Dance the Night

In March or April 2022, Mark Ronson received a text message from music supervisor George Drakoulias that simply stated: "Barbie?" Ronson was initially asked to create two songs for the fantasy comedy film Barbie: a pop song for a big dance sequence that was to be filmed within two weeks and a 1980s-style power ballad inspired by Ken. Observing similarities between Barbie and the ebb and flow of disco's popularity, Ronson watched the 2020 documentary film The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, which depicted Disco Demolition Night in 1979 Chicago, an event that signaled the genre's decline and closely paralleled Barbie's situation according to him. Subsequently, they made a "dream list" of artists they desired to feature on the soundtrack and Ronson produced several other songs for it. Ronson believed "Tastes Like Barbie" sounded like Dua Lipa's second studio album, Future Nostalgia (2020), Lipa, who was busy headlining the Future Nostalgia Tour and planned to distance herself from that disco sound on the follow-up album, accepted as she was a fan of Gerwig's work. Lipa intended to soundtrack a scene where all things go "from good to bad" for Barbie, and she goes from being happy to thinking about death: "I love dance-crying. I knew it had to be fun, but I knew it needed a little element of sadness or a little pang of insufficiency". Initially satisfied with the melodies, chorus and verses, she later felt it could be improved and created new verses. Lipa wanted to synchronise the song to the choreography in its accompanying dance scene in the film—which she watched—approaching the process like writing a film score. Ronson and Lipa abandoned an initial melancholy version of the song and made it more upbeat to suit the scene, which represented a flawless day in Barbie's life. The Picard Brothers assisted Ronson with the string arrangement. In April 2023, it was revealed that Lipa had joined the cast of Barbie as Mermaid Barbie. On 22 May 2023, "Dance the Night" was announced as the lead single from the soundtrack, Barbie the Album (2023), set for release three days later. the song was later included in an official trailer. Warner Music Group sent it for radio airplay in Italy on 26 May, and Atlantic and Warner Records co-promoted the song to contemporary hit radio stations in the United States four days later. Warner also released "Dance the Night" on physical formats like cassette and CD. == Composition and lyrics ==

"Dance the Night" is 2 minutes and 56 seconds long. Wyatt, Ronson, and the Picard Brothers produced the song. Wyatt plays bass and synthesiser; Ronson plays guitar and Rhodes piano; and the Picard Brothers play keyboards and programmed the track with its engineer Brandon Bost. The song also features cello, violin, and viola in its instrumentation, and it was mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach with assistance from Bryce Bordone. disco-pop, and synth-pop song Consequences Mary Siroky described it as "a pitch-perfect mixture of synth-pop and disco", and Time Outs Ella Doyle believed the song to be pop but "reminiscent of disco at points". An up-tempo song, "Dance the Night" begins with violins and theatrical strings, followed by a beat drop. Lipa employs a low yet distinctively feminine voice, which adeptly infuses emotional depth into manufactured-sounding music according to Lucas Martins of Beats Per Minute. Writing for PopMatters, Peter Piatkowski believed its neo-disco pays homage to the classic disco sound of Chic, Ashford & Simpson, and Hal Davis, and the strings and bass resemble the work of Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor. The lyrics of "Dance the Night" relate to the plot of Barbie and are about someone who always appears flawless. In the chorus, Lipa sings that she will keep dominating the party and "dance the night away", without anybody finding out that she is heartbroken. Despite being emotionally on edge, she continues to make herself look good and does not miss a beat while dancing. == Critical reception ==

"Dance the Night" received acclaim according to Peoples Jack Irvin. Siroky picked the track as "Song of the Week" and believed it could contend for the title of "song of the summer". She thought it would continue the trend of Lipa's songs being successful in playlists. The Sydney Morning Heralds Robert Moran and Doyle found it the embodiment of Lipa's signature sound. The sound of "Dance the Night" was overwhelmingly compared to Future Nostalgia by music critics, some of whom viewed this positively while others considered it a disappointment. Rebekah Gonzalez of iHeartRadio described the track as "another disco banger", and Tomás Mier of Rolling Stone thought several songs on the soundtrack bore a similarity to the artists' previous material and that this is what made it succeed. Martins praised the strings and thought the song fitted Barbie perfectly, but he opined that it did not reach the same level as Ronson and Lipa's first collaboration, "Electricity" (2018). Accolades "Dance the Night" was included on critical lists of the best songs of 2023 at number 15 by Billboard and unranked by Variety. Doyle named it the seventh-best pop song of all time in August that year. "Dance the Night" won the Premios 40 Principales for Best International Song that year. At the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in 2024, the song was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media. Other nominations include the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, the Astra Film and Houston Film Critics Society awards for Best Original Song, and the Global Award for Best Song. It was shortlisted for Best Original Song at the 96th Academy Awards but was not nominated. == Commercial performance ==

