Tuesday, June 7 at 9:30 p.m. – Great Performances' The Hitman Returns: David Foster & Friends
(Rochester, NY) – Maestro to the stars David Foster, who has collaborated with some of the greatest superstars in music, returns to Great Performances with several of his favorite artists for a magnificent night of music in The Hitman Returns: David Foster & Friends, airing Tuesday, June 7 at 9:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV/HD (DT21.1./cable 1011 and 11). Filmed last October 2010 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Hitman Returns is the follow-up concert to the hugely popular 2008 Hitman: David Foster & Friends. The all-star celebration features even more chart-topping stars and music from the 15-time Grammy Award-winner’s extensive career catalog. During the broadcast WXXI will be taking names for a special drawing for a trip for two to Las Vegas to see David Foster's show.
The Mandalay Bay Events Center concert followed showman Foster’s 10-city Foster + Friends tour, which sold out across the country. "We had such a phenomenal time last go round, I knew that I wanted to come back with a stronger, bigger and even more theatrical show that would be totally unforgettable. I think we succeeded in assembling some of the greatest voices out there for one night," stated Foster. "I was thrilled to be hosting and accompanying my friends on this very special night," he concluded.
Foster’s high profile friends on this occasion include All-4-One, Martina McBride, Charice, Natalie Cole, Earth, Wind & Fire, America’s Got Talent sensation Jackie Evancho, Lara Fabian, Ne-Yo, Michael Bolton, pedal steel guitar virtuoso Robert Randolph, Chaka Khan, Kenny Loggins, Seal, Ruben Studdard, and Donna Summer, performing songs either written, produced or connected to Foster over the course of his prolific musical career.
The evening offers a succession of showstopping solos, from both veteran performers and newcomers, the latter category represented in spectacular fashion by 10-year-old phenomenon Jackie Evancho’s renditions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Pie Jesu” and Puccini’s “O Mio Babbino Caro,” and “Glee” star Charice’s soulful “All By Myself.”
But the concert is also thrilling for its striking duets: Bolton and Seal’s bluesy mash-up of “When a Man Loves a Woman” and “It’s a Man World”; Natalie Cole and Ruben Studdard’s nostalgic “When I Fall in Love”; Lara Fabian and Bolton’s fervent “The Prayer”; and Donna Summer and Seal’s powerhouse medley of “Unbreak My Heart,” “Crazy,” and “On the Radio.”
Foster – who has been nominated for an unprecedented 45 Grammy awards, won two Emmys and was an Oscar nominee – has discovered and nurtured the careers of megastars such as Josh Groban and Michael Bublé. He has well as created chart-topping hits for legends Andrea Bocelli, Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Chicago, Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind and Fire & Chaka Khan.
Credit: Courtesy of WNET.ORG
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