Mark Ronson discusses working with Dua Lipa: "her music does the shit that I really love"

Mark Ronson is the executive producer of the forthcoming Barbie movie which was directed by Greta Gerwig. Bringing together a star-studded cast which includes the likes of Billie Eilish, Sam Smith, PinkPantheress, HAIM, Lizzo, Charli XCX, and many more, he discusses creating the lead single "Dance the Night", which features Dua Lipa, who also stars in the movie.

"Coming up with the instrumental that became “Dance the Night,” I felt pretty free to create. I wasn’t thinking, 'This has got to be the summer smash'. It was like, 'I’m really inspired by this film'. I wanted to give them something that’s got disco, but has an unexpected slightly harder edge to it," Ronson says.

He then goes on to admit that he never actually wrote the song alongside Dua Lipa. He sent her the music, and let her use her magic on the lyrics. "We wrote the music and then she wrote the song with Caroline Ailin. I’ve worked with Dua, but I’m also a fan of Dua’s records; I’m a DJ, so I play Dua records. It’s all mixed up in the soup," he says.

"I’m sure there’s somewhere where Dua and I have similar influences. I think that it felt Future Nostalgia–adjacent because her music does the shit that I really love, as far as dance music goes: It has an energy, but it’s kind of tough and weird.

Ronson also goes on to shun any speculation that any forthcoming music from Dua Lipa will sit in the same world as her previous album, as told by an Easter Egg in the video for "Dance the Night". “I’ve heard some of it and it’s incredible. I think that’s why there’s the disco ball that smashes in the video, right? This feels like her triumphant stomp on that era of her music into whatever she does next.”