Barbie’s ‘I’m Just Ken’ helps young boys to express their emotions, says songwriter

THE songwriter behind I’m Just Ken from Barbie claims the song has helped young boys to express their emotions.

Mark Ronson said the power ballad, which is performed by Ryan Gosling as Ken in the toy-based blockbuster, enables boys to understand that “it’s OK to be runner-up”.

The film, in which a patriarchal society blossoms in Barbie Land, features Ken singing about his frustration at not being equal to the Barbies.

Ronson, 48, who co-wrote and produced the song with Andrew Wyatt, told The Sunday Times: “I know I’ll sound like David Brent, but the song helped young boys. My friend’s eightyear-old got broken up with and he said, ‘it’s OK, because Ken got broken up with by Barbie.’ The song tells boys that it’s OK to be runner-up. The internet’s caused a level of isolation in boys and this idea of male camaraderie and sharing your feelings is a nice and unexpected thing to come out of it.”

Barbie, which is directed by Greta Gerwig and also stars Margot Robbie, made over £1 billion globally after it was released last summer and has received nine Oscar nominations.

Ronson and Wyatt, 52, have been nominated for Best Original Song and Gosling was expected to perform I’m Just Ken at the ceremony last night.

London-born Ronson, who now lives in Los Angeles, has previously said he was inspired to write the ballad after reading the Barbie script and sympathising with Ken’s character. “Ken is ridiculous,” he said. “But Greta’s point was that nobody should ever be laughing at a character. We feel their pain – as crazy as that sounds about a guy wearing a white mink and two pairs of sunglasses. I never wanted to write a song for a cheap laugh. You want something to get under people’s skin.”

Despite the song’s success – it has been streamed millions of times and broke into the UK top 40 – Ronson said it almost failed to make the cut.

“At that first screening the song wasn’t working,” he said. “I panicked. The humour wasn’t translating and Greta had to fight. The studio asked her how much she really needed it and she said, ‘with every inch of my body’. And then there was a big swing.”