In the Pink: Super-Producer Mark Ronson on Making the Music for ‘Barbie,’ and How Dua Lipa’s Song Changed to Fit the Film
variety.comJem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Whether it’s a soundtrack, a score or a song placement, there are countless wrong ways to do music for film and so few ways to make it feel right.
There’s very little leeway, which is why it can be so challenging for even the most successful hitmakers to make the transition to film music — especially with a major film event like “Barbie.” To say that the music for the summer blockbuster has been a success is a vast understatement: Not only is the film’s companion album Variety’s Hitmakers Soundtrack of the Year, the music from the film scored a whopping 11 Grammy nominations across seven categories — including song and record of the year — and four of the five entries nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media.
Billie Eilish’s ballad “What Was I Made For” is up against Dua Lipa’s disco anthem “Dance the Night,” Ryan Gosling’s hilarious “I’m Just Ken” and Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice’s Aqua-sampling “Barbie World.” (“Lift Me Up,” Rihanna’s song from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” is the outlier in the category).
With albums and songs by Amy Winehouse, Adele, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars and many others under his belt, seven-time Grammy-winning producer Mark Ronson is one of the most successful pop songwriter-producers working today, yet his work on the soundtrack to Greta Gerwig’s summer blockbuster “Barbie” film — for which he co-wrote and co-produced five songs, cowrote the score with longtime collaborator Andrew Wyatt, and served as an executive music producer — was a new experience. “I can play a track for an artist and it’s a banger, right?,” he says. “With movies, it’s completely different.
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