As much as the big award announcements, the Oscars promise excitement for the fun, thrilling, sometimes very unexpected collaborations throughout the ceremony, and 2024 was no different. As one half of the cultural Barbenheimer phenomenon, Barbie generated a lot of buzz last summer, and none other than Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen teamed up with Barbie‘s Ken, Ryan Gosling, to sing one of the film’s most lauded songs.
The track in question is “I’m Just Ken,” which just won Best Song the 29th Critics’ Choice Awards. It also received nominations at the Grammy Awards and the Academy Awards. On Sunday, Gosling, just like in the film, personally performed the tribute to ’80s power ballads, joined this time by two icons of the hard rock and heavy metal scene, all to great effect.
Ryan Gosling teams up with Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen to sing “I’m Just Ken” from ‘Barbie’
I’m Just Ken was nominated for Best Original Song at the 2024 Oscars. Ultimately, it lost to its sibling, What Was I Made For?” also from Barbie, performed by Billie Eilish & Finneas O’Connell. But Ken still got his time to shine outside Barbieland, with Gosling, Slash, and Van Halen giving a memorable rendition of the track.
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Barbie received nine nominations total and ended up losing multiple times to Oppenheimer. But the film managed to win the night anyway with this powerful collaboration, which is actually a reunion since both artists were part of recording the song way before this.
A lot of creativity came together for this performance
A meeting of the minds, “I’m Just Ken” was written and produced by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt. Ronson has eight Grammy wins to his name, and Wyatt has worked with several celebrated artists, including Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, and Lorde; Ronson and Wyatt both worked with Lady Gaga on “Shallow” from A Star is Born and won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Once Gosling recorded the vocals, Ronson then reached out to Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash for some instrumentation. Slash deemed it “cool” and agreed to play guitar, with Wolfgang Van Halen also contributing on the guitar. The track also features Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese.
Then Gosling’s performance on Sunday further referenced some iconic moments in Oscars history. Everything from the casting to the outfits acted as a reference to the 1953 film, Gentleman Prefer Blondes, specifically Marilyn Monroe singing “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend.” In the film, Monroe wore a vibrant pink dress and was flanked by men in sharp suits and striped red and white ties. On Sunday, there was Gosling, joined by Ken and Ken and Ken – all his Ken brethren, dressed in suits with striped ties.
What was your favorite moment from the 2024 Oscars?
