HOMETOWN ENTERTAINMENT: Hidden Valley High School choir to perform with Foreigner at Salem Civic Center

SALEM, Va. (WDBJ) -The 1984 hit, “I Want to Know What Love Is,” is one of Foreigner’s signature songs.

Sunday, a Salem Civic Center audience will get to hear a different take of that classic song.

After winning a contest, the Hidden Valley High School Choir will perform it along with the legendary band.

“When we got the news that we won, all I did was -- I was listening to the radio, and I posted a story on our choir Instagram and it blew up .I mean, our students are stoked,” says Andrew Miller, the choral teacher at Hidden Valley Middle and High School.

In turn, Foreigner is donating $500 to the choir’s chorus program.

“So, it’s been a campaign we’ve been doing for years now as a collaboration with the Grammy Foundation to raise awareness about music programs in schools, because as we know with budget cuts, a lot of times arts programs, music programs are the first ones to go,” says Foreigner keyboardist Michael Bluestein.

Bluestein says he was a Foreigner fan before joining the band in 2008.

“I think there’s just a- with these songs, they’re just such a part of our fabric, you know, being Americans growing up in the ‘70s, ‘80s,” says Bluestein.

Just as the “Greatest Hits Tour” title suggests, Bluestein says Sunday night’s audience at the Salem Civic Center will get to hear Foreigner songs they know and love. And he’s excited for the opportunity the Hidden Valley choir will enjoy during their performance.

“When these kids get a chance to do this and get up and sing ‘I want to know what love is,’ with the band and you just see the joy and the excitement in the teenagers being able to come up and do that, with a band-- their parents are out there, their friends are out there, and it’s just really exciting,” says Bluestein.

You might recall in 2019, another local choir from Christiansburg High School also won the opportunity to perform with Foreigner.

“This is just a cool opportunity to see your choir, your kids, your friends up there onstage-- even for a just brief moment in a song, it’s still cool to see them get on stage and perform with a world-renowned band,” says Miller.

Bluestein’s advice for choir kids everywhere: Be true to yourself.

“I think that chasing the stuff that really moves you, at the end of the day, is the most important and is going to be the most successful,” says Bluestein.

You can catch Foreigner, along with the Hidden Valley choir, Sunday, May 21 at 8 p.m. at the Salem Civic Center. Click here for a link to buy tickets.

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