"I'm Just Ken" is a song performed by Canadian actor Ryan Gosling for the 2023 film Barbie. It was written and produced by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt and appears on the soundtrack album Barbie the Album. After Gosling recorded his vocals, Ronson sent the track to Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash, who found it "cool" and agreed to play guitar on the song. Guitarist Wolfgang Van Halen and Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese also played on the track.
It won Best Song at the 29th Critics' Choice Awards and was nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards and Best Original Song at the 96th Academy Awards.
Gosling performed the song live at the 96th Academy Awards on March 10, 2024. The performance paid homage to the "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" sequence from the 1953 film adaptation of the stage musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes starring Marilyn Monroe. Gosling was joined by Ronson on bass, Wyatt on piano, and Wolfgang Van Halen and Slash on guitar, as well as his Barbie co-stars Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Scott Evans. The performance was choreographed by Mandy Moore, who also choreographed Gosling in La La Land.
70,7% felt the kenergy!
Previous Ryan Gosling polls: #15 "Put Me in the Car"
Ronan being senselessly turned on by Adam on a motorcycle in Call Down The Hawk, eliminated for not technically being a car but still impressive
Jordan stealing Declan’s car and in doing so feeling closer to Hennessy while also closer to Declan.
Adam teaching Gansey about fixing cars.
The picture in Adam’s glove rendezvous has a the man (who looks like Greenmantle, which is to say like a combination of Ronan and Gansey, which is to say he looks like Declan but I digress) standing next to a German made car.
I could have sworn in addition to the Gansey comparing Adam to the Pig scene there was a scene where Ronan did as well but I looked up every time the word “Camaro” is mentioned in the Dream Thieves + The Raven King (only books with Ronan pov chapters) and did not find this so I wonder if I made it up, or saw someone else misremember and then adopted it in my memory. Someone enlighten me if not.
There are certainly others but I either couldn’t remember them or couldn’t find text evidence to confirm they were real. Of course, you might say that some of these were likely more intentional from a doylist pov than others, however the text is the text and motifs are motifs. I am simply an academic presenting my findings to you all.
Also the Latin line is said twice once when the Camaro breaks down Ronan says it jokingly to Gansey in the scene where he also puts a leg over Adam’s, then Adam remembers it after a breakdown in TDT as applying to how he’s a “trainwreck” right before finding himself in Ronan’s dream. Feel the others are self explanatory enough but thought this one merited explanation if you haven’t reread recently.
Question to straight, gay, and lesbian folks.
Before you are fanfics/movies/books that depict a romance between:
1) a man and a man (mlm);
2) a woman and a woman (wlw);
3) a woman and a man (f/m).
You gotta pick one of them, but you're not allowed to go for the one that is congruent with your sexuality (e.g., if you're a lesbian, the wlw one is off the table).