Photo courtesy of play.spotify.com
I first came across it when I was scrolling through Facebook on Oct 11. My godmother had shared an article called “First Lady Michelle Obama releases ‘girl power’ Spotify playlist”. I was immediately intrigued.
I went straight to Spotify and typed in Michelle Obama’s name. It didn’t come up. I searched “girl power playlist” and several came up but none created by the fab first lady. A few minutes passed before I found it under The White House account. When I found it, it had just over 9,000 followers. Now, two weeks later, it has over 20,000.
My first feeling when I found the playlist was disappointment because there were only 20 songs on the playlist. But after scrolling through it, I became amused. The selection of music was so strange it was funny. There is everything from Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” to “Bang Bang” by Jesse J, Ariana Grande and Nikki Minaj. There is “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child for those who love girl groups and even “Back to Basics” from Pitch Perfect 2 for the younger listener. 18 out the 20 songs are sung by women.
For the next couple of days I was listening to the playlist on repeat, ready for the shameless jams that came along with “Who Run The World,” “Defying Gravity,” and “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody”.
The playlist was released on Oct. 11, which is International Day of the Girl. This is a day organized by the United Nations in order to raise awareness of gender inequality around the globe.The playlist was released as a part of Michelle Obama’s new project called Let Girls Learn which targets the 63 million girls around the world that aren’t enrolled in schools.
I really hope that Michelle Obama sat down and chose these songs herself. However, even if she didn’t, it is clear that she decided to do something personal to celebrate International Day of the Girl, and I love that.
Last summer, President Barack Obama shared his personal playlist which mostly contained Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. However, this is the first playlist the First Lady has ever released and it was a great one to start with. I don’t know if she intends on making more, but I’d definitely listen to them if she did.
Jam out to Michelle Obama’s playlist here:
https://open.spotify.com/user/thewhitehouse/playlist/3R2DGCLfGdVqqqN6rdQYr5