The 7 Best ‘Barbie’ Music Moments

From terrific performances from leads Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling to a glitzy star-studded soundtrack, Barbie has taken over the world. One-half of the global phenomenon Barbenheimer (the double-feature of Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer), Barbie has already cruised to a worldwide box office gross of over $800 million in under a month.

The film’s Mark Ronson-produced soundtrack features a combination of pop music's biggest stars, most promising names, and a few of the genre’s cockroaches — you know, the artists that are always around but never actually provide anything memorable or of substance. The album, which recently debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, includes contributions from Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice, Lizzo, Dua Lipa, Tame Impala, HAIM, Ava Max, GAYLE, Khalid, The Kid LAROI, Charli XCX, and Ryan Gosling.

Prior to the release of the film, several Barbie tracks served as pre-release singles, including Karol G’s “Watati” and PinkPantheress’ “Angel.” The three most commercially dominant singles from Barbie so far — Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice & AQUA’s “Barbie World,” and Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” — are, in a way, musical representations of the breadth of Barbies that comprise the film’s cast. “Dance the Night” is Nu-Disco Barbie, “Barbie World” is Meta Pop-Drill Barbie, and “What Was I Made For?” is Slightly Depressed But Mostly Self-Reflective Ballad Barbie. It makes sense. You know it does.

In anticipation of the big Barbillion benchmark, here is a brief ranking of the best music moments in Barbie — including the ones that aren’t on the soundtrack.

7. “Barbie World” (Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice & AQUA)

Technically, you could make a Barbie movie without AQUA and Nicki Minaj, but it wouldn’t be valid. Thankfully, the powers that be (Greta Gerwig and Mark Ronson, we love you!) knew what was up. Enter “Barbie World”: the second collaboration between Minaj and Ice Spice, in which they flip a sample of AQUA’s seminal “Barbie Girl” over a Jersey-inflected RiotUSA-produced drill beat. Serving as the film’s end credits song, “Barbie World” is the perfect song for Barbie’s proper entry into the real world. Steadfast in their knowledge of their self-worth and dripping with peerless levels of self-confidence and bad bitch energy, Nicki and Ice’s bite-sized verses — plus that incredibly sticky hook — make for a moment of triumph. It’s a simultaneous full-circle moment for one of the most influential artists of the 21st century and a testament to how far New York can take drill.

6. “Push” (Matchbox Twenty)

That beach scene is hilarious because of the way it expertly portrays the overbearing approach so many straight guys take when it comes to courting women — an approach that routinely devolves into subliminal competition amongst the guys themselves. What better song to set this scene to than Matchbox Twenty’s “Push,” a song about a woman whose abuse in a previous relationship causes her to treat her partner in a new relationship in an emotionally abusive way? It’s perfect because it’s the right mix of white guy rock that normally grounds these endeavors and it plays on the dynamic of Barbie not giving anything more than a surface-level shit about Ken.

5. “Pink” (Lizzo)

Before the entire world’s perception of Lizzo flipped overnight thanks to that shocking lawsuit from three of her former backup dancers, “Pink” hit. “Pink” still hits, it just feels a little less believable now. Luckily, it’s a song that literally soundtracks the fictional day in the life of Stereotypical Barbie, so we’ll live. Lizzo’s comedic tone truly carries the song; she embodies the whimsy of Barbie Land at the innate silliness of watching Margot Robbie shower without water and float through different levels of her Dream House. It’s a song that truly feels like the national anthem of Barbie Land.

4. “Dance the Night” (Dua Lipa)

“Dance the Night” was underwhelming when it first arrived as the lead single for the Barbie soundtrack. It’s a tepid nu-disco track that would probably rank around the middle-bottom of Future Nostalgia, but its placement in the film’s blowout dance party scene makes it one hell of a banger. In the scene, the cheeky choreography, Dua’s flirtatious tone, and the rivalry between Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu’s Kens all work together to create an unlikely Bollywood-esque dance number for the ages. Okay, maybe not the ages, but it certainly is a damn good time. Because “Dance the Night” is so in on its own gimmicky-ness, it truly works best inside the film. The song sounds just plasticky enough to be a fake song specifically created for a doll’s disco jam (complimentary).

3. “Speed Drive” (Charli XCX)

Probably thee sometimes-mainstream-sometimes-indie-always-in-the-conversation pop maestro of the 2010s and early 2020s, Charli XCX is always good for a bop. To soundtrack Barbie’s high-speed race through Mattel headquarters and away from a premature return to Barbie Land, Charlie flips Toni Basil’s “Micky” into an ode to Barbie being the best girl in the whole world. The hyperpop foundation epitomizes the urgency of the scene and Charli’s somewhat deadpan chants really capture the whole living doll vibe.

2. “I’m Just Ken” (Ryan Gosling)

Well, what else is there to say? “I’m Just Ken” is the only proper movie musical moment in a film that probably would have been even better as an actual movie musical. We’ve heard Ryan Gosling sing before, most notably in his Oscar-nominated performance in La La Land, but he’s really going for it here — not in a romcom vibe, but in a fully immersive almost-meta vibe. He truly is just Ken. His ham-fisted vocal effortlessly conveys the emptiness of Ken’s sense of self. Of course, a massive ‘80s power ballad is Ken’s big solo moment — those are songs that are consciously gunning for the most grandiose arrangements ever while conveying relatively simple messages. He’s just Ken, and that is more than Kenough.

1. “What Was I Made For?” (Billie Eilish)

Here she is! Slightly Depressed But Mostly Self-Reflective Ballad Barbie has entered the building! From Roma’s “When I Was Older” to No Time to Die’s titular Academy Award-winning song, Billie Eilish has been making great original songs for films for almost as long as she’s been a fixture in pop’s mainstream. In this devastating ballad for Barbie, Billie takes on Barbie’s existential anxieties and places them in the context of a human trying to figure out themselves and their purpose as time seemingly speeds up around them. When the song plays in the film — both the score version and Billie’s version — it’s an instant tearjerker. It’s as if no other combination of song, singer, actress, and film director could have achieved this particular result. At once tender and heartfelt, but also completely and utterly overwhelming, “What Was I Made For?” is an easy contender for both next year’s Best Original Song Oscar and this year’s best musical moment in a film.