Crush on Obama
2007 song

"Crush on Obama" is an Internet viral video, first posted on YouTube in June 2007 featuring a young woman seductively singing of her love for then-U.S. Senator (later President) Barack Obama.
Background
The video was produced by BarelyPolitical.com, was lip-synched for the video by actress and model Amber Lee Ettinger, and Leah Kauffman (of "My Box in a Box" fame) provided the vocals.
The concept was the brainchild of 32-year-old advertising executive Ben Relles. "Crush on Obama" was co-written and produced by Rick Friedrich. The creators sold two shirts and the red shorts used in the video in an eBay auction. One of the shirts garnered $1,000. Proceeds from the auction were donated to the Philadelphia Committee to End Homelessness. On May 25, 2007, Ben Relles placed an ad on the online classified website, Craigslist, seeking a music video director. The ad was answered by filmmakers Kevin Arbouet and Larry Strong. Filming began later that same day in and around various New York City landmarks.
The public source identifies “Crush on Obama” as 2007 song. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Crush, Obama and song.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5977328. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2007.
Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Crush on Obama” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.