Whether you consider yourself a Republican or a Democrat, Independent or blissfully unaware, one thing’s for certain when it comes to President Barack Obama: the man can sing. While speaking at a fundraiser at Harlem’s historic Apollo Theater, Obama belted a couple phrases of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” and even the original soul singer is in shock from what he heard.

This past Thursday night, about 1,400 supporters attended the fundraiser, which included performances from Al Green and India.Arie. And after singing a few bars of Green’s classic hit, Obama addressed the singer in the audience, “Don’t worry Rev, I cannot sing like you, but I just wanted to show my appreciation.”

And Green is returning the compliment, telling TMZ that Obama’s singing is “terrific” and ”he nailed it.”

Even more so, American Idol associate music director and vocal coach Michael Orland is a little too excited about Obama’s musical abilities.

“I swear to you, if he auditioned for me in the big stadium [rounds], I would have put him through to the producers immediately,” Orland told MTV News. “I think he was really charming and had a great voice…I thought his phrasing was great, how he broke it up and really worked the room while he was doing it.” All that, after two lines of lyrics.

Obama’s pitch is pretty impressive though. “He was in the exact same key [as Al Green's recording]. To pull that out of the air, with everything perfectly in tune, I was really impressed,” Orland added.

However, Al Green said, “I was thrilled that the President even mentioned my name, and if the President can get the economy going again and get everything going that he wants to, then we’ll all be together.”

Strangest backhanded compliment ever, straight from a supporter who performed at the fundraiser…

Anyway, watch the short clip below:

What’d you think of Obama’s singing abilities? Should he try out for ‘The X Factor’ if he doesn’t score a second term? (There’s no age limit on that show…)

Ashley is a UC San Diego grad who is holding on way too tightly to a potential career in magazines and goes to Vegas all too often. She’s fascinated with celebrities and strawberry beer and doubles as a pathological texter/emailer/blogger. Feed the addiction with tweets @cashleelee. Thanks in advance.

Have you ever been stuck in a funk that, even though your friends are concerned and your finals are creeping up, you really just don’t want to get out of it just yet? Like you just want to crawl into your Snuggie with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and while listening to a song that articulates your inexpressible feelings so perfectly?

Let me tell you, as a newly single girl, I know the feeling. I thought I practically invented this ritual until I realized that this guy named Brandyn Burnette is actually exploiting it by mashing together two of the most overplayed tracks on my “Feel Sorry for Myself” playlist.

Burnette released the video for ‘Rain Over You’—a mashup of ‘It Will Rain’ by Bruno Mars (from the Breaking Dawn soundtrack) and Gavin Degraw’s ‘Not Over You.’ He’s an NYU student who’s already made Internet waves with viral covers of Demi Lovato and Lil Wayne, and thankfully, he’s signed to Warner Bros Records and currently working on his debut album.

But until that’s released, enjoy the video below. Over and over again. Heartstrings, beware.

Have you heard of Brandyn Burnette before? And am I missing out on any other amazing YouTube cover artists?!

I love discovering new music, so going to concerts is one of my favorite ways to spend a weeknight (when I should probably be studying instead). That’s why missing concerts simply because I didn’t hear about them until too late is one of my biggest pet peeves.

But I’ve recently come across a new site that ensures I won’t ever miss another show: SuperGlued. SuperGlued features a concert calendar, so you can browse upcoming shows in your area, and also notifies you of upcoming concerts you might want to attend.

Upcoming concert alerts aren’t all that SuperGlued has to offer, however. The site also links to all your existing social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr and Instagram. You can easily check in, share tweets, pictures and videos of concerts you’ve gone to — making it easy to connect with fellow concertgoers, and maybe even find a new concert buddy! The site also imports your top 100 favorite artists from your last.fm account and lets you know when they’re playing a show in your area.

SuperGlued also offers contests periodically, where you can earn points simply by doing things you already use SuperGlued for — like posting pictures and videos or Tweeting about the band.

