Obama's Star-Studded YouTube Music Video

Musicians and celebrities are some of the most popular subjects on YouTube, and a new video is tapping that star power to mobilize young voters for Barack Obama.

On Saturday, YouTuber user "WeCan08" uploaded "Yes We Can," a music video for a new Obama ballad by the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am and director Jesse Dylan, Bob Dylan's son. The "song" was essentially written by Barack Obama, since the lyrics are adapted from his "Yes We Can" speech after the New Hampshire primary. That speech, of course, was inspired by Cesar Chavez's motto for a United Farm Workers hunger strike in 1972. Excerpts of Obama play throughout the video, with accompaniment from stars like John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Common, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Scarlett Johansson, Tatyana Ali and Nick Cannon. The video was first reported by ABC News, which interviewed the creators.

There's no telling if this video will catch on, but musicians have turned political speeches into popular songs before. The most famous example is Haile Selassie's 1963 address to the UN, which Bob Marley put to music in the song "War."

While the Obama campaign had no role in this video, it has run a sophisticated and effective YouTube strategy. It was the only campaign to record a YouTube address for this week's State of the Union, which has already drawn over 850,000 views and is one of the most popular clips in the world this week. The campaign also promotes a battery of ring tones, which splice one-liners from Obama with riffs of music. Young voters can get the items for free by providing the campaign with their cell phone number -- a life-line for organizing a demographic that is rarely listed in party databases.

Ari Melber writes for The Nation, where this post first appeared.

The music video is below, followed by a CNN segment picking up on The Nation's prior reporting on Obama's YouTube's records.

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Comments

[independentrepublicrat]

Nice sentiment from the artistic crowd.

[DemandTruth]

Wow! I'd say anyone who isn't brought to tears by that message hasn't got a heart or soul left to be found! It was a little difficult to understand though, with everyone speaking/singing over Obama - sounded sort of jumbled. But beautiful and inspiring just the same.

Obama/Edwards 08!

[aznurse]

sorry to ruin the mood, but can you imagine any Bush speech set to music? Maybe a death march kind on thing.

[UNR]

"It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation." YES WE CAN

"It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as the blazed a trail towards freedom." YES WE CAN

"It was sung by immigrants as they struck out to distant shores -- pioneers who pushed westward against unforgiving wilderness." YES WE CAN

"It was the call of workers who organized,
women who reached for their ballots, a president who chose the moon as our new frontier and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to justice and equality." YES WE CAN

If that doesn't strike a chord in you, no matter your party affiliation, you're probably not an American.

[Pneumaticus]

Jesus H. Christ, you'd think this election was the freaking Oscars or something. Does Oprama have any idea what he's supposed to be doing out there besides hobnobbing with all the glitterati who wouldn't know the difference between a prime rib and a prime rate anyway? So far he's been pretty short of any real platform, much less any concrete ideas about, you know, issues. Maybe it's nice he's so popular with all these celebrities, but frankly who really cares. Do you?

[clsez]

Secret Service! Hey!

You must put your best people on the Obama detail, then double or triple that team and other teams charged with sniffing out potential threats.

IT MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!!

[msInformation]

Beautifully done!

[howieinseattle]

Here's another music video, "Fired Up, Ready to Go," with Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam) and the Total Experience Gospel Choir:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyJ72iZ3tW4&eurl=http://howieinseattle.blogspot.com/2008/01/made-in-seattle-fired-up-ready-to-go.html

[howieinseattle]

There's another video out there featuring Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam) and the Total Experience Gospel Choir, "Fired Up, Ready to Go." Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyJ72iZ3tW4

[bauersox]

A lot of carrying on about slaves and abolitionists in the video. I thought we -- as in *everybody* -- weren't supposed to be talking about race.

[Chauncey1186]

I wish the Obama team would pull all of their national tv ads and flood the airwaves with this video. Yes We Can will then become Yes We Did!

[richard5]

Yes We Can!

[cfreedom]

Nothing turns on Americans more than musicians and actors, who last week didn't know a caucus from a circus, getting hot and heavy into politics. Everybody deserves a voice, but this country cringes when newbies act like they know it all.

[Benton]

Dude. I cried like a little kid.

[kentj]

Change.... from a divided Nation to one of Unity, only with Barack Obama.