It’s time again for Barack Obama to share his summer playlist; as usual, it’s a mix of classics and modern hits. If you saw the former president wearing headphones, you might have heard him listening to modern cool kids like boygenius, Ice Spice, and Nicki Minaj, or revered legends like Leonard Cohen. You might also hear him listening to “Walk Like an Egyptian.”
You can laugh at Obama for including the latter track, but you can’t say the bracelet won’t bring some summer fun! These good vibes continue in clips like 2Pac’s “California Love” and Otis Redding’s “(Sitting On) The Dock of the Bay.” Elsewhere, the 2023 playlist has slowed down to Pearl Jam’s “Just Breathe” and Luke Combs’ “Fast Car,” Tracy Chapman’s 1988 song that recently climbed even higher on the charts than before thanks to an unlikely country cover.
Other tracks that prove Obama is surprisingly on the pulse of contemporary culture include Kelela’s “Contact,” Joja Smith’s “Try Me,” and Rosalia and Lauf Alejandro’s “Vampire.” In retrospect, the former president also included clips from The Pretenders, The Rolling Stones and Janet Jackson, as well as odes to the late, great Tina Turner, including “Rivers Are High and Mountains Are High.”
It’s easy to cast doubt on whether Obama’s music roundup was curated by an outside team, and many have raised doubts before.Last year, however, he insisted to Hassan Minaj that he was just yes Cool enough to know who the boygenius is (and Ethel Cain, Wet Leg, SiR and Scribz Riley before them). “You (young people) all think you invented rock. You invented hip-hop. My list is actually quite unbelievable—people seem to think, well, he must have a 20-year-old intern working on the latest cut,” he says. “Nobody! It’s on my iPad right now.”
Listen to Obama’s Summer 2023 playlist below, then join us in giggling as the former president listens to “Princess Diana” imagery.
As I do every year, here are some of the songs I’ve been listening to this summer – a fusion of old and new. Looking forward to hearing what I missed. pic.twitter.com/H2Do2iaD1p
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 20, 2023