Ryan Gosling will sing 'I'm Just Ken' live at the Oscars
CBC Music | Posted: February 26, 2024 8:23 PM | Last Updated: February 26
The power ballad is up for best original song
Actor and musician Ryan Gosling, who is up for best supporting actor at the Oscars for his turn as Ken in 2023's Barbie, will perform "I'm Just Ken" at the Academy Awards on March 10.
Variety reported that it has confirmed Gosling will sing the power ballad, which is nominated for best original song. As of publishing time, the Academy had declined to comment, according to the magazine.
"It might be too much of a risk to have me do it," Gosling had previously told Variety of performing the song at the show. "I don't know how that would work. But I'm open to it."
LISTEN | The official audio for 'I'm Just Ken':
In January, Gosling told W Magazine that the Academy hadn't asked him to sing the song. "Well, I haven't been invited. And I wasn't thinking about it until now, and now it's all I'm going to think about," he said.
"Do you get paid to sing at the Oscars? Do you have to drive yourself? What kind of scratch is involved? They pick you up at least, right?"
"I'm Just Ken" was written by Andrew Wyatt and Mark Ronson, who recently opened up to Rolling Stone about Barbie director Greta Gerwig's vision for the song.
"I need the most maximalist thing you've ever written," Ronson said, of what Gerwig asked from him. "That's when we wrote the music for the Kenergy part, but we hadn't written any words."
In December, Ronson and Gosling also teamed up to release Ken the EP. The project contained several versions of "I'm Just Ken," including "I'm Just Ken (Merry Kristmas Barbie)," "I'm Just Ken (In My Feelings Acoustic)" and "I'm Just Ken (Purple Disco Machine Remix)."