Foreigner

Legendary rock band Foreigner brings their electrifying mix of blustery blues and impeccably crafted pop back to Vina Robles Amphitheatre, Wednesday, June 18. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster, Friday, March 7, at 10AM.

Foreigner, who last appeared at Vina Robles Amphitheatre in 2019, continue to captivate generation after generation of music fans. Founded in 1976, Foreigner has produced 10 multi-platinum albums, 16 Top 30 hits and is universally hailed as one of the most popular rock acts in the world.

The band has a formidable musical arsenal, selling more than 80 million albums, and has continued to propel sold-out tours and album sales now nearly 50 years into the game with massive airplay and continued Billboard album chart success. Audio and video streams of Foreigner’s hits exceed 15 million per week.

Foreigner‘s founder is Songwriters Hall of Fame member Mick Jones, a visionary maestro whose stylistic songwriting, indelible guitar hooks and multi-layered talents continue to escalate Foreigner‘s influence and guide the band to new horizons. Jones re-formed the band after a 2002 hiatus and selected lead singer Kelly Hansen to help write an inspired new chapter in the history of Foreigner. One of rock’s greatest showmen, Hansen is among the most respected, consummate professionals in rock and roll. With a 40-year career that spans almost every area of music, from the role of lead vocalist to producing and engineering, Hansen has led Foreigner into the digital age while inspiring a whole new generation of fans.

Foreigner’s lineup also includes noted Dokken bassist Jeff Pilson, Michael Bluestein on keyboards, guitarist Bruce Watson, Chris Frazier on drums and guitarist Luis Carlos Maldonado.

Hansen has been quoted as saying, “The best part about being in this band is getting the chance to do something I feel I was meant to do…what happens on stage with this group of guys is something that is rare and palpable.  It’s like the old saying, ‘if I have to describe it, you wouldn’t understand.” 

Foreigner is responsible for some of rock and roll’s most enduring anthems including “Juke Box Hero,” “Cold As Ice,” “Hot Blooded,” “Waiting For A Girl Like You,” “Feels Like The First Time,” “Urgent,” “Head Games,” “Say You Will,” “Dirty White Boy,” “Long, Long Way From Home” and the worldwide No. 1 hit, and “I Want To Know What Love Is” (which has become one of a handful of Classic Rock artists’ songs to achieve 1 billion streams on Spotify). Their catalog sales were recently celebrated in Business Insider as hitting the Top 40 among the Best-Selling Music Artists of All Time. The band also features strongly in everyone category in Billboard’s “Greatest of All Time” listing.

Foreigner’s music experienced another surge in popularity in recent years thanks to usage in primetime television, major motion pictures, video games, advertising, and digital content. Films such as Rock of Ages, Bad Moms, Angry Birds, Magic Mike, Pitch Perfect, Good Boys and The Eternals, and television shows Orange Is The New Black, Stranger Things, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Tacoma FD have all strongly featured Foreigner’s songs. Advertisers including Toyota, Google, Molson, and Ford have turned to Foreigner’s music to engage their fans.

In the spring of 2024, Foreigner executed a sold-out tour of Canada and a headline tour of amphitheaters with STYX and attendances of 14,000 to 15,000 in some markets, together with two headline residencies at the Las Vegas Venetian in the spring and fall. The biggest news of the year was Foreigner’s nomination to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame followed by an appearance at the induction ceremony in Cleveland featured in a national TV debut last fall. The band also announced a Hall of Fame celebration tour which began with the fall Las Vegas residency, and which will feature original band members in select markets. That tour continues through 2025.

The band released TURNING BACK THE TIME in the fall of 2024. This is part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame celebration and features Foreigner’s hits through the years with a newly released song written by Mick Jones and Lou Gramm originally recorded in 1996. The single, “Turning Back The Time,” has already had great critical acclaim and significant airplay.

Foreigner has partnered with the Recording Academy and The Shriners Hospitals for Children in an initiative that includes MusiCares and GRAMMY In The Schools efforts to raise money for much needed high school music programs nationwide. This is a win for everybody as it supports a vital program and creates a massive PR focus that helps sell tickets. At every stop along the way, Foreigner works with local radio and other media to initiate a contest to find a high school choir to sing ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ live on stage with Foreigner. Each winning school receives a grant of $500 for their school music program and additional funds are donated to the Recording Academy’s other charitable initiatives. Foreigner funds the grants out of the proceeds from sales of the band’s CD at venues.