President Barack Obama celebrated his 50th birthday with a White House party

Members of the presidential team held a BBQ and a toast for Obama in the Blue Room of the White House during the afternoon. Then the party started in the evening with family and friends.

Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, Charles Barkley, Herbie Hancock, Jay-Z and Chris Rock were among the celebrities present.

The former Illinois senator, who posted a grin for most of the evening, was treated to music by The Temptations, Jennifer Hudson, Herbie Hancock, but also modern hits by Michael Jackson, Beyoncé and the Black Eyed Peas. Stevie Wonder made a special appearance and serenaded the President.

The party wrapped around midnight.

During the weekend the President joined his family at Camp David, the presidential residence in Maryland.

President Barack Obama was born August 4, 1961 in Hawaii , in the last years of the baby boom that followed the end of the Second World War. He is the third American president coming from the baby-boom of 1946-1964, representing more than 76 million people, after Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.