Meaning of “Pink” by Lizzo
Lizzo’s “Pink” is the opening track on “Barbie: The Album”. That is the soundtrack to the Barbie movie, with Atlantic Records putting the album out on 21 July 2023, i.e. the same day in which the film became available to general audiences.
The said flick is a highly-anticipated big deal, a project that cost almost $150 million to make and is based on a very-popular American toy franchise that has been in circulation for well over half a century. As such the album is also a star-studded affair, featuring a number of musical A-listers of the day.
Out of all of the songs on its playlist, Margot Robbie, the star of Barbie, pointed “Pink” out as having “lyrics… so funny (that) add an extra layer of comedy (she) thought was quite Genius”. And she also went on to state that it plays a notable role in the movie itself.
Also interesting to note is that a few months back, Lizzo made headlines for rockin’ what has been described as a hot pink Barbie-inspired swimsuit. That was about a month before it was announced that she would be featured on “Barbie: The Album”. So perhaps that was her way of teasing that fact before it became public knowledge.
THE COMPOSERS OF “PINK”
Pink was produced by Ricky Reed, Andrew Wyatt and Mark Ronson. The latter is the executive producer of “Barbie: The Album”, and the other two have also been heavily involved in the creation of the soundtrack. And all three also get writing credit for this song alongside Lizzo. Also to note Questlove, of The Roots’ fame, plays drums on the track.
THE LYRICS OF “PINK”
Out of all the songs we’ve thus far looked at from “Barbie: The Album”, it can be argued that this one is truest to the doll franchise itself. Unlike the others it is not adult-themed, nor does it go about trying to indoctrinate the listener, if you will. Rather we have Lizzo celebrating pink, which is Barbie’s signature color.
That is especially true as far as Barbie’s fashion sense goes, which the vocalist shouts out in the second verse. And Lizzo even proceeds to spell the color out as an acronym. representing “pretty, intelligent, never sad [and] cool”, which are all actual characteristics of “Barbie”, as she has been typically presented throughout the years.
Furthermore, Lizzo goes about biggin’ up Barbie herself, as if she’s one of her homegirls and the two of them roll together. And in that regard, she puts forth that she and Barbie “got important things to do”, which may allude to the fact that some Barbie dolls have come out throughout the decade which depict the character as being a professional or businesswoman, amidst her many other careers.
So in closing, at least we can say that there’s at least one artist who participated on this soundtrack that has truly captured the spirit of what “Barbie” has stood for. The titular character of the film was never about pushing ideologies per se. Instead, she’s a fashionista who, as far as the general public could tell, prefers chillin’, looking good and dressing in pink.
