Barack Obama confirms that his end of year playlists are actually created by him

Barack Obama has refuted suggestions that his indie-centric annual recommendation playlists aren’t created by the former President himself.

At the end of each year, Obama shares a list of music, films and books that have entertained and inspired him that year, with lists having included the likes of The War On Drugs, Little Simz and Mitski.

However, some have assumed that the playlists have actually been curated by an intern of the politician’s rather than Obama himself.

Refuting the claim in a new interview with comedian Hasan Minhaj, Obama said when asked if he listens and chooses himself: “I do! Listen. I am so glad that I have this opportunity. People, they believe the books and the movies, but the playlists, they somehow think — and this is mostly coming from young people like you — somehow, y’all think you invented rock ‘n’ roll. You invented hip-hop.

“And so the fact that my lists are, you know, pretty incredible — people seem to think, well, he must’ve had some 20-year-old intern who was figuring out this latest cut. No, man! It’s on my iPad right now.”

He added: “Look, here’s the bottom line of my playlists and my book lists and my movie lists. I am very scrupulous about making sure that this is stuff that I actually like. I will confess that there are times — on the playlists, on the music lists — where I will get suggestions.

“Because it’s not like I got time to be listening to music all the time. So typically, at the end of the year, what happens is folks will be like, “Man, you need to listen to this. This is good.” But unless I’m actually listening to it, watching it, reading it, I won’t put it on there.”

Last year, Obama shared a summer playlist featuring Wet Leg, Burna Boy, Harry Styles, Sampa The Great, and more.

At the end of 2022, he revealed that his favourite songs of the year included Kendrick Lamar’s single ‘The Heart Part 5’, Bad Bunny‘s ‘Tití Me Preguntó’ and ‘POF’ by Ari Lennox, while other tracks in the ranked list were ‘Something In The Orange’ by Zach Bryan, ‘Last Last’ by Burna Boy, ‘American Teenager’ by Ethel Cain and ‘Communion In My Cup’ by Tank And The Bangas.

Appearing at the top of Obama’s 2021 list was Mitski’s comeback track ‘The Only Heartbreaker’ from ‘Laurel Hell’. Also placed high on the run-down is The War On Drugs’ ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’ from the group’s latest record of the same name.

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