On Wednesday night, James Corden brought the instant-viral-hit-machine that is Carpool Karaoke to Washington, DC, to do some singing with Michelle Obama.
Watch Michelle Obama rock out with Missy Elliott in Carpool Karaoke
Constance Grady is a senior correspondent on the Culture team for Vox, where since 2016 she has covered books, publishing, gender, celebrity analysis, and theater.
The first lady, who is cooler than you or I will ever be, started things off with Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” — an auspicious choice, as it turns out. “Did you know,” Obama asked, “that Stevie Wonder’s my favorite?”
From there it was on to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies,“ on which, Obama confirmed, they dropped the mic. “We were in the Beyhive making honey,” Corden said.
“We were making honey for our lemonade!” said Obama, because even extremely cool first ladies make bad mom jokes.
The next number caused Obama to yell, “This is my song!” but she meant it literally. It was Obama’s own “This Is For My Girls,“ the song she commissioned from a whole slew of pop stars to raise money for Obama’s Let Girls Learn campaign. As political charity singles go, it has a pretty catchy hook, and it got things livened up considerably when Missy Elliott popped up from the back seat (where … she had been lurking … all along? I guess?) to do the rap break.
With Missy Elliott in the car, of course they had to finish things up old school with “Get Ur Freak On.“
“I don’t want to go,” Elliott said at the end, pouting, and she was not alone.
“This is the only time in seven and a half years that I’ve been in the front seat of a car, rocking out like this,” Obama confessed. I profoundly hope that January 21, 2017, sees Michelle Obama speeding up Lake Shore Drive, blasting Stevie Wonder and singing along at the top of her lungs. She deserves it.
See More:
