DALLAS — Barack Obama’s annual summer playlist dropped Monday and included a North Texas-raised singer’s 2023 hit single.
“Lil Boo Thang,” by Paul Russell, is catchy and up-tempo, with a chorus that goes: “You my lil’ boo thang/ So, I don’t give a hoot what your dude say.”
The song, which samples the Emotions’ 1977 “Best of My Love,” was first released as a 21-second clip on TikTok as “fun content,” Russell told Today.com last year.
After the snippet went viral, Russell put out a full-length version that now has more than 270 million streams on Spotify and more than 28 million views on YouTube.
The singer-songwriter was at a nail salon getting a pedicure with his wife when a friend texted him the news about the playlist, he said. His phone was soon flooded with messages of congratulations, he added.
“It’s surreal to know the former president of the United States has listened to your music and actually liked it,” Russell told The Dallas Morning News.
Nabbing a spot on Obama’s summer playlist had been a longtime goal for Russell, an ambition he traces to seeing past iterations of the list circulate online. Still, he said, he didn’t expect people would recognize his name in the company of A-list musicians.
The 26-year-old’s budding music career has taken him to stages overseas, but it has also brought him back to where he grew up.
Russell moved to Allen in the fourth grade and graduated from high school there in 2015. In recent years, work limited his return visits to once or twice a year, he said.
“Nowadays, I’m back in Dallas multiple times a year for shows,” said Russell, who’s based in Los Angeles. “As a musician, I get to go home more than I ever did when I was working a corporate job.”
He performed in Fort Worth last year at the Jingle Ball holiday concert and will open for Meghan Trainor at the Toyota Music Factory in Irving as part of her “Timeless” tour this fall.
In his Instagram bio, Russell jokes he is an “aspiring two hit wonder.” He had a solid fan base before his breakout song, he said, but he doesn’t mind doing gigs where he’s only called on to perform “Lil Boo Thang.”
“It’s a blessing that I get to make people happy, even if it’s just for the two minutes I’m up there performing the song,” he said.
Other recent hits on Obama’s playlist include “Love Me JeJe” from Nigerian singer Tems, the country anthem “Texas Hold ‘Em” from Beyoncé and “365” from Charli XCX, the British singer who has fueled a lime-green “Brat Summer” movement. The playlist also features songs from previous eras, such as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones and “Silvio” by Bob Dylan.
Some have speculated that aides curate Obama’s musical selections, but he has said that he is behind them.
“I hope you find something new to listen to!” Obama wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.
