Pink Performs ‘Barbies’ at 2017 CMA Awards
Pink delivered for a powerful performance of her song "Barbies" at the 2017 CMA Awards.
Pink's performance was stripped down and haunting: She sat on a stool, surrounded by her backing band -- a few backup singers, a guitar, cello, bass and violin. The arena was dark, save for a circle of lights surrounding the musicians, while Pink delivered lines like "And I lock every single door / And I look behind me even more / Now turned into someone that I swore / I would never be / I wish I could go back to playing Barbies in my room."
Ross Golan, who co-penned Keith Urban's "Shame" and Lady Antebellum's "Compass," co-wrote and -produced Pink's song "Barbies."
"How often do you get to work with maybe one of the best pop lyricists, artists, from one generation, and then one of the best lyric writers of the next generation, on the song together?" Golan tells The Boot, referring both to Pink and to co-writer Julia Michaels, one of pop's rising stars. "Getting to just be in the room, let alone getting to be an active participant in the writing -- you know, it was truly remarkable watching these two women interact with each other."
Country artists place a heavy emphasis on a song's lyrical content, and Golan notes that Pink is one of the best lyricists he's worked with. On all of her albums -- seven as Pink, one as the folk duet You+Me -- she has co-written most, if not all, of the material.
"If all she was was the lyricist she is, I think we'd all be like, 'Man, she's one of the best artists -- pop artists -- of this generation," Golan says. He also praises Pink's vocal and performance abilities, which position the singer as a triple threat. "Who else is doing that? Who else can do that, in music, period?"
Pink received a CMA Awards nomination this year: Her collaboration with Kenny Chesney, "Setting the World on Fire," was nominated for Musical Event of the Year.
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