Barack Obama’s 2023 Summer Playlist: boygenius, Ice Spice, SZA, Drake, Kelela, Bob Dylan, more

Former President Barack Obama shares a new summer playlist every year, and he’s unveiled his 2023 picks. “Like I do every year, here are some songs I’ve been listening to this summer,” he writes, “a mix of old and new. Look forward to hearing what I’ve missed.”

Included are SZA‘s “Snooze,” boygenius‘ “Not Strong Enough,” Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj‘s “Princess Diana,” J Hus ft. Drake‘s “Who Told You,” The Pretenders‘ “I’ll Stand By You,” Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro‘ “Vampiros,” Luke Combs‘ “Fast Car” Cover, Yng Lvcas and Peso Pluma‘s “La Bebe (Remix),”Nas‘ “The World Is Yours,” Jorja Smith‘s “Try Me,” Burna Boy ft. 21 Savage‘s “Sittin’ On Top of the World,” Kelela‘s “Contact,” The Beths‘ “Watching The Credits,” The Bangles‘ “Walk Like An Egyptian,” Ayra Starr‘s “Sability,” Bob Dylan‘s “Everything Is Broken,” Janelle Monáe‘s “Only Have Eyes 42,” Michael Kiwanuka‘s “Love & Hate,” and more. See it in full, and listen, below.

In an interview with Hasan Minhaj last month, Obama insists that it’s really him making the playlists. “I am so glad that I have this opportunity,” he told Minhaj. “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 continued, “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.” Watch the interview below.