The Pleasure Ridge Park High School choir from Louisville, Kentucky will take the stage tonight, on Saturday, February 16 to perform the song “I Want To Know What Love Is” with Foreigner, who will be in concert at Belterra Casino in Florence, Indiana at 7 p.m.
The choir recently won a radio contest that earned them the opportunity to sing with the band. In return, Foreigner is donating $500 to the choir for appearing with them and the monies will be used to support the school’s music program. Other choirs around the country are also backing the band as part of their current tour.
“Originally, the song ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ was backed by a gospel choir,” said longtime Foreigner band member Thomas Gimbel (background vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sax and flute) in a recent interview. “It is the New Jersey Mass Choir singing on the album. They were in the video. So, it was a classic moment when they were swaying in the robes and everything. For many years, on many occasions, we have had a gospel choir come up and join us.”
“We are trying to help with VH1’s Save the Music (www.vh1savethemusic.com) and the GRAMMY Foundation (www.grammy.org/grammy-foundation), which supports and raises monies to help schools, who are having their music budgets taken away from them. We want to do as much as we can to help,” Gimbel said. “We came up with the idea to have choirs send in demo tapes and videos. And, as a result, many of them have had the opportunity to come up on stage and sing with us.”
He said various choirs from high schools, colleges and churches all have joined the band on stage for “I Want To Know What Love Is” over the years.
“It’s turned into this wonderful thing, where the kids come up and they sing. You can see the look of exhilaration on their faces and it is equally uplifting for us,” Gimbel said. “Consistently, we’ve had some tremendous sounding choirs.”
Fans can expect to Foreigner to headline the sold out show with some of the band’s greatest hits like "Cold As Ice," "Hot Blooded" and "Urgent to Jukebox Hero," "Waiting For A Girl Like You" and many more.
The band's latest CD, a three-disc set entitled Feels Like the First Time, features two CDs (one contains acoustic versions of the hits and the other CD contains newly recorded studio versions of the hits), and a DVD of “Live In Chicago,” which was released on Razor & Tie Records on September 13. Feels Like the First Time debuted in the Billboard Top 200 chart at No. 43. To date, the band has sold more than 70 million albums, worldwide. Several of the band’s songs are also featured in the Rock of Ages film.
Audiences can get a preview of what they can expect from the show by checking out Foreigner’s live performance from the 9/19/11 concert that was aired on the 15th anniversary show of the “Fox & Friends.” http://video.foxnews.com/v/1167860160001/foreigner-rocks-the-villages/
For more information, the latest news and tour dates, visit www.foreigneronline.com, or stop by Belterra’s Website at www.belterracasino.com.
Comments