In addition to all that, SuperGlued is also available as an awesome iPhone or Android app. The app has a really cool “Recommend” feature which scans your iTunes library and recommends a concert you might like based on your musical tastes. That would come in handy when you can’t decide what to do on a Friday or Saturday night!

You'll be staring at your laptops every Saturday, just like these two.

I’m a pop culture junkie who just graduated from college, moved to LA and rediscovered the magic of television. Because seriously, who has time to keep up with the Kardashians—or any of our favorite celebrities—amidst midterms, internships, rush week and grad school applications? Well from now on, I’m gonna make sure that you do.

Here’s the deal: while you’re out slammin’ shots with friends or cuddling with your summer lover (made it all the way to October—congrats!), I’m spending Friday nights with my eye on the silver screen and my ear on the red carpet. Be sure to scroll through CollegeCandy on Saturdays for breaking Hollywood headlines and regretful celebrity blunders that will make you feel a BILLION times better about that vengeful morning hangover.

But if I typed up something that made your head pound a little harder, let me know on Twitter @cashleelee. It won’t be the first time I’ve induced a headache—and I know it won’t be the last—but I’d love to hear from you, good or bad!

Here are a few things I won’t be shutting up about anytime soon:

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Did I miss something? Tweet me and let me know! I’ll just be double-checking if there really will be a Heidi Montag tell-all while streaming Deena Nicole’s “Fallin’” cover. Thank you to whoever rescues me.

I’m a big reader, but I know that not everyone feels the same — some people I know would much rather watch a movie than read a book. I get it — movies have awesome special affects, scores and sound effects that make the whole experience more exciting. But now there’s a new App that aims to make reading more like watching a movie!

Booktrack takes your e-reading experience to another level by adding a soundtrack. Booktracks  are e-books that play music and sound effects to go along with the story you’re reading. So, as the website explains, if you’re reading about the character in the book is at a nightclub, you’ll hear club music, or if you’re reading about war, you’ll hear the sound of soldier’s footsteps marching. What’s more, Booktrack tracks your reading speed and changes the music and effects to fit what you’re reading at the time.

Way cool, right?

Booktrack is still brand new, so they only have a few titles, but I’m sure  Booktracks are available for download for iPhone and iPad at the iTunes App store (support for Android, Macs/PCs and other devices are coming soon). Some titles are free to download, while others cost an affordable $1 to $4.

I can’t wait to start building my Booktrack library!

This popped up on my Pandora page, and I couldn’t help but be distracted by it.  Playtex’s current ad campaign is based on the idea that “every woman’s body is different,” and at first glance it’s a pretty standard tampon ad. Lots of pink and girly girls – note the skirts and long hair. But if you look at this ad, you’ll see that two out of the three female figures depicted here are almost identical, just posed differently. The woman in the middle and the one on the right are both very slim. They are ideal according to the “thin is in” mentality glorified in the media, but in all likelihood quite a bit smaller than the average American woman. The woman on the left is the only who looks “different,” as her silhouette is significantly more curvy than the others featured in the ad. (I’ll be using “curvy” as a very relative term – obviously, the “curvy” woman here is really pretty average, but she’s rather curvy in comparison to the other women in the ad.)

This is a tampon ad, and obviously a woman’s physical appearance has nothing to do with what type of tampon is right for her. But because it presents a picture of female silhouettes, in which we can see only the superficial outlines of three bodies, the focus of this ad becomes female body size and shape.

Each female figure in the ad is paired with an adjective. The curvier woman is described as “empowered,” while the other two women are “chill” and “bubbly,” respectively. This ad is supposed to be about “different” body types, and yet the female figures we see are characterized using adjectives that describe their personalities. What does a woman’s body type have to do with her personality? The prominent placement of these adjectives directly above the women’s heads presents this strange connection between physical appearance and personality as obvious and simple.

