It’s Not Plastic, But It Is Fantastic! The Star-Studded Soundtrack of ‘Barbie’ Features Three Asian Artists

Movies, Screen by Emily Chung
Five Kens (Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa and Scott Evans) dance with Barbie (Margot Robbie) in a glittery pink dreamhouse.
Kingsley Ben-Adir as Ken, Ryan Gosling as Ken, Margot Robbie as Barbie, Simu Liu as Ken, Ncuti Gatawa as Ken and Scott Evans as Ken in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “BARBIE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. (Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)

It’s Barbie’s world, and we’re all living in it.

This morning, the official trailer for Greta Gerwig’s highly-anticipated “Barbie” finally, finally dropped – alongside the announcement of the film’s star-studded soundtrack. With seventeen top artists currently slated in the lineup, “Barbie The Album” is creating even more buzz for what is looking to be the movie of the summer. 

Three API artists found their sound within the tracklist, from K-pop girl group FIFTY FIFTY to alternative hip hop singer Dominic Fike and electropop princess Charli XCX. Other big names include Lizzo, Ice Spice, Nicki Minaj and the film’s own Ryan Gosling – the Ken to Margot Robbie’s Barbie. And according to the soundtrack’s promotional poster, there are still “more Barbies & Kens to be announced.” 

Gerwig, Oscar-nominated writer-director of “Lady Bird” and “Little Women,” co-wrote “Barbie” with her longtime partner Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story”). Based on the trailer, the film seemingly follows Robbie’s Barbie – one of many perfect dolls in the cotton candy-colored Barbieland – as she breaks through the walls to explore the real world. With newly flat feet and a hint of existential dread (“Do you guys ever think about dying?” she asks with a wide-faced grin), she and Gosling’s Ken must battle the horrors of the outside world – and the evil Mattel CEO (Will Ferrell) who’s desperate to get them “back in a box.” 

The film features several Asian faces, including Ritu Arya (“Polite Society”) and Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”). Both play other iterations of Barbie and Ken, alongside Emma Mackey (“Sex Education”), Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”), Issa Rae (“Insecure”), Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”) and more. 

Both the film and the soundtrack will grace audiences on July 21. So, grab some popcorn, crank the volume and get ready to enter the pretty pink world of Barbie (it’s fantastic!).

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