Following Ryan Gosling's captivating Oscars performance of the power ballad 'I'm Just Ken' from the movie 'Barbie,' the entertainment industry has been abuzz with the surge in popularity of the song. Luminate, a leading industry data and analytics company, reported a significant increase in on-demand U.S. audio and video streams for the song post the Academy Awards.
The data revealed that 'I'm Just Ken' garnered over three million streams in the week following the Oscars, marking a remarkable 422% surge from the previous week's 600,000 streams. Video streams played a substantial role in this spike, escalating from 70,000 to 1.8 million streams.
While the song 'I'm Just Ken' experienced a substantial boost in streams, the overall 'Barbie' music collection also saw an uptick in numbers. The soundtrack of the full film, 'Barbie The Album,' witnessed a 23% increase from 19 million to 23 million streams. Additionally, the Oscar-winning song 'What Was I Made For?' by Billie Eilish and Finneas saw a 19% rise in U.S. audio and video streams, climbing from 6.7 million to eight million.
Billie Eilish, at 22 years old, made history by becoming the youngest person to win two Oscars, while her brother Finneas, aged 26, also joined the ranks as one of the youngest Oscar winners. The Oscars' 'I'm Just Ken' performance, featuring a stage filled with 'Kens' and Gosling serenading 'Barbie' director Greta Gerwig and others, garnered significant viewership on YouTube with two million views on the Oscars' official channel and 8.6 million on Atlantic Records' page, the label that released 'Barbie The Album.'
The Oscars ceremony itself experienced a boost in ratings, attributed to the popularity of 'Barbie' and 'Oppenheimer.' An estimated 19.5 million viewers tuned in to watch the 96th Academy Awards on ABC, reflecting a 4% increase from the previous year and marking the highest viewership in four years.
