đŸŽ” Bruno Mars & Lady Gaga Trade Vegas Glitz for Country Boots

Plus, Logic’s final voyage. Adrianna Lenker’s heartfelt addition to “Bright Future.”

Mic-Check Newsletter
9 min readAug 19, 2024

The best part of summer is back — former President Barack Obama has once again shared his highly anticipated summer playlist, a tradition that he kicked off back in 2015. As always, some of Obama’s personal favorites make their return: BeyoncĂ©, who’s now on her seventh appearance, and Bob Dylan, H.E.R., and The Rolling Stones, each hitting their fifth. Plus, Obama has added some new artists who are having a cultural moment, including Charli XCX, Shaboozey, and Tommy Richman.

Click here for a Spotify playlist with the songs mentioned in this article.

BIGGEST Songs of the Week 📈

If it’s any consolation, the music industry has been country-fried this year. Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs have dominated the charts for much of it. Post Malone and BeyoncĂ© made significant forays into country music, one much better than the other. Shaboozey, a hip-hop-country artist featured on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, earned a №1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as did Sabrina Carpenter with her retro-country ditty “Please Please Please”. Now, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars have joined the fold — albeit without fully committing — with their new


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