P Diddy put his birthday celebrations on hold on Tuesday morning to vote for Barack Obama.

Diddy has been campaigning for people to vote and he wanted to set a good example by visiting a polling station in New York - on his 39th birthday.

The rapper says, "This is the most important thing you can do, I would say, in this lifetime.

"I felt like my vote was the vote that put him (Obama) into office. It was down to one vote, and that was going to be my vote. And that may not be true, but that's how much power it felt like I had.

"I'm not trying to be dramatic, but I just felt like Martin Luther King, and I felt the whole civil rights movement, I felt all that energy, and I felt my kids. It was all there at one time. It was a joyous moment.

Other early celebrity music voters included Fall Out Boy stars Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz, who hit polling stations in Los Angeles. Singer stump found himself voting alongside actress Selma Blair.

Speaking to his fans, Stump said, "It's (vote) the only thing you have to do today."