Hudsonville choir selected to sing on stage with Foreigner

HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — A group of students at Hudsonville High School is preparing for the opportunity of a lifetime.

The Varsity Voices choral ensemble was chosen to sing the 1984 rock classic “I Want to Know What Love Is” on stage with Foreigner during the band’s Grand Rapids show.

“It’s absolutely incredible. I am feeling so blessed and so grateful and especially just being able to share this with all of my best friends,” said high school junior and Varsity Voices member Jayden Randall.

In May, 97.9 WGRD announced it was teaming up with the iconic 80s rock band to give one West Michigan choir the opportunity to sing the hit song with the band on stage at the Van Andel arena on June 11.

“I had a parent reach out asking if we knew about this Foreigner contest with WGRD and I hadn’t heard of it yet,” Deb Andre, director of vocal music at Hudsonville High School said. “I asked the kids if they wanted to do that and they were like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’

The ensemble learned the music in three rehearsals and one of the high school’s assistant principals helped record and create a video to submit for the contest.

“The entire school and even really, the entire district rallied behind all of us,” said junior Ella Neifert. “It was a really great way to bring the community together as a whole, so that was really special.”

In total, nearly 8,000 people placed their votes and on May 23, WGRD announced Varsity Voices was the winner.

“To see their faces when we found out that we were going to be singing on stage with Foreigner… it was magical,” Andre recalled.

The choir will arrive early at the Van Andel on June 11 for a sound check with Foreigner and will perform “I Want to Know What Love is” as the second to last song in the band’s set. Students get free tickets to the show, private parking and $500 towards the choral program.

Logan Leddy, a Hudsonville junior and member of Varsity Voices, will lead the choir with a solo.

“I’ve been singing my whole life. I’ve always been into music,” Leddy said.

He also knows the impact it can have.

“When everybody sings together, it’s like, everybody and everything comes together,” Leddy said. “That means everything. It’s the heart, it’s the soul and we can’t lose that. I feel like people forget about that and music has been very independent and this whole coming together thing and singing… it’s just… it touches people’s hearts and that’s what I want to do too and that’s what we want to do.”

Being chosen for the opportunity has been a huge source of pride for students, the Hudsonville community, and especially for Andre who has been directing for 20 years.

“We’ve had award-winning choirs for almost that whole time and it’s been now, when we’ve been able to sing with Foreigner that I’ve heard from teachers, community members, parents… they are so excited about this. People I’ve never heard from before have been reaching out saying how amazing the kids are,” Andre said.

It’s also bringing recognition from the students’ peers.

“The kids have been going to their classes and their teachers are playing the video and telling everyone to vote and the kids around them in the school are going, ‘That’s our choir? We have a choir that sounds like that? They’re amazing.’ And so all of my choir kids, not just the kids that are in this choir, from all four choirs are like, that’s our program. That’s us. That’s our family and so to watch the student body rally around us, it’s been amazing for the kids,” Andre said.

When she thinks back to how these students started their high school careers, Andre said it makes this even more special.

“We were in masks and singing six feet apart and how far we’ve come as a community, as a choir, as humans… to watch them grow from a really hard time to get to celebrate… our seniors get to celebrate like this and it’s just a really special experience when you think about where we started four years ago.”

For students, it’s a memory that will last a lifetime.

“Choir really is this one big family and all of my best friends are in this class and so being able to collectively have this and to share this experience together and experience these emotions and make this music with everybody is just so beautiful,” Randall said.

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