Aretha Franklin and Condoleezza Rice Performance

Aretha Franklin and Condoleezza Rice Performance – Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served under the controversial Bush Administration, and Aretha Franklin, the ultimate diva of soul, have joined together to perform a duet for a charity gig.

Rice may have gained a reputation in politics, but her original love was music. She is a classically trained pianist, and so her participation in the duet might not be as strange as it sounds.

The performance will be held at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia, where they will be raising money to increase musical awareness in inner-city youth, and promote music programs meant to help get children off of the street.


They will start out by performing two songs together. Rice will accompany Franklin on the piano to (You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman and I Say a Little Prayer, before she goes on to play Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D Minor.

With music programs often one of the first things to go when a school faces budget cuts, and those cuts increasingly common in urban areas due to the recession, both Rice and Franklin are hoping to attribute enough funds to allow those programs to be maintained.

Philadelphia has become well known in recent years for its cutthroat elimination of various art programs in both primary and secondary schools.

When Franklin heard about this, she approached Rice, who she had met at a White House function during her time as the Secretary of State, and asked her to play.

Rice spent her life performing with quartets and choirs, but says she has not performed with an orchestra since she was 18.