Why Dua Lipa Felt ‘Really Good’ Writing ‘Dance the Night’ For ‘Barbie’
Barbie dolls have had a shockingly huge impact on pop music. Perhaps the most famous example is Dua Lipa‘s “Dance the Night” from the soundtrack of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Lipa explained what she was trying to accomplish with the song and how she felt making it.
Dua Lipa’s ‘Dance the Night’ is 1 of many songs inspired by Barbie
For a piece of plastic, Barbie is surprisingly musically influential. She inspired Aqua’s classic bubblegum hit “Barbie Girl” and its various derivatives. In addition, Nicki Minaj calls her fans “Barbies” and repeatedly references the doll in her songs and music videos. Avant-garde director Todd Haynes directed Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, a film with no actors other than stop-motion animated Barbie dolls.
Perhaps the doll’s greatest musical moment was Barbie: The Album. The album served as the soundtrack for Gerwig’s Barbie and featured contributions from Minaj, Lizzo, Charli XCX, Sam Smith, Ava Max, and, of course, Lipa.
During a 2023 interview with IndieWire, Lipa discussed “Dance the Night” in relation to her nu-disco album Future Nostalgia. “In my mind, even though I was on the Future Nostalgia tour sonically, I’d already started departing from that idea,” said Lipa. “So when I got asked to do this song, I was like, ‘All right, one more hurrah. Let’s get back into disco mode for a second.’ And it felt really good.”
Dua Lipa discussed her interpretation of ‘Dance the Night’
The “Cold Heart” singer revealed her thought process while creating “Dance the Night.” “In that [scene], it’s Barbie’s best day ever,” she said. “How do we create a song that tells that story, that shows that sign of resilience? Where when Barbie says, ‘Have you guys ever thought about dying?’ and all the other Barbies look to stereotypical Barbie for some kind of reassurance of, ‘What do you mean? What are you talking about?’
She saves face in a way of like, ‘Oh no, I’m just dying to dance,'” Lipa added. “It’s the way that she shows strength even when she’s feeling otherwise. That was the whole premise of ‘Dance the Night’ as a song, of how to paint that picture of that emotion.”
How disco was an influence on the story of ‘Barbie’
Disco inspired Barbie in more ways than one. Mark Ronson, the producer of Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk!,” also produced Barbie: The Album. During a 2023 interview with Time, Ronson revealed that Barbie was partly inspired by a documentary called The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. The film depicts how the Bee Gees fell from grace even though all they wanted to do was make people happy. The documentary inspired the parts of the film that cover the recurring criticisms of Barbie, such as the doll’s impact on young girls.
Barbie is like the Bee Gees in another way: they all had the last laugh. While Barbie has been called problematic ad nauseam, she remains incredibly popular, as evidenced by the success of Gerwig’s film and its soundtrack. On the same token, the Bee Gees were derided due to their oversaturation, but “Stayin’ Alive” remains one of the most beloved songs of the 1970s.
Barbie has an incredible history, and Lipa is now part of that history.
