Ryan Gosling Performed 'I'm Just Ken' at the Oscars and I Am Not Well

Josh Rosenberg

Well, holy shit. Ryan Gosling just brought the (Mojo Dojo Casa) house down at the Academy Awards with a live performance of Barbie's Oscar-nominated song, "I'm Just Ken." Naturally, the Kenergy was high—and so was my heart rate.

Gosling kicked off the performance from the crowd, sitting behind his co-star, Margot Robbie, before strutting up to the stage. Gosling sported a sparkly pink suit, while his legion of backup dancers (including Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir!) wore pink cufflinks and black cowboy hats. The dancers eventually shuffled to the sides of the stage, revealing—again, holy shit—a mind-bending guitar solo from none other than Guns N' Roses' Slash. The Barbie star also passed the mic to Greta Gerwig and America Ferrera, who sung along from the front row. (Oh, and Gosling also broke a board with his bare hands.)

If you tuned in to the Oscars tonight for "I'm Just Ken" and "I'm Just Ken" alone, you're probably pretty damn satisfied right about now. I shudder to think about the number of times I'll secretly watch it again tomorrow. And yet, the Barbie actor was initially hesitant to perform at all. He told Variety before the show, "It might be too much of a risk to have me do it." Still, he remained "open to it." Robbie later confirmed that "he jumped" at the opportunity. "He’s going to crush it," she said. "I’m so excited. I think he’s going to be the highlight of the whole night. I think a lot of people are going to be tuning in for this specific performance."

Gosling brought his entire family to the awards show, including his mother, Donna, his sister Mandi, and his stepfather, Valerio Attanasio. He wore a black Gucci tuxedo to the Oscars red carpet, as well as a Tag Heuer watch embedded with 4.9 carats of diamonds. Although the stunning outfit was more than Kenough, he complemented the look with pink socks and another pink diamond in the center of his Swiss timepiece.

Though Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Robbie and Gerwig were both unrecognized by the Academy in individual categories this year. "There is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally celebrated film," Gosling wrote in a statement. "No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit, and genius. To say that I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement."

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