Barack Obama Unveils His Favorite Music of 2023
Around 3:00 pm on Friday, December 29th, 2023, former US President Barack Obama dropped his 2023 playlist titled: “Barack Obama’s Favorite Music of 2023.”
The playlist which contains 28 songs, spanning across continents and genres shows the politician’s high taste for music beyond borders and biases. This isn’t a new thing as the President has a culture of appreciating arts all over the globe, from music to movies and books.
In what Africans do not particularly find surprising due to the recent success of Afrobeats, a couple of Afrobeats top hits made the playlist. However, there seem to be a little surprise in the former POTUS choice Afrobeat songs.
Every African with even a below average knowledge of African music will admit that Afrobeats is incomplete without the exploits of Nigerian stars.
With his Grammy-nominated hit song “Unavailable”; off the Timeless album, featuring South African star, Musa Keys, Davido makes the list.
Also on the list is Burna Boy with his didactic hit “Sitting on top of the World” which featured American rapper 21 Savage. Asake of YBNL made it to the list too with “Amapiano“; an Amapiano-themed song featuring his boss, Olamide.
The last Nigerian artist to grace the playlist is the Grammy-winning vocalist, Tems. She got into the playlist with her recent hit song “Me & U.”
Although many Nigerians accept this as a testament to the massive growth in the Nigerian music industry, others wonder why their favorite artists didn’t make the list.
In the spirit of celebrating Afrobeats, it’d suffice to add that South African biggest female rising star, Tyla, made it to the list too with her Grammy-nominated track “Water.”
