‘Bieber fever': Music playlists of world elite exposed
Vice President JD Vance is a big fan of the Backstreet Boys' 'I Want It That Way.'
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gets pumped up with Beyonce's 'Run the World (Girls)' — and there's one very prominent politician who loves Nelly's 'Hot In Herre.'
That's all according to the Panama Playlists — a site that quietly went live Wednesday and claims to reveal the private music tastes of a slew of public figures.
'I found the real Spotify accounts of celebrities, politicians, and journalists.
'Many use their real names. With a little sleuthing, I could say with near-certainty: yep, this is them,' the anonymous eavesdropper wrote.
'We've been scraping their accounts since summer 2024.
'Playlists, live listening feed, everything. I know what songs they played, when, and how many times,' they wrote, also stating the project has not affiliation with company 'Spotify.'
The anonymous researcher told The Post that they became convinced in the authenticity of each account as the months of monitoring went on.
Graphics of each person were mocked to resemble Spotify's 'This Is…' playlist category. Picture: panamaplaylists.com
'I gained confidence in each person by looking at lots of signals. An example is Pam Bondi. Her longtime partner is John Wakefield, and her profile has an old playlist called 'john' and an old shared playlist with a user named 'John Wakefield,' so that gives me a lot of confidence it is her account.'
'Karoline Leavitt's profile has a playlist called 'Baby Shower,' and she had a baby a month after the playlist was made,' the owner of the website told The Post, emphasising they only collected publicly available information.
It all seems to be a bit of summer fun, that reveals the questionable, ironic and sometimes too-on-the-nose music choices of America's rich and powerful.
'Heard of the Panama Papers? That exposed offshore bank accounts. This is about onshore vibes,' the site says.
Here is a sample of what 'Panama Playlists' found.
Vice President JD Vance is a fan of the songs 'I Want It That Way' by the Backstreet Boys and 'One Time' by Justin Bieber, both of which appear on his oft-listened to 'Making Dinner' playlist.
The millennial veep also appears to be a fan of pop-punk, with several songs from the early aughts favourite Death Cab for Cutie appearing on his playlist 'Gold On The Ceiling.'
On that playlist, Vance shows off an eclectic taste in tunes, selecting songs 'Fade Into You' by Mazzy Star, 'Pepper,' by Butthole Surfers, 'Signs' by band Tesla, and 'Take a Walk' from Passion Pit.
FTX fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried has three public playlists — 'rap' 'soft' and 'loud' — which feature plenty of Eminem, also Death Cab for Cutie, and song 'Young Dumb, Broke' from Khalid.
The site claims to expose the music taste and habits of some of the world elite. Picture: panamaplaylists.com
Karoline Leavitt had the songs 'Run the World (Girls)' by Beyonce and 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' from Cyndi Lauper on her 'Baby Shower' playlist.
Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson's liked tracks on his Pandora account include 'Parachutes' from the movie 'Air Force One' and the 'Finding Nemo/Nemo Egg' theme performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.
He's also into 'One Night Love Affair' by Bryan Adams and 'May It Be' by Enya.
Social media gadfly Taylor Lorenz's public playlists include 'Older Millenial College Rager TBT' and 'Breakup Songs' —- but her 'Favs' include tracks 'Romeo and Juliet' from Dire Straits and 'You Can Get It If You Really Want' from reggae legend Jimmy Cliff.
Pam Bondi prefers the more upbeat tracks on her playlist named 'Pam' — including Nelly's immortal jam 'Hot In Herre,' 'Hands to Myself' by Selena Gomez, and 'Fix My Eyes' from band For King & Country.'
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's 'My Shazam Tracks' — meaning songs he likely looked up — include the well-known 'Get Ur Freak On' by Missy Elliott, 'Make Me Feel Your Love,' by Adele, and 'Vivir Mi Vida' from Marc Anthony.
'We've been scraping their accounts since summer 2024.' Picture: Getty
Coinsbase CEO Brian Armstrong has a playlist called 'Repeat' that is the song 'Long Way Home' by Gareth Emery saved 60 times.
And Florida Governer Ron DeSantis is a major classic rock fan with his only public playlist featuring iconic songs 'Ring of Fire' by Johnny Cash, 'Southern Nights' from the rhinestone cowboy Glen Campbell, and The Charlie Daniels Band's 'The Devil Went Down To Georgia.'
This story first appeared in the New York Post and was republished with permission.
Originally published as 'Bieber fever': Music playlists of world elite exposed
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