"Dance the Night" became Lipa's fourth number-one single on the UK Singles Chart, making her the sixth British female solo artist to achieve four chart-toppers, and received a double platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry. the Commonwealth of Independent States, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. It peaked at number two in Brazil, Lebanon, Panama, and Paraguay. "Dance the Night" received a diamond certification in France, Lipa's tenth diamond certification in the country, 2× platinum in Poland and Spain, platinum in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, and gold in Austria and Greece. == Music video and promotion ==

(pictured in 2018) makes a cameo in the music video for "Dance the Night".|alt=A woman in a brown dress with a light smile The music video for "Dance the Night" has a pink theme inspired by the Barbie aesthetic. It prominently showcases items from La Vacanza, a clothing collection that Lipa created with Italian fashion designer Donatella Versace. Lipa wore metallic makeup and a high ponytail in it. Her outfit consisted of a pink and glittery cross-strap halter neck top with a keyhole cutout, alongside an ice-blue sparkling mini skirt with a thigh-high slit and butterfly embellishments. She also donned high-sheen metallic stiletto boots and gold jewellery including earrings, rings, bracelets, and a choker. The video features a cameo appearance from Gerwig and clips of Robbie, Issa Rae, and Emma Mackey in the film. It was released alongside the song. In the video, Lipa gets ready to shoot a music video and learns choreography for it on a pink set, when a large disco ball plummets from the ceiling. According to Ronson, this represents her plans to move away from Future Nostalgias dance sound with her future music. The words "This Barbie is making a music video" are briefly displayed on-screen. near giant perfume bottles, and fitted the Barbie universe, successfully raising anticipation for the film. ''Harper's Bazaar Arabia''s Pranita Garg thought that everything about it—ranging from the set design and costumes to the cameos—made her anticipate the film's premiere with great excitement. Lipa sang one line from the song while opening the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on 4 February 2024, and it played in a video interlude during a costume change at her Glastonbury Festival 2024 set. She performed it in full live for the first time at the Royal Albert Hall on 17 October 2024, which was released on the live album Dua Lipa Live from the Royal Albert Hall (2024). At the Brit Awards 2026, Lipa performed the song as part of a medley with "Electricity" (2018), honouring Mark Ronson. == Credits and personnel ==

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Barbie the Album. • Andrew Wyatt – producer, composer, bass, synthesiser • Mark Ronson – producer, composer, guitar, Rhodes piano • Picard Brothers – producer, programming, keyboards • Dua Lipa – lyricist • Caroline Ailin – lyricist • Clarice Jensen, Alan Stepansky, Caitlin Sullivan, Susannah Chapman, Joel Noyes, Sarah Kwon – cello • Lisa Kim, Matt Lehmann, Jungsun Yoo, Jennifer Kim, Joanna Maurer, Annaliesa Place, Ann Kim, Tallie Brunfelt, Henry Wang, Kristi Helberg, Jeongmin Lee, Peter Bahng, Angela Lee, Julia Choi, Sein Ryu, Jeremia Velazquez – violin • Danielle Farina, Michael Roth, Robert Meyer, Alexis Sykes, Will Frampton, Torron Pfeffer – viola • Brandon Bost – engineer, programming • Cameron Gower-Poole – vocal engineer, vocal producer • Alex Venguer – additional recording • Serban Ghenea – mixing • Bryce Bordone – mixing assistant • Kostas Michaloudis – assistant engineer == Charts ==

Weekly charts Monthly charts Year-end charts == Certifications ==