Barbie has made her claim on the world and with it came a new love and appreciation for Ryan Gosling. Good job, everyone. Welcome to the Ryan Gosling fan club. Every few years, a new crop of audiences seems to suddenly just now realize that the actor (who has been around for a long while thanks to things like Young Hercules and The Mickey Mouse Club) is extremely funny.
With Barbie, the same “Wait, he’s funny too?” comments were being made but we also got a new group of fans realizing something special about Gosling: He can sing! Sure, if you saw La La Land, you know this fact. For some though, a lot of fans just starting on their Ryan Gosling journey and while we love “I’m Just Ken” and of course Ken’s cover of “Push” by Matchbox Twenty, there are some other songs that really highlight Gosling’s talent.
Before we dive into those, let’s first appreciate the masterpiece that is “Push” as performed by Ryan Gosling as Ken along with the rest of the Kens in Barbieland (also known as Kendom).
While Barbie gave us a taste of Gosling’s talents as a performer (especially as a singer), let’s look at some other musical adventures from Gosling that you can get into if you need more after seeing his performance as Ken!
We need more Dead Man’s Bones fans
Back in 2009, Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields released their album for their band Dead Man’s Bones. The duo has only released the one self-titled album but there are some great songs on it. It is my favorite fact to pull out of my back pocket about Ryan Gosling, especially after people saw La La Land and were shocked he could sing. The band hasn’t done much since that first album but there are still moments where we can hear them out and about.
Most recently, the pilot of The Company You Keep featured the song “Lose Your Soul” in its opening moments and it was really shocking to hear a song from Dead Man’s Bones in a show in 2023. So if you hear Gosling singing “Push” and thought to yourself that you need more of his stuff, then checking out Dead Man’s Bones should be high up on your list.
Yes, La La Land is good too
Obviously, most people realized that Gosling can sing because of the film La La Land. While his co-star Emma Stone won the Oscar for her performance in the film, I do think that Gosling was incredible as Sebastian and hearing him sing “City of Stars” highlights his skill as a musician as well as an actor. The film itself is a love letter to Los Angeles and one that will, if you’ve seen the city of stars, make you want to go back however briefly you can stand it. Still, if you’re in a Gosling singing mood, then a rewatch of La La Land might be in your future.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
