I’m Just Ken, the power ballad performed by Ryan Gosling in Barbie, has already found its place on the Billboard Hot 100 And a parody of SNL – and now he has a Grammy nomination.
Nominations for the 66th Grammy Awards were announced Friday, including I’m Just Ken for Best Song Written for Visual Media. In fact, Barbie almost dominated this category, with Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice featuring Aqua’s Barbie World, Dua Lipa’s Dance the Night and What Was I Made For? also scoring nominations. The only non-Barbie nominee in the category is Rihanna’s Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
2/2: Congratulations 66th #GRAMMY Best Song Written for Visual Media Nominees: “I’m Just Ken” (from “Barbie The Album”) – @Ryan Gosling; “Lift me up” – @Rihanna; and “What was I made for?” (Excerpt from “Barbie the Album”) – @billieeilish. Watch live: https://t.co/zovEzgeZPG
– Recording Academy / GRAMMY (@RecordingAcad) November 10, 2023
It’s worth noting, however, that this doesn’t mean Gosling landed his first Grammy nomination. Since I’m Just Ken is nominated for songwriting, writers Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt are the actual nominees.
Barbie Domination
Overall, Barbie had a very strong showing in this morning’s Grammy nominations, also earning nominations for Best Original Score alongside Oppenheimer, The Fabelmans, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. In particular, why was I made? alone, earned five nominations, including song and record of the year.
Basically, if this is an Oscars preview, maybe we should expect the Academy to show Barbie some love.
On the gaming side, the scores for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Sarah Schachner), God of War Ragnarok (Bear McCreary), Hogwarts Legacy (Peter Murray, J Scott Rakozy & Chuck E. Myers “Sea”), Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab) and Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Jess Serro, Tripod and Austin Wintory) were nominated.
A snub that I must point out, however: nothing for another successful ballad, Jack Black’s Peaches from the Super Mario Bros. film. Fingers crossed for the Oscars.
You can see the full list of Grammy nominations here.
Alex Stedman is a senior news editor at IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she’s not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.