--- title: White House Grilled Over Private Party With Prince, Stevie Wonder description: The White House was grilled over a private party Saturday that featured performances by Prince and Stevie Wonder. canonical: https://time.com/3921658/barack-obama-prince-stevie-wonder/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-15T18:18:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:02.765Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Grilled Over Private Party With Prince og:description: A spokesman said the concert was a private event. og:url: https://time.com/3921658/barack-obama-prince-stevie-wonder/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83d8913c80eb4f8a/69885495cd68486c7b0a05bb/barack-obama-stevie-wonder.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: U.S. President Barack Obama (L) presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to singer songwriter Stevie Wonder (R) during an East Room ceremony at the White House November 24, 2014 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Grilled Over Private Party With Prince twitter:description: A spokesman said the concert was a private event. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt83d8913c80eb4f8a/69885495cd68486c7b0a05bb/barack-obama-stevie-wonder.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Grilled Over Private Party With Prince, Stevie Wonder > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jun 15, 2015 6:18 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama (L) presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to singer songwriter Stevie Wonder (R) during an East Room ceremony at the White House November 24, 2014 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Barack Obama (L) presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to singer songwriter Stevie Wonder (R) during an East Room ceremony at the White House November 24, 2014 in Washington, DC.Alex Wong—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jun 15, 2015 6:18 PM UTC Stevie Wonder and Prince had a jam session at the White House over the weekend, but the public and the press weren’t invited. The event was not included on the President’s public schedule, though a White House spokesman confirmed it after the fact. Most information about the event came from social media posts of guests, many of whom were celebrities. During a regularly scheduled press briefing Monday, White House reporters grilled spokesman Josh Earnest, who said that the Obamas will personally foot the bill for the party. “The point is that the President and First Lady—and I think most people across the country would acknowledge, that is an appropriate thing for the president and first lady to do,” Earnest said. “Which is to open their house up to guests for a private party on a Saturday night.” Earnest repeatedly stressed that the event was not an official function. “President and First Lady did hold a private party at the White House over the weekend, but given the private nature of that event I don’t have a lot of details to discuss from here,” he said. The party’s guests, however, weren’t so tight-lipped. Rev. Al Sharpton tweeted from Washington that it was “awesome to see Prince and Stevie Wonder on the keyboards together,” at the White House party. > [](https://twitter.com/TheRevAl/status/609942247317106688) Football star Russell Wilson posted an [Instagram](https://instagram.com/p/36xBCRM7PV/) of himself and his date Ciara after “dancing at the White House” to Prince and Stevie Wonder. > [](https://twitter.com/DangeRussWilson/status/610139130908028929) Director[ Ava DuVernay](https://instagram.com/p/37hKixANcR/?taken-by=directher) called it “one of the best house parties I’ve ever been to.” ### See Photos of Barack Obama in College  Chance Encounter In 1980, when Obama was a freshman at Occidental College in Los Angeles, he was approached by an aspiring photographer named Lisa Jack, who asked him if he would be willing to pose for some black and white photographs that she could use in her portfolio. Lisa Jack  Handsome Of her first meeting (in a campus eatery) with Obama, Jack remembers only that "He was really cute. But what else does a 20-year-old girl remember?" Lisa Jack  Styled In the photos, Jack says, "You can see he is just posing, initially, but as the shoot goes on, he starts to come out. He was very charismatic even then." Lisa Jack  Prop Jack never realized her dream of becoming a photographer and is now a psychologist. Lisa Jack  Pose Jack and Obama would see each other only a few more times while students. But in 2005, while on a tour, she spotted Obama on Capitol Hill and yelled hello. "He knew exactly who I was after all this time," Jack says. "I was amazed." Lisa Jack  Doubt On a dare from a skeptical friend, Jack decided to track down her negatives from the shoot. Lisa Jack  Searcher Initially, before she dug the film out from her basement, Jack never thought her pictures would have much life beyond her own darkroom. Lisa Jack  Smile When she found them, the images of Obama "blew me away," she says. "I had no idea I'd taken a whole roll of film." Lisa Jack  Charm For a while, Jack put the negatives in a safety-deposit box, so that they could not be used until after the election, when there would be no chance they could be used for a political purpose.  Thoughtful Today, Jack says, she hopes the photos reveal a "spirit of fun and thoughtfulness." Lisa Jack  The Man Who Would Be President "I'm not political," Jack says, "(But) these are historic photos and they should be shared." 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