American Idol winner Iam Tongi kicking off holiday season with Rexburg Children’s Choir’s Christmas concert
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REXBURG — The Rexburg Children’s Choir is gearing up for their annual Christmas concert — this year with an American Idol winner.
The Christmas concert will feature Iam Tongi, the winner of American Idol season 21.
Tongi got involved after he performed at BYU-Idaho earlier this year.
Peggy Larsen, one of the Christmas concert’s sponsors, sat in the audience and had the idea to feature him in the Christmas concert. She brought the idea to founder and director of the Rexburg Children’s Choir, Benjamin Watson, and he loved it.
“I approached Iam Tongi through his team and pitched the idea, and they loved the idea, and it’s just come together since then,” Watson said.
Watson founded the choir in 2018 and has put on the Christmas concert ever since.
“We have a lot of people that come back every year as attendees and say that this has become their tradition on how they kick off the holiday season,” Watson said.
The Christmas concert will celebrate other holidays in the season as well.
“It definitely will be predominantly Christmas, but we’ll also have a hat-tip to Thanksgiving, and we’ll also pay tribute to our veterans in attendance with a patriotic section,” Watson said.
The concert will feature the voices of 92 choral members and run for 90 minutes.
It includes performances by the children’s choir alone, combined numbers with Tongi and solo numbers performed by Tongi and his band.
“I love seeing the excitement build in the kids as they prepare and put their heart and soul into preparing for a concert of this caliber and working with an artist of this notoriety,” Watson said. “Iam and his team are wonderful people to work with.”
The Rexburg Children’s Choir has recorded a Christmas music video with Tongi, which will be released in early December.
The Christmas concert with Iam Tongi will be Nov. 26 at 7 p.m. at the Madison Performing Arts Center.
Tickets are going soon. Click here to secure your ticket.