US president’s exercise soundtrack features mix of funk, pop, rock and hip-hop, including songs by Sting, Beyoncé, Icona Pop, Forro in the Dark and Courtney Barnett

The US Democratic party have championed Barack Obama’s hip and eclectic music taste since sharing the nominee’s iPod playlist during the 2008 campaign. Now, as the president winds down his final term, he’s revealed his curatorial powers extend to a particularly 21st century obsession: the well-crafted workout playlist.



For his guest editorship of November’s Wired magazine, Obama’s team released his exercise soundtrack on Tuesday: a mixture of funk, pop, rock and hip-hop, with a few curveballs (and cheeseballs) thrown in.

The playlist shares a few commonalities with his 2016 summer soundtrack: there’s a celebration of black artists, a few crowdpleasers (last year’s Good Vibrations is this year’s Let’s Get It Started), and even a couple of double-ups – independent Australian artist Courtney Barnett’s Elevator Operator features on both playlists, as does Nina Simone’s Sinnerman.

Jason M Peck (@JasonMPeck1) Obama's decision to put the Black Eyed Peas next to Nina Simone is unforgivable. https://t.co/BMtDXiBFKV

Jay Z gets another look-in, this time with Drake in 2009’s Off That. It’s preceded by Get Me Bodied by Beyoncé – who featured twice on Michelle Obama’s workout playlist, released in 2012.



President Obama's summer playlist: a proud affirmation of his blackness Read more

Also featured is Emergency by Swedish electropop duo Icona Pop – a more original choice than 2012’s I Love It, which remains unavoidable in gyms around the world; the Isley Brothers’ funk-filled ode to free love, Live It Up; and, from slightly out of left field, there’s Perro Loco by Forro in the Dark – a collective of Brazilian musicians who rework the rural forro music for the club scene of New York.

Obama – who hosted his first ever music festival, South by South Lawn (SXSL), earlier this month – proved himself a master of the mixtape when he released the White House’s summer playlists in August to broad acclaim. Speaking with Pitchfork at SXSL, the White House’s first chief digital officer Jason Goldman said the choices are all the president’s: “I swear it is him who makes the playlists. He has personally selected all of those songs and writes them out by hand. He really loves a diverse range of music.”



In 2015, Obama became the first sitting president to visit Jamaica in more than 30 years. Dropping in at the Bob Marley Museum, he told press he’d been “a big fan” since high school. This might explain the gym playlist inclusion of Could You Be Loved which, much like Sting’s If You Love Somebody Set Them Free, is perhaps more befitting of a dawdle than a gym drill. But perhaps it’s one for the warm-down. The playlist does, however, not include Frank Ocean and Chance the Rapper, who were recently invited to his Final State Dinner.

Have a listen to his picks below.