This year, the annual Rexburg Children’s Choir Christmas Concert will have a Hawaiian twist with the special guest performer and season 21 “American Idol” winner Iam Tongi.
The concert will feature combined songs along with arrangements just for Tongi and the choir. The children’s choir is made up of 92 children aged 9 to 17 and this year marks their 7th annual Christmas concert thanks to their sponsors.
Choir director Ben Watson looks forward to performing Hawaiian style songs with Tongi.
“When I announced to the kids that by the way, the artist that we're singing with is ‘American Idol’ winner Iam Tongi and I showed them a video, they get really excited,” Watson said. “The first song that they sing together with Iam is ‘Mele Kalikimaka’ which is a Hawaiian Christmas song. We also have another song in there where the children will all be playing ukuleles and singing a Christmas song.”
The concert will be Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Madison Performing Arts Center and tickets are going fast.
“The motto of the Rexburg Children's Choir is ‘Seek to express not to impress,’” Watson said. “It’s not the intent of the children, even though they are impressive, and they sound wonderful and their music videos when we put them out are always a hit and we've had millions of views when you combine them all together, but we're not out to impress the world. We're out to express something to the world and so that really comes across in the live concert, I think more than any of our productions, especially this live concert that happens at Christmas time. It's truly an inspiring experience for everybody.”
You can find tickets at rexburgchildren’schoir.com and for those who can’t get tickets, the song “Silent Night” by Iam Tongi featuring the Children’s Choir and its music video will be released shortly after the concert and can be found on the Rexburg Children’s Choir’s social media.