TC Singers from Tuscaloosa County High to join Foreigner for 'I Want to Know What Love is'
The TC Singers, a select ensemble from the Tuscaloosa County High School choral program, will perform in front of thousands Tuesday when they join Foreigner onstage at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater, as the choir bringing home the band's No. 1 hit "I Want to Know What Love Is."
And yet choral director Ginny Coleman doesn't know exactly how they came out on top.
"It's a mystery," she said. "I didn't enter anything, but they called us up and let us know." Foreigner's reps said one of her students entered the group in the radio contest; listeners voted.
The TC Singers didn't receive choral arrangement charts. Foreigner's reps urged the choir to listen to the song, a multi-platinum power ballad released as the first single from 1984 album "Agent Provocateur," and learn the chorus by ear.
"We added a little harmony to it, and we're ready to go," Coleman said.
The TC Singers are the top choral ensemble at the school, 20 students who audition, most of whom have risen through the ranks of men's and women's, concert and mixed choirs. The TC Singers perform more formally at the end of each semester, Christmas and spring, in the University of Alabama's Moody Concert Hall, then create a showcase of pops for February at the Bama Theatre, where the show choir —adding choreography to songs, ala "Glee" ― also takes the stage.
Choir members also sing the national anthem at sports events, perform a Veterans Day concert, and more. Coleman is about to take 30 students to Alabama All-State Choral Festival auditions, and then on an audition trip to New York.
So the $500 Foreigner donated, and proceeds from sales of its greatest-hits CDs, will help fund any number of projects for the TC Singers. Foreigner bass player Jeff Pilson noted music is often first cut when school belts tighten, which is why the band teamed with the Grammy Foundation for the project, which they've been doing at concerts for about 15 years.
"They're products of public school education, and they want to give back," she said.
As for learning the song, Coleman, a child of the '80s, already had it down. So did her students, although they didn't recognize the band's name. She thinks they'd probably overheard "I Want to Know What Love Is" while in their parents' cars, or on oldies radio.
"When I said 'OK, we're going to go sing with Foreigner,' they kind of drew a blank. But when I sang I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS, they all went 'Oh!,' " she said, laughing.
On the original recording, the New Jersey Mass Choir sang, with Jennifer Holliday. It's been cut as a longer 12-inch single, covered by the choir alone, and recorded by other artists, including Wynonna Judd, Mariah Carey, Clay Aiken, Shirley Bassey, Julio Iglesias, Kenny Chesney and Australian singer Tina Arena, for whom songwriter Mick Jones wrote a new bridge.
Beyond performing for the Amphitheater crowd, and the financial benefit, the event will provide the TC Singers kids exposure to big-time pop music, something Coleman encourages.
"Part of the formal education of music has been real stuffy," she said. "We have to focus on classical music ... dead white guy music. I'm interested in exposing kids to more of the commercial side of music.
"They're not coming here to sing Beethoven. They're thinking 'I might get to sing a song I know.' And once they want to learn, that's how we get them," she said.
Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at mark.cobb@tuscaloosanews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Tuscaloosa County High singers to perform with Foreigner at concert
