Foo Fighters weren’t the only musicians grabbing headlines in the nation’s capital on the 4th of July. Over on the lawn outside the Capitol, Natasha Bedingfield performed for a few thousand people in a show that also featured Barry Manilow and Aretha Franklin. Her special guests? A handful of Muppets from “Sesame Street,” including Elmo, Oscar the Grouch and Cookie Monster. Bedingfield even sang “Yankee Doodle Dandy” with Big Bird.

The “Pocket Full of Sunshine” singer (who is from the U.K. but doesn’t seem embittered by the Revolutionary War) is working on a new album with a bevy of collaborators, including Brian Kennedy (Rihanna’s “Disturbia”) and Mike Elizondo.