Dua Lipa releases “Dance the Night” away, and this Barbie shoulda let go of Future Nostalgia

Ever since the marketing for the Barbie movie kicked off, everybody had been so up in arms at the news that Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” was not going to be used for the film (which we since now know it kinda will be), that nobody seemed to even entertain who else could possibly be on the movie soundtrack. But when the character posters for Barbie were released and we saw Duolingo had one, we all knew she would feature on the soundtrack and be helming the lead single from it. And now here we are, with the song and video for “Dance the Night”. Which was unknowingly teased in the first teaser trailer for the film before we knew Duolingo was in way attached to the film.

This song is fine. The music video is fine. But...that’s kind of it. The whole time I was listening to the song, I was waiting for it to really take off and give me something, but it never did. And I felt the exact same way about the music video.

Everything about “Dance the Night” feels like an extension of Future Nostalgia, which makes sense. Not only was that album ridiculously successful. But the sound of the most popular songs on the album and the music videos were quite tangential to Barbie in some form. Throw more pink on a bitch for the music videos to “Physical”, “Break My Heart” and “Levitating”, and they could all be Barbie music videos. “Dance the Night” even felt like an amalgamation of each of these videos, and yet it felt nowhere near as interesting as any one of them. The same goes for the song. It has the bounce of “Levitating”, the funk of “Break My Heart” and the disco strings of “Don’t Start Now”. But it’s not as good a song as any of the three.

Dua is not an artist who takes risks. And much of her brand now is synonymous with Future Nostalgia. So running with this was a good call. But what Dua should have done was used “Dance the Night” as her final hurrah to Future Nostalgia. Even if the sound of the album is gonna be similar, she should have drawn a line under it visually. It would have been really cool to have seen Dua re-enact scenes from her Future Nostalgia videos and the album shoot, but Barbie-fied. And her being really confused at reliving each of the moments again, but not as she remembers them; wanting to break out of whatever world she’s in - a concept which would have followed what we see of Barbie in the main trailer for the film. Then at the end a giant blue moon (referencing the album cover) falls onto the Barbie-fed Future Nostalgia land, and we see Dua at the top of a step ladder with scissors, revealing she’s responsible for the moon crashing down. And then we hear a clip of a new song.

It’s not like Miss Owl isn’t completely unsavvy and about pushing new shit. She’s wearing what looks like her Versace collaboration and the whole song is pushing a movie. Gurl. The set up was RIGHT there.

Dua Lipa - Dance the Night | Warner Bros.

Having Dua Lipa release the lead song from the soundtrack makes absolute sense from a commercial standpoint. She’s huge. Anything she releases will be a hit. Also, she’s in the damn Barbie movie. But I do think there are acts who could have delivered a better song. My mind went straight to a K-pop girl group, because so often the ‘girly’ girl groups release songs which would fit in with the Barbie vibe, with a music video to boot. But both would have given us the strong hook and more energetic visuals which Duolingo just did not give here. And whilst my expectations for this song weren’t exactly high, I at least expected that after the solid run of songs we got with “Don’t Start Now”, “Physical”, “Break My Heart” and “Levitating”, that “Dance the Night Away” would be something strong, but nope. It’s a pretty forgettable song with an equally forgettable music video, and I’m not left in the slightest bit curious about what Duolingo’s gonna do next.

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💿 Album review: Future Nostalgia
🎛️ A video game mashup: Dua Lipa x Ollie King / Hideki Naganuma