No surprise, really, but Ryan Gosling is officially set as a performer at the 2024 Oscars, according to Variety. Gosling is nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for his role as Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, and is the performer of the Oscar-nominated track “I’m Just Ken” by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt. Given that nominees in the Best Original Song category usually get a spotlight moment in the show, it just makes sense that Gosling would give us “I’m Just Ken,” but he’s played it coy about getting on the Academy Awards stage until now.
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Speaking with W Magazine on the subject in January, Gosling said, “Well, I haven’t been invited. And I wasn’t thinking about it until now, and now it’s all I’m going to think about. Do you get paid to sing at the Oscars? Do you have to drive yourself? What kind of scratch is involved? They pick you up at least, right?” He then joked about his go-to karaoke song: “I don’t have one. I only sing at the Oscars.… Oh no, wait, I don’t.”
Sometimes, an Oscars performer will be subbed out—rather than the original singer Mitski, “This Is A Life” from Everything Everywhere All At Once was performed by the film’s star Stephanie Hsu at the 2023 Oscars. But in early February, Mark Ronson said that “if Ryan doesn’t do it then we’re not doing it,” despite the fact that having it performed at the Oscars was his “dream.” And Ronson is not the only one from the Barbie crew who wanted it to happen. Star and producer Margot Robbie told Variety, “Don’t worry, we’re poking Ryan whenever we can: ‘Do it. Come on. It’ll be fun.’’’
In his Variety profile, also in early February, Gosling said, “I still have not been asked. It might be too much of a risk to have me do it. I don’t know how that would work. But I’m open to it.” C’mon—of course he was going to perform, even if the track will almost definitely lose to Billie Eilish’s Barbie anthem, “What Was I Made For.” The people love Gosling’s Kenergy!