GREENSBORO, NC (WGHP) — Legendary rock band Foreigner played at the Tanger Center in Greensboro on Tuesday, November 14th in front of a sold-out crowd.
Among those there was the choir from Reagan High School in Winston-Salem. The students had been invited to perform a song with the band. Director Mignon Dobbins wasn’t sure they could fit it in because the fall is a busy time of year.
“I gave it a second because we have a pretty full schedule with everything coming up, lots of performances and I thought ‘do I do it? And I thought, how can I not do this?'”
So, she sent an email to her students and parents asking what they thought.
“They wrote back immediately when I asked the students and their parents if they wanted to take this on, the parents were responding faster than the students actually,” she said.
For Ava Ginsburg a freshman member of the choir, it was her mother’s response that got her excited.
“I came downstairs and my mom, she was like out of her mind,” says Ginsburg. “She was like ‘what, you’re singing at a Foreigner concert.’ And she knows, like, every word to all of their songs, she is mind blown. And then my dad’s like, OK.”
The students began learning the chorus to the band’s biggest hit “I Want To Know What Love Is,” but many of them already knew the words.
Taylor MacFarlane says he is a Foreigner fan.
“I’ve been listening to Foreigner my whole life since I was a kid, so I was really excited. “
So was Christian South. “I got like their greatest hits for my birthday,” he said. “Like right before like we got this trip announced in October. So, this was just a huge surprise for me.”
Peyton Huffman says she found the band on her own.
“It wasn’t like I was raised on it, but ever since I found it, I’ve always thought was a really cool band. Their music is great, voices are great. And I mean, this is like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I’d never thought I’d be able to do something like this,” she said.
The night of the show they arrived at the Tanger Center to get some instructions from the crew. They were told this is something Foreigner does frequently. It gives the choirs the opportunity of a lifetime and brings back wonderful memories to band members like Jeff Pilson.
“My mind goes to the first time I ever was on a big stage. And I can feel I can live it through their eyes. I feel what they’re feeling, and that excitement of looking out and seeing the crowd. It’s such an amazing feeling.”
That feeling is now a reality for the Reagan choir as they sang their hearts out, much to the delight of the crowd and the band, who hoped they learned from their experience.
“I would like them to see in us an example of a band that don’t take themselves too seriously, but take the music seriously,” says Pilson. “Deliver on the music and deliver on the performance, and that gives a great time to the audience and that that should be a standard that they would want to live up to if they become a performer.”
