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President Obama's Summer 2016 Playlist Is Fabulous

by Rosie Holden Vacanti Gilroy

He's done it again. On Thursday, President Obama released his 2016 music playlist, and now we know what the president is listening to during his summer vacation. And with that, he's just added to the proof that he's the coolest POTUS ever. Really, it would be practically impossible to imagine a cooler president.

So what's so special about POTUS' summer 2016 playlist? Well, it's pretty simple: Of the 39 songs on the president's playlist, 32 are by artists of color, and 18 are sung by women. Clearly, President Obama is all about supporting and promoting diversity in the music industry. He knows that while white men often dominate music, there are a lot of people of color and women who are worth listening to as well.

Unsurprisingly, this is not the president's first summer playlist to celebrate diversity. In fact, Obama's summer 2015 playlist was pretty diverse too, as Rolling Stone reported. While POTUS may have been dancing to Mary J. Blige's "I Found My Everything," and Joni Mitchell's "Help Me" while relaxing at Martha's Vineyard last summer, this year, the president is listening to "Many the Miles" by Sara Bareilles and remembering Prince with "U Got The Look."

However, ABC News reported that Twitter is rather upset about one musician who did not make the cut for POTUS' playlist — and her absence certainly is a bit of a surprise. It turns out the president isn't planning on dancing to "Freedom" or "Formation" this summer, as there's no Beyoncé on his playlist. Yet the President's playlist could also be seen as a testament to the fact that there are countless phenomenal women of color musicians out there (who are sometimes forgotten), even if Beyoncé is the most famous one today.

Another cool thing about Obama's playlist is that the songs are divided up into two different playlists: one for daytime and one for nighttime. POTUS isn't trying to listen to Jay Z's "So Ambitious" when he's winding down the evening; once the sun sets, he moves on to Denise LaSalle's "Trapped By A Thing Called Love" and Carmen McRae's "Midnight Sun."

There's little doubt that President Obama is the coolest POTUS ever. Yet it seems as if every day the President does something that makes him even, well, cooler. The summer 2016 playlist is no different. Obama proved not only that he has superb taste in music, but also that he's all about promoting a diverse list of musicians. And that's the coolest part of all. Here's hoping he continues to share his playlists even after he leaves office in January.