After her sell-out visit to London in December, Michelle Obama is back in the capital this weekend and at a much bigger venue.
On Sunday evening the former US First Lady is speaking at the O2 Arena, which has a capacity of 20,000 – almost 10 times the number of people who were able to buy tickets for Obama’s appearance at the Southbank Centre in 2018 (though more than 55,000 tried).
Obama’s ‘Becoming: An Intimate Conversation’ tour follows on from her autobiography of the same name, which has now sold more than 10 million copies worldwide – 618,000 of those in the UK.
Prior to the event, Obama said she had been “humbled by the response” to the tour and was pleased to have another chance to visit communities she hadn’t met before, saying: “I can’t wait to continue the discussions that have been so meaningful for me and, I hope, for so many others.”
When she last visited the UK, 300 school children from south London were among those to attend the Southbank event for free. HuffPost UK spoke to some of those who were invited from the Elmgreen School in Tulse Hill.
“She gives black girls like me something to relate to and shows us that we can thrive in a system that wasn’t made for us,” said Renée, 17, at the time.
And 16-year-old Anna said: “It inspires me to see such possibility. I think a lot of people don’t feel empowered enough to achieve but she’s shown what you can do when you work hard and have the power of self-belief.”
Attendees on Sunday night will hear honest reflections on her life, covering everything from her childhood in Chicago to her career in the law, marriage to husband Barack, motherhood, and time in the White House as First Lady.
During the 2018 tour segment, she disclosed previously unknown facts about her time as a lawyer (she hated it), her plans to run for office (she has none), and how she used IVF to conceive her daughters Sasha, 17, and Malia, 20.
It’s not just teenagers who have succumbed to the Michelle Obama effect – women also told HuffPost UK how much the book ‘Becoming’ meant to them.
“Her relatability for so many women, especially women of colour and black women, is so significant,” HuffPost reader Jameela Raymond, 29, said of Michelle and her partnership with Barack Obama. “Their debates around whether or not to have children, the community they built together in Chicago, and their respect for each other’s opinions reminded me even the best people in the world have to put in work to have a successful relationship.”
Reader Catherine Barton, 35, said: “It’s hard to imagine a book by the first black First Lady growing up in Chicago in the 60s and 70s could be relatable to a white suburban mother who grew up in England in the 80s and 90s – but she pulls it off. It shows the universality not only of having kids, but also of the ‘striver’ mentality found in lots of women and how to reflect on that.”
Interviewed on stage in December by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Obama said: “We all come here with the same gifts and talent as everyone else, it isn’t limited by skin colour or political party or gender.”
She added: “If we plant the right seeds we can change lives, that’s the hope – I want to do that wherever we go.”