Obama made you a playlist. Hear some music playing in his new museum
Kinsey Crowley- The Obama Presidential Center opened in Chicago on Juneteenth weekend.
- Opening ceremony performances included Jennifer Hudson, Stevie Wonder.
- Obama made a playlist of songs he and Michelle Obama grew up with. Listen to it.
Former President Barack Obama hosted a range of musicians at the dedication ceremony for his presidential center in Chicago on June 18.
He, along with former first lady Michelle Obama, their two kids, and all the other living presidents besides President Donald Trump, shared the stage with Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Eddie Vedder, Marc Anthony, Bono, Bruce Springsteen and more. At the ceremony and opening day at the center on Juneteenth, people danced in the John Lewis Plaza.
But inside the towering museum, toured by USA TODAY on June 3, music is also part of the exhibits. Visitors hear the songs of the Obamas' childhoods, musical performances at the White House play on multiple screens and original music accompanies a commissioned piece on the top floor. Even if you don't go to the museum, you can hear some of the music, too.
Listen to the Obama playlists
Barack Obama is known for releasing his songs of the summer playlist each year, and his end-of-year favorites in books, movies and music.
Barack Obama also selected music for a playlist heard on the second level of the museum in the "Changing Nation, Changing World" exhibit. The Obama Foundation told USA TODAY it is meant to bring visitors back in time to his and Michelle Obama's formative years, the 1960s to the late 1980s.
Even if you don't have tickets to the museum (they're sold out through November), you can listen to the playlist on Spotify.
The grand opening ceremony also has its own playlist on Spotify, which you can listen to, here.
Other museum music includes original scores, White House performances
On higher levels, visitors can hear music from excerpts of performances at the White House under Obama's presidency on the "Power of Words" exhibit, which spans multiple floors with other soundbites of his speeches, and the "Life in the White House" exhibit.
But the music, speeches and performances all seem to get softer in the Sky Room, the top floor of the museum, which gives panoramic views of Chicago's South Side. In one corner, visitors look out through the words of Obama's 2015 speech in Selma, Alabama.
Playing in this open space is original jazz music, selected by artist Carrie Mae Weems as part of her commissioned photographic collage piece, "The Cool Blue Wind."
"The images in collage reference Obama’s historic 2008 victory and the freedom found in the organized improvisational nature of jazz," her profile on the Obama Foundation website states. "The associated soundtrack, centers jazz, collective memory, and democratic participation."
In the public spaces of the center, which also includes a playground, civic center, fruit and vegetable garden and athletic center, music is curated based on the former president's favorite genres and themes of hope, action, joy and energy, according to the foundation.
Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on X (Twitter), Threads, Bluesky and TikTok.