Sounds Like ‘Barbie’

When they announced the nominations for the 66^th Grammy Awards, the recording industry’s annual celebration of itself, it was clear that women were clearly in control of the audio: SZA led the lists with nine nominations and Phoebe Bridgers was close behind with seven.

But there was another woman who really dominated the list: Barbie. The movie received 11 Grammy nominations.

And what is notable—showing the encompassing nature of the movie—is the number of categories in which ‘Barbie’ songs received nominations.

There is Record of the Year, Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?”

Song of the Year gets two nods: “What Was I Made For?” and “Dance the Night” performed by Dua Lipa (who also acts in the movie).

“What Was I Made For?” also gives Billie Eilish a nomination for Best Solo Pop Performance.

Not only does Pop performances matter, but a movie doesn’t get to #14 on Box Office Mojo’s list of Worldwide Lifetime Gross, at over $1.4-billion  by simply appealing to a pop demographic: they nominated “Barbie World,” featuring Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice, featuring Aqua, as Best Rap Song.

In a somewhat wordy category, Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, they nominated “Barbie: The Album”, and in an even wordier category, Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (Includes Film and Television), ‘Barbie’ gets the nod for Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt.

The “Barbie” dominance of the Best Song Written for Visual Media category is absolutely remarkable. ongs from the movie take four of the five slots with:

• “Barbie World”
• “Dance the Night”
• “What Was I Made For?”

and

• “I’m Just Ken”

A word about that last one.

While Margot Robbie doesn’t sing in “Barbie,” Ryan Gosling, who undoubtedly sharpened his musical skills when he was a Mouseketeer in the early 1990s, does lend his vocals to “I’m Just Ken.” Gosling’s most notable musical performance was, of course, as jazz pianist Sebastian Wilder in 2016’s La La Land: not only does Gosling sing in the movie, he also plays the piano.

Although La La Land is a musical, it didn’t receive nearly as many Grammy nominations as “Barbie,” which you can consider “musical adjacent.”

La La Land received nominations at the 60^th Grammy Awards for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. Two nominations versus “Barbie’s” 11.

However, La La Land hit 100%, as it won in both categories.

But returning to ‘Barbie’ and Billie Eilish. Not only does Eilish sing “What Was I Made For?,” but she and her brother Finneas wrote it. And that pair is no stranger to movie music: They wrote, and Eilish performs, “No Time to Die,” the theme for the last Daniel Craig Bond movie, which won both a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media and an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Given that Eilish is just 21, odds are excellent that when it comes to movies, we’ll be hearing a lot more from her. And from Barbie.