Hours before Michelle Obama entered the stage for her “Becoming Live” tour in Atlanta, her fans and supporters formed a line outside of State Farm Arena. Some held Obama’s book, Becoming, which broke a record by selling over 10 million copies. It currently stands as the biggest selling memoir of all-time.
The event began with a short documentary inspired by the book.
Although billed as an intimate conversation with Gayle King, Obama’s “Becoming Live” felt more like a concert. Alicia Key’s “Girl on Fire” blasted as King introduced Obama.
For 90 minutes, the two discussed Obama’s early life, meeting and falling in love with Barack Obama, and the joys and pains of serving as First Lady of the United States.
“I’ve been at probably every powerful table there is in the world,” Obama said. “And I am coming down from the mountaintop to tell every young person that is poor, and working class, and that was told, regardless of the color of your skin, that you don’t belong: Don’t listen to them. They don’t even know how they got in those seats.”
Obama made it a point to stay away from politics during the discussion by calling it a “politics-free” zone.
However, Obama did reveal that she had no plans to run for president because it takes more than just being likable.
“Oprah, she’s nice, she’s got a great TV show, she should be president. Y’all, that’s not how it works.,,We tried that,” taking a jab at the 45th U.S. President who was a reality TV star before winning the election in 2016.
Obama’s 33-city tour will make its final stop on May 12 in Nashville, Tennessee.
