Everything H.E.R. touches turns to gold. So much so that Michelle and Barack Obama enlisted her to work on their 10-part Netflix series, “We the People.”
There is a three-minute animated music video covering a range of basic U.S. civics lessons during each episode. Janelle Monáe, Brandi, Andra Day, poet Amanda Gorman and of course, H.E.R. are among the artists included in the series.
“It was more exciting more than anything, it made me really want to, you know, kill it just because of them being attached and them being a part of it,” H.E.R. says of working with the Obamas. “It’s like, wow, you know, I am a part of something that the Obamas [did]. It’s kind of life-changing, you know?”
H.E.R. stressed the importance of young people getting involved in the community early.
“Sometimes you think, ‘I’m just a kid,’ or, ‘That’s a job for the adults,’ but the youth is really the beginning of the rest of our lives,” she explains. “I would like to believe my generation and younger, we’re going to set the tone for the future and it’s up to us to be informed.”
The Grammy award-winning singer added, “I always say, you know, you can’t understand today without understanding yesterday, and so I think kids are going to start being more proactive and not reactive and really take control of our future. And we’ll learn from those things that we learned in the past, and make a difference and make a change when they know that they can — that they have the power to — and this project is going to empower people. I mean, it empowered me.”
The series was created by “Doc McStuffins” creator Chris Nee, and executive produced by “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris, alongside the Obamas.
“We the People” is now available to stream on Netflix.