What really got me thinking was the fact that the ad’s token curvy girl is described as “empowered.” This isn’t a negative adjective. In fact, I would be flattered if someone used it to describe me. But “empowered” is very different from “chill” and “bubbly.” “Chill” and “bubbly” are adjectives that sound fun and friendly. They make the thinner girls seem like they’d be fun to hang out with (if they weren’t cartoons). “Empowered,” on the other hand, is more a state of mind or state of being. While it might be a positive description, it says nothing about whether this woman is friendly, or if she would be fun to hang out with. “Chill” and “bubbly” are light, casual words. But “empowered” carries more weight. And this ad is all about fun, pink girliness. So what makes the curvy woman so different? Why didn’t she get a fun adjective? Is this curvy girl “empowered” because she is confident despite the fact that movies, magazines and the internet tell her she should be different?

Maybe Playtex’s intent here was to celebrate all body types, and say that curvier women should feel empowered, because they’re beautiful. But if that’s the case, then why doesn’t the ad actually feature a range of body types? What I see here are two skinny girls and one “alternative” body type. This ad says that curvy is ok, too, but skinny wins out two to one. If that’s not the case, then why create this skinny vs. curvy dynamic, with one clear outsider? It’s just too coincidental that the one different-looking girl was assigned the unusual adjective.

Finally, the point of the ad is to promote three sponsored Pandora stations that listeners can choose from. You are supposed to drag one image/word combination to the box to play the station. The image and word cannot be separated. So, potential listeners are not choosing a body type or an adjective, they’re choosing a body type and an adjective together.

What does that say to women who identify as curvy and bubbly? Or skinny women who would rather be empowered than chill?

Obviously Playtex could never design an ad that would really include all body types, because they’re right, every woman’s body is different. But this is a product designed for and marketed to women. The very least they could do is treat us as intelligent, individual consumers and stop equating outer appearance with inner attributes. That might make me interested in their product.

Ah, the ’90s. A tacky but wonderful time. And there’s nothing better on a hot summer day than a blast from the not-so-distant ’90s past. Ever wonder what happened to some of those artists that you used to play over and over again on your Walkman? Well bust out your old CD (not mp3) collection, because you’re about to find out.

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Summertime is the prime season for music festivals — it’s hot, people don’t have to work and they make for great vacations. But for those of you who are music festival virgins, it can be hard to determine which festival is your scene. Well now you can breathe easy because this article will break it down for you.

Bonnaroo kicks off today and music lovers everywhere have collectively peed their pants in anticipation for its 10th anniversary. If you’re one of the thousands heading south, grab your tent, your dry shampoo and loads of extra deodorant because this Tennessee music festival is not for the faint of heart.

If you think sleeping on the ground and getting your groove on in record heat is going to be a challenge, wait ’til we introduce you to the seven folks you’re just bound to meet at the festival. Embrace it, ladies, the (ah-may-zing!) people watching comes with the price of admission. For those College Candy readers lucky enough to be going, take note.

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Facebook…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like College Daybreak, RescueTime and Bake It In a Cake) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

When you work out, listening to music is an absolute necessity for keeping your concentration and motivating you. I usually make playlists on my iPod to listen to while I’m running or working out at the gym, but I find myself getting sick of hearing the same songs over and over again, and creating new playlists can get pretty time-consuming.

Making new workout playlists is a whole lot easier with Jog.fm. Jog.fm is a resource of all the best workout music — just enter in your mile time and Jog.fm will convert your pace to BPMs (beats per minute) and provide you with a list of songs that fit your pace. The playlists are ordered in such a way that the perfect song will come on exactly when you need it to give you that last boost to drive you through the rest of your workout. You can also browse songs and playlists individually based on BPMs and workout time — so you can find the music to fit your workout perfectly.

Jog.fm also features direct links to buy the songs through Amazon or iTunes, as well as an integration for Google Maps to help you plan a your running route.

And Jog.fm isn’t just for running/jogging — there’s also Cycle.Jog.fm and Walk.Jog.fm. So no matter what your workout of choice may be, Jog.fm will help you create the perfect playlist!

Pretty cool, eh? Well, there’s plenty more web where that came from. Check out the other sites that are on Laura’s web radar!