This Summer, Barack Obama Is Listening to Beyoncé, Bad Bunny, and… Fatboy Slim?

Former president Barack Obama has dropped his annual summer playlists, which includes a characteristically vast mix of new hits and classics, from Beyoncé, Bad Bunny, and Harry Styles, to Bruce Springsteen, Rakim and… Fatboy Slim?

“Every year, I get excited to share my summer playlist because I learn about so many new artists from your replies — it’s an example of how music really can bring us all together,” Obama wrote on Twitter.

Like everyone else, Obama seems to be in agreement that Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” is the “Song of the Summer,” listing it at the very top of his playlist. Other new selections include Styles’ “Music for a Sushi Restaurant,” Burna Boy’s “Last Last,” Bad Bunny and Bomba Estéreo’s “Ojitos Lindos,” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Die Hard.” 

Obama also appears to have a soft spot for the cheekiest duo in indie rock right now, Wet Leg. He listed their song “Angelica,” which feels like the appropriate choice for a former head of state, especially compared to, say, “Wet Dream,” which is about exactly what you think it’s about.

Other selections that boost Obama’s cool kid bona fides — or at least suggest he takes musical advice from his two cool kids — include Tems’ “Vibe Out,” Rosalía’s “Saoko,” Doechii’s “Persuasive,” Dijon’s “Many Times,” and Omar Apollo’s “Tamagotchi.” 

Meanwhile, the mix of recent and more contemporary classics includes everything from Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” and Miles Davis’ “Blue in Green” to D’Angelo’s “Spanish Joint” and Nina Simone’s “Do I Move You? (Version II).” However the undeniable winner of the most unexpected selection on the ex-president’s playlist has got to be Fatboy Slim’s 1999 classic, “Praise You” — if that’s not proof the late-Nineties/early-2000s are cool again, we don’t know what is.

From Rolling Stone US.