‘Barbie’ soundtrack makes history on UK singles chart

30 July, 2023

Barbie dancing

The Barbie soundtrack has made history on the UK singles charts with the most amount of songs ever in a Top Five.

The soundtrack was released concurrently with Greta Gerwig‘s hit movie last week (July 21) and has since taken the charts by storm. The Mark Ronson-produced album features artists including Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, Charli XCX, Sam Smith, Billie Eilish, Haim, PinkPantheress, Karol G and FIFTY FIFTY.

After its first week in the chart, the album is now the first to have three songs all feature in the Top Five, as well as breaking the record for most songs (six) in the Top 40.

Speaking to the BBC, Barbie music supervisor George Drakoulias said: “Nobody said no. Everybody was really excited. It was a perfect symbiotic relationship of the music driving the movie and the movie driving the music.
“Once you saw the movie and how well the music works, as soon as they left the theatre people went out and got the album.”

Elsewhere, Greta Gerwig listened to Dua Lipa‘s Barbie song ‘Dance The Night’ “100 times” in one morning, according to Mark Ronson.

Speaking to NME in a new feature, Ronson said he was desperate to work on the soundtrack.

“The minute I knew Greta was directing the film, that she was writing it with her partner Noah [Baumbach], and that it was Barbie… I signed up. I mean, I did read the script. And the script was incredible. But honestly, if it had been bad I still would have said yes,” he said.

Barbie arrived in cinemas on July 21 and stars Margot Robbie, Gosling, Liu, Kate McKinnon, Michael Cera, Dua Lipa, Will Ferrell, America Ferrera, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, Sharon Rooney and more.

The film earned a four-star review, with NME‘s Alex Flood writing: “The script contains unexpected subtlety, particularly during the tender moments which pack an emotional punch. Gerwig is clever enough to deliver these with self-awareness and some sarcastic jokes, meaning the balance between reality and commercial is never lost. For a movie that ostensibly exists to promote a doll, this is laudable. Now come on Barbie, let’s go party.”

Lizzo also dropped an alternative version of her soundtrack contribution ‘Pink’ this week. The original version opened the movie but a darker version of the song entitled ‘Bad Day’ featured during a scene when Robbie’s character is having an existential crisis.

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