Prior Lake high schoolers to perform with rock band Foreigner

Romance can split hearts, couples, and occasionally, stages between '70s-era rock bands and teenagers.

Two dozen choir singers from Prior Lake High School will sing backup for Foreigner's sold-out show on Saturday at Mystic Lake Casino. The number is a classic: "I Want to Know What Love Is," the timeless oldie from 1984 that still gets radio airplay.

The British-American band requested the students' assistance for performances in Prior Lake and another show in Fargo, N.D., on Sunday.

When choir director Randi Erlandson received a call about the gig ("Hey, we need a backup choir"), her response was a no-brainer.

"Yeah, we would get on stage with Foreigner," she told the caller. "Absolutely."

The 24 selected students, of 65 who auditioned, practiced for nine weeks. The singers' parents — likely the more devoted fans of the band — sprang to order tickets, which are now sold out or going for steeper black-market prices.

Some students resorted to Google to find out about the chart-topping single.

The multigenerational performance will have audiences swooning with the sentimentality of a wedding reception.

"It's been fun to introduce them to classic rock hits … those hits that everybody knows," Erlandson said. "The music they listen to now is nothing like this — this opens them up to a genre of music that perhaps they hadn't been familiar with before."

Erlandson will attend the concert with co-director Rob Hahn. She's hoping they can record it, probably by iPhone.