Baracksdubs is a popular YouTube channel and series that uses Barack Obama speeches to create cover songs, generally of popular songs. The channel was created by Fadi Saleh as a then-freshman student of the University of Tennessee. Saleh formed his own company, Spare Time Entertainment in 2015.
History Fadi Saleh started the channel when he was a 19 year old freshman and biochemistry major at the University of Tennessee. He told the Daily Dot he came up with idea of having Barack Obama sing songs while in the shower in December 2011. His first video, which had Obama singing "Drink to That" by Rihanna, was posted the following January.
Saleh didn't immediately advertise his involvement in the channel, in spite of the videos'popularity. It wasn't until his video, "Born This Way", went viral that he shared the news with friends. By July 2012, the YouTube channel had 127,000 subscribers and an online merchandise store. Each video took approximately three weeks to create and would sometimes include superimposing the president's face on the artist's body to create the effect of him dancing. Videos would sometimes feature other famous figures.
In September 2015, Saleh announced his new company, Spare Time Entertainment, with the intent of turning his hobby into an online entertainment brand. By this time, the YouTube channel had amassed over 900,000 subscribers. The September 1st announcement was followed by a relaunch of Baracksdubs the following week. Saleh had incorporated proprietary technology that reduced video editing time from approximately 100 hours to a single day by searching for specific words in source material.
In February 2017, following Donald Trump's inauguration, Baracksdubs released a video of Obama singing Kendrick Lamar's "Alright", whose lyrics had been used as a protest chant against the new president.
Episodes Song Artist Released Ref "Drink To That" Rihanna January 4, 2012 "Born This Way" Lady Gaga January 10, 2012 "Sexy and I Know It" LMFAO March 26, 2012 "Call Me Maybe" Carly Rae Jepsen June 4, 2012 "Boyfriend" Justin Bieber June 24, 2012 "What Makes You Beautiful" One Direction July 20, 2012 "Hot n Cold" (sung by both Obama and Mitt Romney) Katy Perry October 15, 2012 "U Can't Touch This" MC Hammer November 6, 2012 "Deck The Halls" Traditional December 19, 2012 'SexyBack" Justin Timberlake January 21, 2013 "Pokémon Theme" Jason Paige February 4, 2013 "Get Lucky" Daft Punk June 24, 2013 "All Gold Everything" Trinidad James July 15, 2013 "Blurred Lines" (sung only by Bill Clinton) Robin Thicke July 23, 2013 "Made in the USA" Demi Lovato August 13, 2013 "Best Song Ever" (sung only by co-anchors on the Today Show) One Direction August 23, 2013 "It's All Good" (sung by both Obama and his wife Michelle) Ne-Yo October 9, 2013 "Jingle Bells" Traditional December 9, 2013 "Do What U Want" Lady Gaga January 9, 2014 "Timber" (sung by both Obama and Hillary Clinton) Pitbull April 15, 2014 "Birthday" (sung only by Ellen DeGeneres) Katy Perry June 10, 2014 "Fancy" Iggy Azalea August 5, 2014 "Problem" Ariana Grande August 19, 2014 "Uptown Funk" Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars January 27, 2015 "Shake it Off" Taylor Swift February 9, 2015 "Anaconda" (sung only by the characters of SpongeBob SquarePants) Nicki Minaj May 18, 2015 "Can't Feel My Face" The Weeknd September 7, 2015 "Thriller" Michael Jackson October 28, 2015 "Hotline Bling" Drake December 14, 2015 Alt URL "Jumpman" Drake January 5, 2016 "Sorry" Justin Bieber January 25, 2016 "Panda" Desiigner April 26, 2016 "No" Meghan Trainor May 3, 2016 "All I Do Is Win" (sung only by Donald Trump) DJ Khaled May 23, 2016 "Work" Rihanna May 30, 2016 "Power" (sung only by Bernie Sanders) Kanye West June 6, 2016 "One Dance" Drake June 27, 2016 "FDT" YG July 26, 2016 "Cut It" O.T. Genasis August 9, 2016 "Can't Stop the Feeling!" Justin Timberlake September 3, 2016 "Stressed Out" Twenty One Pilots November 30, 2016 "All I Want for Christmas Is You" Mariah Carey December 22, 2016 "Let Me Love You" DJ Snake December 26, 2016 "Starboy" The Weeknd January 11, 2017 "Alright" Kendrick Lamar January 17, 2017 "Happy Birthday to You" Traditional January 23, 2017 "Missing you" Erik Hassle January 30, 2017 "Respect" Aretha Franklin August 18, 2018 "Money" (sung only by Bernie Sanders) Cardi B August 21, 2019 "Woah" Krypto9095 November 27, 2019
Media coverage The videos have been featured on Huffington Post, Gawker, Rolling Stone, Yahoo!, Mashable, and several other online news publications. Following Barack Obama's reelection in 2012, Today announced Baracksdubs first post-election video of U Can't Touch This by MC Hammer.
Reception The video for "Uptown Funk" was called "cleverly edited" by ABC7 New York and Hello!. HuffPost UK called the video of Obama singing Michael Jackson's Thriller "The best thing you'll see today." The video for "Fuck Donald Trump" by YG and Nipsey Hussle, released in July 2016, but went viral on Facebook in November, the week of the 2016 Presidential Election, reaching 26 million views by the end of the week. The International Business Times reported a mix of comments on the video "Fancy", including one that said, "The worst song in history by the worst artist in history, dubbed by the worst US President in history. Suck it down, people. Suck it down" and another that said, "Hilarious !! Better than Iggy".
The videos have been shared on social media by the artists whose songs were used, including LMFAO and Justin Beiber. Iggy Azalea shared the video made of her song "Fancy" to her followers on Twitter. "Uptown Funk" producer, Mark Ronson, shared the video on Twitter with the message, "Bless you for this, @barcksdubs," according to Hello! Magazine.
References
External links
Baracksdubs on Spotify