SXSW Day Two: FLOTUS with Queen Latifah and Missy Elliott on 'Let Girls Learn'

Last week, POTUS came to SXSW. On Wednesday, it was FLOTUS' turn.

After her husband appeared at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin on Friday, First Lady Michelle Obama arrived in town on Wednesday morning, and on a day her husband was back in Washington introducing a new Supreme Court nominee, she brought along Missy Elliott, Queen Latifah, actress Sophia Bush and songwriter Diane Warren for her keynote to SXSW Music in support of her Let Girls Learn global education initiative.

Long lines and bleary eyes have been seen before at the Austin Convention Center for big name keynotes like Brice Springsteen and Lady Gaga talking up badgeholders at the unholy hour rock and roll hour of 11 a.m. But even by those standards, demand for Mrs. Obama was intense, and lines were extra long thanks to the added feature of secret service full body wanding.

After an introductory video which cited statistics that 62 million girls school age girls around the world are not being educated. Barack Obama summed it up:  "Every child is precious. Every girl is precious. Let girls learn."

The First Lady's SXSW appearance launched the web site 62milliongirls.com and the initiative's would be anthem in the FLOTUS commissioned Warren penned "This Is For My Girls," a charity fund raising anthem featuring Zendaya, Kelly Rowland, Lea Michele, Kelly Clarkson, Janelle Monae, Jadagrace as well as Beyonce's teenage protégés Chloe and Halle, who opened the show on Wednesday morning. Mrs. Obama said all proceeds from the song, which was executive produced by the AOL's women's website Makers.com and is for sale on iTunes, will go to the Peace Corps' Let Girls Learn international fund.

The event was structured as a panel discussion, with Latifah leading the way, and each of the women telling personal stories about transformative moments on the path to empowerment. "As artists when we have been given vision, we need to speak," said Elliot. "All hope is not gone because somebody told you couldn't do something. Nobody becomes anything without a struggle."

Mrs. Obama told the audience in the packed ballroom and the streaming at SXSW.com audience about the kidnapping of over 200 girls by Nigerian terrorist organization Boko Haram in in 2013 as a flashpoint.

"Just that sense of anger and unfairness and iniquity," said the First Lady, who later, at Latifah's prompting on the subject of her time left in the White House, broke into a chorus of Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye To Yesterday."

 (She also answered a favorite album question from the audience with Stevie Wonder's Talking Book. "I played that album over and over and over. And then Songs In The Key Of Life came out...")

"It starts with something that moves you personally," she said about her commitment to Let Girls Learn. "And for me, 62 million girls not getting an education, that's personal."

Latifah, who advised conference goers to "find your passion, turn it into action," closed the show by asking FLOTUS the questions she said were the two most people asked her to pose: What will she miss the most, and Will she run for President?

Short answers: Working with young people, and No, though she will continue championing causes she's worked towards in the White House.

"One reason for that is I have these young people at home," she said, referring to daughters Sasha and Malia. "And they've handled it with elegance and grace. But enough is enough."

Previously: SXSW Day One: Chill Moody and Vita & the Woolf at the Amplify Philly party Follow In The Mix on Twitter and Instagram