Fasten your seatbelts, Charli XCX is at the wheel. On Thursday, the British star released her single “Speed Drive” from the Barbie soundtrack, and it’s exactly what you’d expect from the pop queen who forever changed gay clubs with “Vroom Vroom.”
On “Speed Drive,” Charli flips Toni Basil’s “Mickey” for the chorus, to “feel quite bratty” and “about just being hot,” she recently told Rolling Stone.
“Uh, uh, Barbie, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind/Jump into the driver’s seat and put it into speed drive,” she sings in the chorus. “Drivin’ through the streets, on a different frequency/Know you know just what I need, we’re runnin’ through the red lights.”
Charli was one of the first people Mark Ronson, who produced the film’s album, called to join the soundtrack.
For the Easyfun-produced track, the singer chose a chase scene to pen her song for.
“I’ve always really liked singing about cars,” said Charli, who dropped her album Crash last year. “For me, there is this intrinsic link between driving and music and feeling like you’re a star when you’re in a car.”
Charli also revealed that her “first live performance” was an a cappella rendition of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” when she was four-years-old, for a cruise-ship talent show. (She ended up winning.)
“My parents were like, ‘Oh, my God. No.’ They were really worried that I was going to get up on the stage and cry, and it would be a disaster,” she explained. “But I was adamant that I wanted to do it. I just sang it on the microphone with new music — the whole song — and I won the contest.”
Charli shared a small clip of Margot Robbie running out of the Mattel headquarters in the film, alongside a clip of herself driving and lip-syncing to the song.
The singer announced that she’d be dropping “Speed Drive” with a sweet Instagram post where she said she’s “always loved the escapism my Barbies provided with me and it’s kind of a full circle moment to be a part of this soundtrack and movie.”
The new Charli banger follows the release of “Barbie World” by Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night,” PinkPantheress’ “Angel,” and Karol G and Aldo Ranks’ “Watati.”