Song of the Week delves into the fresh songs we just can’t get out of our heads. Find these tracks and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist, and for our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Dua Lipa manages to get us all even more excited for the upcoming Barbie film with the summery, shimmering “Dance the Night.”
Folks, a legitimate contender for song of the summer has finally arrived. Dua Lipa, who is set to appear in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming cultural reset film Barbie, got in the studio and worked, assembling a pitch-perfect mixture of synth-pop and disco with “Dance the Night.” This shimmering sonic space is where the pop star shines brightest: Similarly structured tracks on Lipa’s Future Nostalgia successfully worked its way into our playlists and hearts back in 2020, and this latest drop shows that this particular sparkle isn’t fading any time soon.
The song kicks off with dramatic strings before a beat drops that all but demands choreography; thankfully, a playful, sleek routine is delivered during the chorus in accompanying music video, interspersed with clips from a dance number promised in the film. “Dance the Night” is the first look into the very star-studded soundtrack for Gerwig’s Barbie, which also boasts tracks from Charli XCX, Lizzo, HAIM, and our Ken, Ryan Gosling himself. (“City of Stars” prepared him for this and this alone!)
While plot details for Barbie remain relatively slim, we do know that Greta Gerwig has a strong voice as a writer and clear perspective as a director, and a recent interview with Vogue provided a glimpse into the headspace she was in when penning the script around the iconic Mattell doll: Gerwig references the creation story of Genesis, feminist theory, and grappling with mortality. She’s not here to play around, and neither was Dua Lipa when working on this track. Plus, the pink, disco-toned music video features a cameo from Gerwig herself.
There’s so much joy to be found in girlhood and growing up, and while it’s not all always sunshine and rainbows (as Margot Robbie’s Barbie seems to be realizing in the film), femininity and friendship are always worth celebrating. So as for this Barbie? I’ll be keeping “Dance the Night” on repeat until I can walk into the theater on July 21st to experience the film in full.
— Mary Siroky
Associate Editor