Song Sales chart.
Director Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is this summer’s breakout hit, having grossed more than US$800 million (S$1.08 billion) worldwide.
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