Here Are Your Condi/Aretha Pics

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left at piano, and Aretha Franklin perform at The Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Tuesday, July 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

So there you go: it really happened! The Washington Post was on the scene:

Putting Aretha Franklin and Rice together on the stage had a kind of goofy brilliance. It was evidently Franklin who decided that the two should perform together; she may have sensed, with the same stage-animal instinct she demonstrated throughout the evening, that Rice would provide curiosity value to augment, or even showcase, Franklin's entertainment value.

[...]

There was a single duet with Rice, who emerged from the wings like a vision from a far more formal world, sat down at the piano and began "I Say a Little Prayer."

"You didn't think she could play it, right?" Franklin teased the audience.

But for all that Franklin had supposedly initiated this project, the on-stage interaction between the two women seemed distant; and this music certainly isn't Rice's home turf. In a nod to Rice's political roots, Franklin brought her back out to close with a song that she called "our national anthem" and turned out to be "My Country 'Tis of Thee" -- a mixed political message right in keeping with the general goofiness of the evening.

Here's a photo of the odd couple (not the oddest Condi's been part of) with their bouquets:

Condi's dress looks good! Well, let me backtrack. Condi's dress looked good while standing front and center, but it did her no favors while she performed:

And that, Pony Pals™, is pretty much all we're going to get out of Condi this year.

UPDATE – Actual video also courtesy the Associated Press.