Dua Lipa will make her film-acting debut in Greta Gerwig’s forthcoming live-action Barbie movie, but first, she contributed to the film in the best way she knows how: Providing the movie’s reported theme song, “Dance The Night,” a shimmering pop hit primed to dominate airwaves all summer.
“Dance The Night” arrived alongside a predictably dance-heavy video last week. Upon its arrival, Mark Ronson shared that the song originated in his Instagram DMs.
“It started with a DM (swipe)… So over the moon excited that our song from this incredible movie is finally out today,” Ronson captioned an Instagram post. “Produced with my brothers in song, @wyattish and @picardbrothers and written with @carolineailin [pink heart emoji] @barbiethemovie.”
Instagram users who follow Ronson’s direction to swipe are met with a screenshot of a message Ronson sent Lipa on March 31, 2022, which can be read in full below:
“Hey! I’m doing the songs for the bArbie [sic] movie with Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken. It’s [directed] by Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird) and it’s maybe the funniest script I’ve ever read, like [redacted] funny… there’s a song with a huge 60 person dance number with the whole cast – I only have the track so far, as they started rehearsals, but I would f*cking love if you would consider co-writing and starring on it. I honestly think the movies going to be incredible [redacted].
If you’re interested, I’ll send u a little vid of them all rehearsing so yyou can see the scope of it all x the songs not coming til late 2023.”
Last Thursday, May 25, the entire Barbie soundtrack was exclusively revealed by Rolling Stone. Ronson is the soundtrack’s executive producer, and it’s as stacked as the movie’s cast with Lipa, Ava Max, Charli XCX, Dominic Fike, Fifty Fifty, Gayle, Haim, Ice Spice, Kali, Karol G, Khalid, Lizzo, Nicki Minaj, PinkPantheress, Ryan Gosling, Tame Impala, and The Kid Laroi.
Lipa recently discussed her role in Barbie with Dazed and shared that she was drawn to the blockbuster because Gerwig’s “films never really feel like the male gaze.” The three-time Grammy winner added, “Barbie, the doll, has this idea of what perfection should be. The film — and there’s a lot of diversity in the cast — is touching exactly on the buttons that maybe it presses, and shows a different story.” (If you were wondering, Lipa had Barbie dolls as a child, but she didn’t play with them in a conventional manner.)
The main Barbie trailer also released on May 25. Watch it below, and watch Lipa’s “Dance The Night” video above.
Barbie is due out in theaters 7/21.
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