Ryan Gosling's I'm Just Ken Show At The 2024 Oscars Revealed Barbie's Secret Ken
Most people probably don't know that one of rock music's most famous musicians was involved in Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" movie — but he made an appearance during the Oscars telecast and probably surprised a lot of viewers.
Ryan Gosling performing "I'm Just Ken" at the #Oscars
See the full winners list: https://t.co/IctYZ9WO3B pic.twitter.com/RwfAqUnC04
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) March 11, 2024
During Ryan Gosling's electric, highly anticipated live performance of the original song "I'm Just Ken," Slash showed up just before the song ended and played a guitar solo alongside songwriter Mark Ronson (on bass) and Gosling as the lead vocalist. A lot of viewers might have been relatively shocked to see Gosling and Slash buddying up on stage, but as it turns out, the latter was a huge part of the "Barbie" soundtrack all along.
As he told Collider in July 2023, Ronson asked him to participate in the "Barbie" soundtrack, and Slash told him to send over the project and he'd go from there. "I love Mark. He's a great guy. He's a super talented producer and great songwriter [...] So, he sent me a demo, and I was like, 'It's a song about Ken,' which is just funny, in itself. I was like, 'Okay, yeah, I can do something with this.' It was a session where Mark just had a basic skeleton recorded. He was sending me stuff, and I was in the studio, so I did it and sent it back."
Ryan Gosling's Oscar performance really stole the show
The Slash appearance was absolutely a pleasant surprise, but there's also no denying that the Oscars performance of "I'm Just Ken" blew the roof off of the Dolby Theatre. As the final original song nominee to take the stage, the number kicked off with Ryan Gosling (as Ken) rising up from the audience itself clad in a hot-pink Kensemble, making co-star Margot Robbie laugh before taking to the stage and dancing alongside besuited Kens there to support him. Before long, Gosling was joined by fellow "Barbie" Kens Scott Evans, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Simu Liu, who danced behind him as he crooned the ballad to an adoring audience.
The song ended up losing the Oscar for best original song to its "Barbie" cohort "What Was I Made For" by Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas O'Connell, but the performance that went down during the ceremony will almost certainly go down in history as a major Academy Awards highlight, thanks to Gosling's committed vocal stylings and the sheer number of Kens onstage. Slash's presence definitely helped; who would have thought that the Guns 'n Roses guitarist also identified as a Ken?
For any reader who believes they're Kenough, be sure to read how Ryan Gosling's "I'm Just Ken" made it into "Barbie" and how Greta Gerwig had to fight to keep a classic Ken scene.