Cherokee Youth Choir Receive $10,000 Grant From Famous Rock Band

An Oklahoma youth choir that enriches its tribe by working to preserve its history has itself been enriched by a rock band with its own golden past.

Foreigner has sold more than 80 million records, and on Friday they met up with the Cherokee National Youth Choir.

The Cherokee National Youth Choir is made up of young tribal members with beautiful voices from all over eastern Oklahoma. They sing songs in Cherokee for a very important reason.

"To preserve our language, because our language is a dying language," said choir member Bailey Justice.

The members of the choir thought they're at tribal headquarters to sing cuts from their new CD of gospel songs from the 1800s; that was part of it, but they were also in for a big surprise.

Choir Director, Mary Kay Henderson said, "I don't know if they're going to be totally deer in the headlights or I don't know if it's going to sink in."

Listen closely, and you may recognize a more modern melody.

One of the songs the choir sings has a more modern melody. You won't hear it on their CD, but you may have heard it before, it's by the band Foreigner and it's translated into Cherokee.

The choir entered a competition called the Foreigner Grammy Foundation music in school grant.

High schools from across the country submitted a public service announcement stressing the importance of music in schools. The background music had to be a Foreigner song.

Band member Jeff Pilson was the surprise, and he was there to tell them they won.

"What you're doing for your community and what you're doing for the Cherokee tribe, what you're doing for high school music programs all across the country, this $10,000 is to you," Pilson told the choir.

The Cherokee choir competed against more than 100 schools nationwide to get the grant for their program.

Foreigner's bass player was touched by their talent, calling it humbling and emotional.

"It made me realize how much music transcends language, even, and it was an amazing feeling," Pilson said.

It was much more than a CD release party, or regular performance, it was a moment the choir members like Justice will always remember.

"Oh my goodness, yeah! It's amazing," she said.

The Cherokee National Youth Choir will also get to perform in their Cherokee language on stage with Foreigner.