After 20 years as Foreigner’s lead singer, Kelly Hansen has announced that he will leave the band at the end of their 2025 summer tour.
“Being the voice of Foreigner has been one of the greatest honors of my life,” Hansen said during the group’s Tuesday night appearance on the horrible television show The Voice. “But it’s time to pass the mic.”
Hansen will be replaced by current Foreigner multi-instrumentalist Luis Maldonado, who joined the group in 2021 and served as the lead singer on their recent tour of Latin America, which Hansen had to miss as a result of residency issues. The band’s original lead singer, Lou Gramm, appeared as a special guest at those shows.
“Luis has the voice, the energy, and the soul to carry these songs into the future,” said Hansen. “I couldn’t be prouder to hand this off to him.” Founding Foreigner songwriter and guitarist Mick Jones, who has not performed live with the band since 2022 and last year revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, says he’s also pleased with this latest passing of the torch.
“Kelly Hansen is one of the best front men in our business and over the last twenty years he has breathed new life into our songs,” Jones said in a press release. “His boundless energy and flawless talent has helped us climb the mountain and set up the opportunity for Foreigner vocalist and guitarist, Luis Maldonado, to bring us home. I wish Kelly great happiness in his next endeavors after our summer tour, and I look forward to welcoming Luis to his new position. Luis was my choice as a guitarist and he has already shown us what he can do on lead vocals by fronting the band in South America to incredible reviews.”
In November of 2022, Foreigner announced a farewell tour which was originally slated to run through the end of 2024, but has been repeatedly extended.
“This catalog of songs, it’s extremely challenging for a rock tenor vocalist like myself to sing,” the then 61-year-old Hansen explained as the tour was announced. “I never would have thought in a million years I’d be singing these songs in [these] keys at this age, and I don’t know how much longer I can do that at the level I need do. You can drop keys and do this and do that, but I’m more of an old-school person. If I’m not doing it for real then I shouldn’t be doing it.”
The press release announcing Hansen’s departure no longer includes any reference to Foreigner’s current dates being part of a farewell tour. “[Luis] will soon lead the change that will carry us to new heights,” declares Jones.
Foreigner Albums Ranked
It’s hard to imagine rock radio without the string of hit singles Foreigner peeled off in the ’70s and ’80s.
Gallery Credit: Jeff Giles
