With the air already being filled with Christmas spirit and carols, 'Barbie' actor Ryan Gosling and 'Barbie: The Album' producer Mark Ronson have released 'Ken The EP,' which features three new versions of the classic: a holiday version ('Merry Kristmas Barbie'), an acoustic version ('In My Feelings Acoustic') and a dance version ('Purple Disco Machine Cover'), and of course, the original song too.
'I'm Just Ken (Merry Kristmas Barbie)' also has its own music video, where Gosling, producer Andrew Wyatt and Ronson are working on the holiday version, surrounded by Christmas lights while sporting Santa hats. They are accompanied by a wonderful live band, engaging in small banter with each other while Gosling humorously puts on sunglasses to fully get into character and become Ken. He's heard telling Ronson that he's only adopting this look because "the world can have Ken's voice but only Barbie can have his eyes.”
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Back in July, Ronson, the executive producer for 'Barbie: The Album' told the Associated Press that he usually focuses only on producing music for movies. However, it was different with 'I'm Just Ken.' He was not able to let go of a few lyrics, notably the catchy chorus that says, "I’m just Ken, anywhere else I’d be a 10," which eventually made it into the final version of the song.
In accepting the award at the Variety's Annual Hitmakers earlier this month, Ronson said, “There’s no way to follow that!” He noted “I was so in love with Greta Gerwig and her vision that if she told me to put fly posters that said Barbie up and down the West Side Highway, I probably would have done that as well at that point … It was a joy to sit with all these artists and watch them as they watched clips of the film for the first time. And I would see their eyes literally widen as they were being sucked into Greta’s heartfelt technicolor brilliant vision,” Ronson said.
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In the 2024 Golden Globe Awards nominations, 'Barbie' dominated with an impressive 10 nods, marking it as the second most-nominated film in the award show's 81-year history. Gosling secured a nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category, while 'I’m Just Ken' received a nomination for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture. Additionally, the song has also been nominated for the Best Song Written for Visual Media category at the 2024 Grammy Awards.
