Ryan Gosling’s Barbie ballad “I’m Just Ken” was one of the surprise hits of the year, and now it’s been reworked for the holidays. Stream it below.
Gosling has teamed up with Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt for Ken the EP, which contains three new versions of the hit single. Most notably is the holiday-themed “I’m Just Ken (Merry Kristmas Barbie),” which comes with a video featuring footage of Gosling, Ronson, Wyatt performing the song in a studio with an orchestra.
Ken the EP also features “I’m Just Ken (In My Feelings Acoustic)” and Purple Disco Machine’s remix of the song. It’s out today, December 20th.
The original version of “I’m Just Ken” features contributions from rock royalty like Slash, Wolfgang Van Halen, and Josh Freese. It peaked at No. 87 on the Billboard Hot 100, while also reaching No. 5 on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. It’s also nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 2024 Grammys.
Consequence recently sat down for an interview with Ronson and Wyatt about making the score for Barbie, in which they revealed Slash was an “11th hour” addition to “I’m Just Ken.” Be sure to also check out all of Gosling’s most endearing quotes about playing Ken, and see where Barbie landed on our list of the best films of 2023.
Barbie recently arrived on Max with a hot pink homepage, Barbie avatars, behind-the-scenes content, and an American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation.