This honor is due to Obama’s appearance on “One Last Time (44 Remix),” the latest of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton remixes. Released late last month, the track features Christopher Jackson (who originated the George Washington role in Hamilton) performing a new take on the musical’s “One Last Time” as Obama recites a portion of George Washington’s actual farewell address from 1796. In other words, it combined Hamilton—which people love—and reminiscing about the pre-Trump days—which people also love—and turned it into a cool new song.
“One Last Time (44 Remix)“ debuted at the 22nd spot on the “Hot R&B Songs” chart, but The Hollywood Reporter points out that Obama has technically made two appearances on a couple of now-defunct Billboard charts before this that don’t really count—specifically the old TV DVD sales chart and something called “Billboard + Twitter Emerging Artists.” Nobody cares about TV shows on DVD and Twitter has since been exposed as a miserable hellscape, so we’re counting this as his first real Billboard appearance.
