Ryan Gosling Is Now a Grammy Nominee for ‘I’m Just Ken’
He’s just Ken—but at least he’s a Grammy nominee. Ryan Gosling earned a Grammy nomination for his performance of “I’m Just Ken,” his scene-stealing power ballad from Barbie.
The anthem on male fragility is in the running for the Best Song Written For Visual Media award, alongside many other artists who recorded original tracks for the Greta Gerwig film: Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, and Aqua for “Barbie World”; Dua Lipa for “Dance The Night”; and Billie Eilish for “What Was I Made For?” Rihanna is also nominated for “Life Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
It’s an unlikely nod but hardly a surprise for the former Mickey Mouse Club member, especially after the film and song’s pop culture domination earlier this year. “I’m Just Ken” even charted on the Billboard Hot 100 this summer.
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Director Greta Gerwig previously spoke to Rolling Stone about getting Gosling to sing and dance in her billion dollar-grossing film, along with producer Mark Ronson’s vision for the song.
“He has a beautiful voice, and he’s a beautiful dancer,” she said. “We kind of got there organically. I think if I had said, ‘I want you to sing and dance in this movie,’ he would not have necessarily done that for me. But it was kind of that thing of boiling a lobster. I think by the time he was singing and dancing, he didn’t even totally know how we had gotten there. [Laughs] But he’s so fabulous at it. Mark Ronson talked a lot about glam-rock and Meat Loaf and the drama of that kind of song. And then Mark and his songwriting partner Andrew Wyatt wrote ‘I’m Just Ken.’ They didn’t even have all the lyrics. They just had a feeling and the skeleton and the lyric ‘I’m just Ken,’ and it just evolved from there.”
If only there was an award for Gosling’s “Push” cover, too.
The Grammy Awards will take place on Feb. 4, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Erica Gonzales is the Senior Culture Editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage on TV, movies, music, books, and more. She was previously an editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com. There is a 75 percent chance she’s listening to Lorde right now.