*Former President Barack Obama made his TikTok debut Friday, amid the release of his new memoir titled “A Promised Land.”
On TikTok, Obama launched the “pass the book” challenge, telling fans that his new book “expresses the incredible hope I have in you. Take this and pass it on,” he says in the clip, holding his book before “passing it on” to the next person.
To celebrate the memoir’s release, Obama shared a list of “memorable songs from his administration, check it out below via the Twitter embed.
“A Promised Land” sold nearly 890,000 copies in the U.S. and Canada in its first 24 hours after release on Tuesday, in all formats including pre-orders, e-books and audio.
The first-day sales was a record for publisher Penguin Random House.
READ MORE: Barack Obama’s ‘Promised Land’ Memoir Sells Over 887,000 Copies in 1 Day
Music has always played an important role in my life—and that was especially true during my presidency. In honor of my book hitting shelves tomorrow, I put together this playlist featuring some memorable songs from my administration. Hope you enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/xWiNQiZzN0
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 16, 2020
“Music has always played an important role in my life—and that was especially true during my presidency,” he wrote in a tweet along with the playlist. “In honor of my book hitting shelves tomorrow, I put together this playlist featuring some memorable songs from my administration. Hope you enjoy it.”
The playlist includes Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Beyoncé, Bob Dylan, Brooks & Dunn, Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Frank Sinatra, Gloria Estefan, Fleetwood Mac, JAY-Z, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Phillip Phillips, The Beatles, Sade, Stevie Wonder and U2.
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We previously reported, Obama made time to surprise popular YouTube twins Tim and Fred Williams on their channel, “TwinsthenewTrend,” after they reacted to a song on his latest playlist.
The song that sparked the virtual chat is “The Times They Are a-Changin’” by Bob Dylan.
The twins posted a video Thursday of them listening to the song, and later shared footage of their video conference with Obama.
“Hey people, what’s going on? I hear you guys were asking questions. I decided I’m just going to go ahead and come here live,” said Obama.
The New York Times bestselling author then explained how he curates his popular playlists.
“I do playlists all the time just for fun, and I did that when I was president. But one of the things I did was do a playlist because I released my book about the first part of my presidency called ‘A Promised Land’ and music’s kind of a theme in the book.”
Watch the moment via the YouTube player below.
This was fun. I heard Tim and Fred were listening to some of the songs on my A Promised Land playlist, so I decided to drop in and surprise them. We talked about a lot, from Bob Dylan to old-school mixtapes to the role music played in my memoir. https://t.co/8A0cuVNHZI pic.twitter.com/rQwW8r0wBX
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 19, 2020
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