President Barack Obama kicked off American Idol‘s series finale in a video message to celebrate the show’s legacy and encourage more people to register to vote. President Obama isn’t actually due in L.A. for a couple more hours but the Commander-In-Chief showed up on the American Idol finale tonight. Acknowledging “not all of us can sing like Kelly Clarkson,” Obama told viewers of the very last episode of the Fox series “all of our voices matter.”

Opening up the jam packed 2-hour end to Idol’s fifteen season run, the President praised Idol for having “transformed television” and, in what must have been a reference to its once stellar ratings, haing “reached historic heights.” Of course, Obama wasn’t just appearing on Idol via prerecorded video to talk about Idol but also to encourage Americans to vote in elections like the up coming Presidential race.

He added that Idol's legacy includes the audience who voted. "You participated in Idol's success. The same is true of America," he said.

"So go to vote.gov and register," Obama added.