Jazmine Sullivan reacts to Barack Obama adding her song to his 2021 summer playlist
“Thank you @BarackObama," Jazmine Sullivan says in a tweet
Jazmine Sullivan is over the moon after learning former President Barack Obama is a fan of her music.
The Philadelphia singer took to Twitter on Saturday to share her excitement that he listed her song, “Pick Up Your Feelings,” as one of the tracks on his summer 2021 playlist.
“Y’all,” she wrote, with an emoji. “Thank you @BarackObama,” Sullivan tweeted on Saturday.
As previously reported by theGrio, the 44th president released his annual summer playlist via social media Saturday morning, complete with 38 songs by artists such as Rihanna, J. Cole, Stevie Wonder, SZA, Bob Marley and more.
“With so many folks getting together with family and friends, there’s a lot to celebrate this summer,” Obama tweeted Saturday alongside a photo of the playlist. “Here’s a playlist of songs I’ve been listening to lately—it’s a mix of old and new, household names and emerging artists, and a whole lot in between.”
The list contained something for everyone, whether you’re a fan of hip-hop, R&B, jazz or rock.
Fans of modern hip-hop and R&B artists likely recognized Migos, Drake, Bruno Mars, H.E.R., Lil Baby, SZA, and J. Cole, all of whom have released Billboard-charting singles in the past year.
Songs by Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan are on the list representing jazz of the 1950s.
For fans of soul music from the 1960s and 1970s, there are songs by Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Roy Ayers.
Obama has been releasing summer playlists each year since 2015 when he was still in office.
Sullivan, meanwhile, recently named fellow recording artists Cardi B and Lizzo as sources of inspiration for the sound and support of womanhood on her latest EP, “Heaux Tales,” released in January.
In an interview with Insider, Sullivan said that the music and personas of the Grammy-winning artists encouraged her to be unapologetic on the new project.
“Cardi B and Lizzo have definitely influenced me to just be comfortable with myself and put it all out there,” Sullivan said.
“That’s what I want for every woman. You open up a new level of just amazingness when you accept who you are and you just don’t care what anybody has to say. That’s what they make me want to do. And that’s what I wanted to do with the project.”
Sullivan stated that two tracks, in particular, draw on Cardi and Lizzo: “Put It Down,” a song that tells the story of a woman mesmerized by the sexual prowess of a broke man, and conversely, “Price Tags,” a collaboration with multi-talent Anderson .Paak that’s centered on a woman who needs money and expensive gifts in order to keep her sexually engaged.
“Sex is a thing and I want us to be comfortable. People, men, try to want us to portray ourselves a certain way,” Sullivan said. “And what we want and what we desire, people don’t really care about. They don’t care about it. So, we have to stand in that and be like, ‘This is what I want, you better give it to me.’”
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
