Dua Lipa’s Latest Hit: ‘Dance the Night’ from the Barbie Soundtrack

“Dance the Night” is a song by English and Albanian singer Dua Lipa from Barbie: The Album, the soundtrack of the film Barbie (2023).

Lipa and Caroline Ailin wrote it with its producers Andrew Wyatt and Mark Ronson, and the Picard Brothers also contributed production. Atlantic and Warner Records released it as the soundtrack’s lead single on 25 May 2023. A disco song that features cello, violin, viola, strings, and bass in its instrumentation.

“Dance the Night” reached number-one in the UK Singles Chart, becoming Dua Lipa’s fourth number-one single in the country. In the United States, the song peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the singer’s fifth top-ten single in the country. Elsewhere, “Dance the Night” reached number-one in Ireland and Belgium while it peaked within the top-ten in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand.

In April 2023, it was announced that Dua Lipa had joined the cast of Greta Gerwig’s upcoming fantasy comedy film Barbie.She recorded original music for the film’s soundtrack, Barbie: The Album. On 22 May 2023, Lipa announced its lead single, “Dance the Night”, would be released on 26 May. This marked her first musical output since the conclusion of her Future Nostalgia (2020) album release cycle. Official Charts Company‘s George Griffiths commented the song’s snippet sounded like a return “to the disco-soaked sonics of Future Nostalgia…with a plastic sheen, of course”.

The snippet soundtracked a clip in which Lipa steps out of fleecy heels, recreating a shot of Margot Robbie‘s arched foot in the second Barbie trailer, before blowing a kiss to the camera; the lyric “Just come along for the ride!” plays over a glinting disco groove. Vulture‘s Jennifer Zhan remarked its release marked the death of a viral meme about Lipa’s hip twist, as news about it replaced the latter atop search results.

Before signing on to produce the Barbie soundtrack, producer Mark Ronson received a text from his friend George Drakoulias that simply stated, “Barbie?” Before production, director Greta Gerwig needed a disco song that would be the basis of highly choreographed dance number, so she sent Ronson a playlist of what she was looking for. Ronson and colleague Andrew Wyatt created a backing track that Gerwig loved and used for dance rehearsals. This song would later become “Dance the Night”.A 10-second instrumental snippet of the song was included in the first teaser of Barbie.

“Dance the Night” debuted at number 20 on the UK Singles Chart issued for 2 June 2023. On the chart issued dated 28 July 2023, the song ascended to number four, becoming Dua Lipa’s 13th top-ten single in the country. On the chart issued dated 25 August 2023, the song reached number-one, becoming Lipa’s fourth UK number-one hit.In Ireland the song debuted at number 12 on the Irish Singles Chart, peaking at number-one on August 18, 2023, becoming the singer’s fourth number-one hit in the country.