00:00 There's definitely some weird things in here too, like this little turnaround
00:03 that's like the part just before the chorus.
00:05 Hi, I'm Mark Ronson.
00:13 Hey, I'm Dua Lipa and we're gonna take you behind the song 'Dance The Night.'
00:16 So Greta said she wanted a big disco number that was gonna speak for
00:28 Barbie's best day ever.
00:30 So I had an idea that it was gonna be something up-tempo, but that was really it.
00:34 And, you know, after three days I tried a couple of different ideas
00:37 and I didn't think I had anything that was perfect yet.
00:40 And then they were like, "Well, can you just send us anything?"
00:42 I was like, "What do you mean anything?"
00:43 "Well, I don't know, just like a click track."
00:45 So I finally actually got a track that I really felt good about and I sent it in.
00:50 And that was the instrumental, the very raw version of what became 'Dance The Night.'
00:54 ♪ Watch me dance, dance the night away ♪
00:59 ♪ My heart could be burning but you won't see it on my face ♪
01:03 I know I was making it with Dua in mind.
01:05 I was on tour last year, quite relentlessly, for a whole year.
01:10 And I just got a DM on Instagram from Mark.
01:15 He basically just reached out and was like, "I'm working on this film with Greta."
01:19 "There's this big dance number and I would love you to write it with me."
01:24 I was so intrigued at what Barbie was going to be, what was it about.
01:29 The next opening of dates that I had, I flew to New York.
01:32 We were also saying, "Oh, maybe we'll work a little bit on my album and then a little bit on Barbie."
01:37 But Barbie just completely took over our life.
01:39 We were completely Barbified.
01:41 There was Barbie dolls everywhere here.
01:43 We were just putting Post-it notes everywhere, trying to brainstorm what 'Dance The Night' was going to be.
01:48 We worked on melodies for a while.
01:50 We had a little SM7 in the room.
01:53 He'd already made the track that the cast were all rehearsing to.
01:57 It's kind of interesting because usually when I work on something and I work on it from scratch,
02:01 there's so much leeway to change bits.
02:03 But we had to obviously stick pretty tight to what the score already was.
02:08 So it was just a really fun jigsaw.
02:12 When you start a song, what are you doing?
02:13 Just going to a keyboard or a guitar or sometimes I pick up the bass and it's like,
02:18 "The umpteenth millionth time I've ever tried to do this, how am I going to find four chords today
02:22 that just feel like something I haven't done before?"
02:24 And sometimes you don't need brand new chords.
02:26 Maybe you need an exciting production element.
02:28 But Greta had referenced the BG's a lot.
02:31 We think of the songs as kind of like upbeat, fluffy disco, but a lot of the chords and the beats and the rhythms,
02:37 especially on 'Dang Alive' era, it's really tough.
02:40 So I was sitting at that Rhodes right there and I came up with this chord progression.
02:45 [playing chords]
02:53 They're just kind of a little almost sinister and stuff.
02:56 And actually that's what I love about a lot of Dua's music as well.
03:00 The chords are, even though there's a disco element to it, the chords are kind of like dark and moody.
03:05 So with those chords.
03:06 [playing chords]
03:09 And then I came up with this string line.
03:11 [playing chords]
03:21 The chords and these French producers that I work quite a bit with, the Picard brothers,
03:25 they take like old samples and then whatever I've played in the chords,
03:29 they just change the samples to fix what I've done.
03:33 So by taking this weird string sample that they had,
03:37 they made this weird [imitates string sample] like that you hear.
03:41 [playing chords]
03:45 So I had the melody [imitates melody]
03:49 but under it there's this sort of murky chord movement happening.
03:52 Then we had the real strings play live.
03:55 So it really started with those things and then, like most of my productions,
03:59 the next important thing was to have a bass line.
04:03 So on top of those chords you had...
04:05 [playing bass line]
04:18 Then when we really went in and at this point we had a pretty good idea of the footage
04:23 and we had it and we like fired up the TV screen here and Dua was on the couch
04:27 and she just started freestyling lyrics as Margot was dancing.
04:31 The part when I was like, "This is..." I got chills and I was like,
04:33 "This is really going somewhere," was when Margot does that thing
04:36 and Dua was like, "Oh, I want to sing, like, 'Come Along for the Ride' right there."
04:40 [Dua singing]
04:45 So we were watching it and then I just felt really compelled to be able to have
04:49 the lyrics really merge with the dancing and what was happening in the scene as well.
04:54 So we really fine-tuned it every little moment.
04:57 It's also like a moment where it goes, "Turn the music up," and they're putting their hands up.
05:01 It's just like little bits like that, little details that I think made such a big difference
05:05 in, I think, when people saw the film.
05:07 Because "Dance the Night" came out before "Barbie,"
05:09 so it was kind of like the first taste of what's to come.
05:12 So it was a little bit of the story, the kind of happy, glitzy, disco element that Greta really wanted.
05:19 Okay, so what is Barbie about and what is the story going to be and why is she saying this?
05:24 And when people watched the film, then it all kind of matched up together.
05:27 It was very interesting to see people's reaction to both hearing the song on its own
05:33 to watching it then with the film.
05:35 Everything is played pretty live except for the drums,
05:39 which I programmed and also did with the Picard brothers.
05:43 [Drums playing]
05:47 I mean, some of the percussion is live.
05:49 [Drums playing]
05:52 That's the other thing that's kind of hidden in there as well.
05:54 There's an acoustic guitar that's not the first thing you think of when you think of disco music.
05:59 But there was just something about the strumming in it that just kind of kept it moving.
06:04 [Drums playing]
06:12 It's so layered underneath that it gives that really beefy sound underneath with the bass and the guitar.
06:18 It's all just little sprinkles that make it.
