Target’s Barbie: The Album Features A Fun Detail You Can’t Get Anywhere Else
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It’s one of the most hotly anticipated films in recent memory and there’s no better way to mark the release of Barbie than with this Barbie movie soundtrack Target exclusive.
Hear from Fifty Fifty, Charli XCX, Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, PinkPantheress, Karol G, Dua Lipa, Lizzo, Ava Max, Dominic Fike, Khalid, The Kid LAROI, Tame Impala, HAIM and GAYLE—that won’t get you excited for the blockbuster of the summer featuring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, then maybe the plethora of pink and merch that’s tied around the movie release will.
The 2023 film has been in the works since before December 2016 when comedian Amy Schumer was originally attached to star as Barbie. She later reportedly backed out due to creative differences, per The Hollywood Reporter. Then, in 2019, Robbie was confirmed to be taking on the lead role of Barbie. “It comes with a lot of baggage,” Robbie told Variety in July 2023 of playing the iconic doll. “And a lot of nostalgic connections. But with that comes a lot of exciting ways to attack it. People generally hear Barbie and think, ‘I know what that movie is going to be,’ and then they hear that Greta Gerwig is writing and directing it, and they’re like, ‘Oh, well, maybe I don’t.’”
Gosling, meanwhile, got real about playing Ken at CinemaCon 2023 in April. “I have to be honest: I only knew Ken from afar before now. I didn’t know Ken from within. I doubted my Kenergy,” he said. “I didn’t see it, but Margot and Greta conjured this out of me somehow. One day I was bleaching my hair, shaving my legs and wearing bespoke pink outfits, and rollerblading down Venice Beach.”
With regards to the soundtrack, Billie Eilish, who wrote “What I Was Made For” for the film and directed the accompanying music video explained to Apple Music’s Zane Low the process of writing the song. “We truly sat down and Finneas started playing piano, and… those first couple lyrics, “I used to float, now I just fall down,” just came right out…”I used to know, but I’m not sure now what I was made for.”
She continued, “The start of writing this song, the first day of writing, Finneas and I, especially me because it’s from my perspective, we were purely only thinking about Barbie. I did not think about myself once in the writing process.” She then went on to say was so focused on the movie. “I was purely inspired by this movie and this character and the way I thought she would feel, and wrote about that.”
Billie said it was one of the most incredible experiences of her life. “The next week I was playing it in the car all day and playing it for everybody. And I was like, “This is exactly how I feel. And I didn’t even mean to be saying it.” It was truly the trippiest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I was like, oh, I absolutely was writing about myself, but I was thinking about myself from a third person. And I was thinking about myself objectively, which also made me feel really connected to her, me.”
Billie said she was stunned by the first couple of minutes she saw of the film when Gerwig invited her to an advanced screening. “A minute in, Finneas and I looked at each other like … Whoa, this is insane. She’d play a scene and she’d walk in front of us and she’d go, “So, in the next part, what I want it to be is I want it to really feel like this,” and she’d do her Greta Gerwig-ass thing and she’d come up and she’d show us her passion and tell us all,” Billie recalled.
“And she kept getting up and walking all the way down to the front of the theater to tell us about the next part and explain it. And she was just like, “It’s so scary to show anybody this. It’s like my baby.” She wanted to really explain it and give it all of the context that it needed… She was literally like, ‘I don’t care. Please just, if you’re inspired, make something. And if you’re not, that’s fine. It’s fine. It would be my dream.’
In the music video she directed, Billie sits with her pristine blonde hair and reminisces over tiny costumes from her previous music videos. She also made a clothing line (!!!) with pink velour tracksuits for the movie.
Barbie: The Album Candy Flossy Vinyl (Target Exclusive) – $27.99
Barbie The Album tracklist
1. Lizzo – Pink
2. Dua Lipa – Dance The Night
3. Nicki Minaj & Ice Spice – Barbie World (with Aqua)
4. Charli XCX – Speed Drive
5. KAROL G – WATATI (feat. Aldo Ranks)
6. Sam Smith – Man I Am
7. Tame Impala – Journey To The Real World
8. Ryan Gosling – I’m Just Ken
9. Dominic Fike – Hey Blondie
10. HAIM – Home
11. Billie Eilish – What Was I Made For?
12. The Kid LAROI – Forever & Again
13. Khalid – Silver Platter
14. PinkPantheress – Angel
15. GAYLE – butterflies
16. Ava Max – Choose Your Fighter
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