Michelle Obama releases song with help from Missy Elliott and Zendaya

Michelle Obama has released a star-studded new song ahead of her speech at the South by Southwest music festival on Wednesday.

Written by Diane Warren, This is for My Girls – an anthem of female empowerment – features Missy Elliott, Janelle Monaé, Kelly Rowland, Kelly Clarkson, Lea Michele, Zendaya and others. The first lady commissioned the song, produced by AOL Makers for her Let Girls Learn education initiative.

“It’s kind of like We Are the World meets Lady Marmalade with these strong voices and strong women,” Warren told Billboard in an interview about the song.

Warren and Obama recruited the artists, who have worked with Warren on other projects, for the song.

“Aside from being great singers, they’re all strong women. Like Kelly Clarkson, she doesn’t take shit from anybody, you know?” Warren said. “None of these girls do. And how cool is it that Missy Elliott is on it? Her rap is amazing. She wrote the rap. I left that to her. The rap is really inspired on it.”

This is for My Girls is available for purchase on iTunes. Proceeds from sales of the song will go to the Peace Corps Let Girls Learn Fund. The single is a part of the Obama’s #62MillionGirls global education initiative, which she will discuss in her speech at SXSW. Warren, Elliott and Sophia Bush will also feature during Obama’s speech.

In conjunction with the release of the song, Obama also penned a letter for Lena Dunham’s newsletter, Lenny, in which she highlighted her personal connection to the global education initiative. As first lady, she has traveled and met several girls who don’t have access to education, for a variety of reasons, Obama wrote.

“I’ve met girls who make long, dangerous journeys each day to school and then come home and study for hours each night. I’ve met girls studying at rickety desks in bare concrete classrooms who are raising their hands so hard they’re almost falling out of their chairs,” Obama wrote. “I see myself in these girls – in their ambition and their determination to rise above their circumstances.”