06:20 But there's definitely some weird things in here too,
06:23 like this little turnaround that's the part just before the chorus.
06:26 [Drums playing]
06:32 So that's three bars and then a bar of two,
06:36 which is just half a bar, which is a very unusual sort of structure for a pop.
06:40 But it just felt good, so we just tried to work around it.
06:43 Yeah, so this is the lead.
06:44 ♪ Baby, you can find me under the lights ♪
06:49 ♪ Diamonds under my eyes ♪
06:51 ♪ Turn the rhythm up, don't you wanna just come along for the ride ♪
06:55 And then Dua Laid all these backgrounds under it that are sort of like whisper vocals, right?
07:02 ♪ Baby, you can find me under the lights ♪
07:06 ♪ Diamonds under my eyes ♪
07:08 ♪ Turn the rhythm up, don't you wanna just come along for the ride ♪
07:12 ♪ Ooh, my outfit's so tight ♪
07:14 ♪ You can see my heartbeat tonight ♪
07:17 ♪ I can take the heat, baby, best believe that's the moment I shine ♪
07:21 It's exactly, it's Barbie's inner thoughts.
07:22 It's trying to show a brave face while there's some inner turmoil happening
07:28 and kind of getting a little bit confused about this kind of duality that's happening within her
07:34 that was so unnatural for her at the time.
07:36 To the human experience, it's the most natural thing.
07:38 It's kind of like being able to move forward and progress in life
07:42 even when things aren't going your way or that kind of optimism that you have to keep going with
07:49 even when things aren't going right, basically.
07:52 ♪ Make no choice ♪
07:54 ♪ It's a good dance, a good dance, a good dance ♪
07:59 I think the thing that I really, really love is that weird, murky string chord that's happening
08:04 that almost feels like shifting plates, that this part that we were talking about.
08:09 ♪
08:17 So it's this thing that was created weirdly from a sample that then we had the orchestra actually play live.
08:23 So the kind of violas are going one way and the violins are going the other
08:26 and that just with the vocal even is quite exciting to me.
08:30 ♪ Watch me dance, dance the night away ♪
08:35 ♪ My heart could be burning but you won't see it on my face ♪
08:38 ♪ Watch me dance, dance the night away ♪
08:43 ♪ I'll still keep the party running, I won't hear out of place ♪
08:47 Far be it for me to say, but that's sort of the sign of a good song and a vocal
08:53 when you can literally just listen to the strings and the lead.
08:56 I find it quite harmonically rich and actually fulfilling like that.
09:00 ♪ I could dance, I could dance, I could dance ♪
09:05 ♪ Watch me dance ♪
09:08 The bridges actually was just a moment to step it down a little bit
09:12 because there was just so much going on through the rest of the song.
09:15 I think you just wrote it just to the drum, there were no chords.
09:19 Yeah, really, really simple.
09:20 ♪ Even when the tears are flowing, there are diamonds on my face ♪
09:24 ♪ I'll still keep the party going, I won't hear out of place ♪
09:28 I'm such a fan of like talky, chanty moments in songs.
09:33 I love when things have variety and they go up and down and it gives you a different emotion
09:38 and a different feeling and it takes you away from something that's so pop and big
09:44 and then it brings you down for a second and it gives you just a different groove,
09:48 a different way to dance to it.
09:50 I feel like I love all that variation so much.
09:53 And I love also the ad-libs through the chanty bit that are there.
09:57 ♪ Even when the tears are flowing, there are diamonds on my face ♪
10:02 ♪ I'll still keep the party going, I won't hear out of place ♪
10:06 And then the vocals is like a mixture of you and I think Caroline and it has such like...
10:11 I'm an old guy so all my references are kind of old but it just reminds me of the Jacksons
10:15 just if we just solo it for a minute.
10:17 ♪ When my heart breaks ♪
10:19 ♪ You can never see it, never see it ♪
10:21 ♪ When my world shakes ♪
10:23 ♪ I feel alive, I feel alive ♪
10:25 ♪ I don't play safe, don't you know about me ♪
10:30 ♪ I could dance, I could dance, I could dance, dance the night ♪
10:35 It's a freestyle in the moment of like you hear something and you're like,
10:39 alright you know you're about to crescendo into another big part of the chorus
10:44 so it's like how do we lead into that, what are the little bits that you add into it
10:49 to join it all together to make it all that more special.
10:51 It just gives everything like texture.
10:53 And also I think that one you really just came up with live when you were finally in the booth recording.
10:58 Like we were just like, they were all just so cool and I think Dua just has like such a cool rhythmic
11:04 like understanding when to put stuff in so a lot of those were just ones like completely on the fly
11:08 and we were all like here in this room going like, getting all excited like me, Andrew and Carolyn you know.
11:14 There's not a lot of like, in different songs that we've worked on that have had like different effects
11:18 and maybe more like modern things.
11:20 This is just kind of just that's the instruments and the vocals do most of the talking.
11:25 There is one guitar part that only comes on in the middle in the bridge.
11:29 It was so exciting even the first time hearing it on the radio and then going to see it in the theater.
11:42 I remember having a really sweet conversation with Greta too because it was like the weekend the song came out
11:47 it was like all over Z100 and all the radio stations that we all grew up listening to.
11:51 She was like, I got so excited but then I got sad because we've been working on it for so long
11:55 and now it's out does it mean like it's over or something you know it's all of these emotions you know.
12:00 All these things are still so exciting.
12:04 It's so cool especially like when you work so hard on something and you put so much love and time and effort
12:11 into trying to make something really special and to see like your peers liking it and feeling like they want to vote for it
12:18 and you know you get a nomination it's the best feeling.
12:21 [Music]
12:31 [BLANK_AUDIO]
