Barbie soundtrack producers needed Greta Gerwig to reach out to Nicki Minaj to secure the rapper’s involvement in the hit film. Producer Kevin Weaver recalled how Minaj’s soundtrack contribution came to be in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“From the very beginning, we had felt like having Nicki, who is Barbie essentially, be a part of this thing,” Weaver said. “We kind of continued to hone in on the idea of having her do the flip of ‘Barbie Girl,’ and it’s just interesting because there were many moments when she was doing it and there were a lot of moments when she wasn’t doing it and it kind of was happening and not happening. We were getting to a point where Nicki actually cut the record, and it was incredible. We knew we loved it and Greta loved it, it was cutting the end of the picture, [but] we were having a hard time getting it done.”
Barbie producers enlisted the help of Gerwig to get a commitment from Minaj. The director wrote a letter to the rap star to seal the deal.
“We went to Greta and asked Greta if she would write a letter to Nicki,” Weaver said. “And Greta wrote this beautiful note to Nicki and basically said like, ‘You are Queen Barb and when I set out to make this film, as I was thinking of artists, you were the first artist that really came to me as somebody that I felt was going to be an important collaborator and contributor to this.’ I sent that letter to Nicki and the next morning Nicki hit us back and said that she was 100 percent in.”
Minaj teamed up with Ice Spice for the single “Barbie World,” which appeared on Barbie: The Album and was featured in the film’s end credits. The song peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100.