Foreigner announces intimate "Unplugged" European tour for April 2027
Foreigner will embark on a short European acoustic tour in April 2027 under the name Foreigner Unplugged, conceived as a series of four concerts in a significantly more intimate format than the large-scale productions for which the band is known. According to the published schedule, the tour begins on April 12 at Dublin's 3Olympia Theatre, continues on April 14 at the London Palladium, on April 16 at L'Olympia in Paris, and concludes on April 18 at Globe Wien in Vienna. Organizers and concert venues are promoting the program as an acoustic reworking of the band's greatest hits, with an emphasis on melodies, vocals and instrumental details that often remain in the background during electric stadium performances. In this way, half a century after its formation, Foreigner is offering audiences a different way to experience the songs that have shaped its live identity for decades. British singer-songwriter Billy Lockett has been confirmed as a special guest for Dublin, London and Paris, while currently available announcements for the Vienna concert do not list him as a guest.
Four cities and venues connected with a long concert tradition
The European series is limited to four dates, giving the tour the character of a special event rather than a conventional multi-month tour. The first concert is scheduled for Monday, April 12, 2027, at the 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin, a historic venue in the center of the Irish capital. Two days later, Foreigner will perform at the London Palladium, one of London's best-known theater and concert venues, where Live Nation lists the date as April 14 and doors opening at 18:30. The Paris performance will take place on April 16 at L'Olympia, a venue that has been an important stop for international music tours for decades, and the venue's official website lists the concert start time as 20:00. The final date has been announced for April 18 at Globe Wien in Vienna, whose official calendar also confirms the performance under the title "Foreigner Unplugged 2027".
- April 12, 2027 - Dublin, Ireland - 3Olympia Theatre
- April 14, 2027 - London, United Kingdom - The London Palladium
- April 16, 2027 - Paris, France - L'Olympia
- April 18, 2027 - Vienna, Austria - Globe Wien
The schedule deliberately leaves little space between performances, while still allowing enough time for the concert production to move from one city to another. Since this is an acoustic setup, the logistics should differ from those of large electric tours, although organizers have not yet announced details about the stage design, program length or final set list. Official announcements therefore focus primarily on the concept: the greatest hits in more stripped-down arrangements and in spaces that allow a more immediate relationship between the performers and the audience. It is precisely this combination of familiar repertoire and a different sonic framework that forms the central idea of the tour.
The greatest hits will receive acoustic arrangements
Among the songs expected to be at the center of the program, the tour announcement mentions "I Want To Know What Love Is", "Cold As Ice", "Hot Blooded", "Juke Box Hero", "Waiting For A Girl Like You", "Urgent" and "Feels Like The First Time". Organizers do not present the published list as the final set list, but rather as an overview of the catalog on which the tour concept is based. The acoustic approach opens up room for different dynamics, clearer vocal harmonies and a greater role for keyboards and acoustic guitars, without requiring the songs to lose their recognizable melodic lines. For a band whose biggest singles were created during an era when huge guitar choruses, synthesizers and powerful studio production were hallmarks of radio rock, such reworking also represents a kind of return to the underlying structure of the compositions themselves. In this format, audiences should be able to hear how strongly Foreigner's repertoire relies on solid melodies and choruses, regardless of the production scale of the original recordings.
Foreigner has previously explored acoustic interpretations of its own catalog, so the current concept is not entirely unfamiliar in the band's history. In presenting the concert, the Vienna organizer recalls that the release "Feels Like The First Time" also included acoustic versions of several classics, alongside new studio versions and live material. The new European series, however, builds the entire performance around this approach, rather than making the acoustic segment only one part of a broader electric concert. This gives the tour a clearer identity and makes it interesting even for audiences who have already seen the band in its standard lineup. At the same time, smaller venues and theater-style seating arrangements in some cities create conditions for more focused listening, which is particularly important for songs that will be performed with fewer sonic layers.
Luis Carlos Maldonado leads a special four-member version of the band
According to the tour announcement, the acoustic lineup will feature Luis Carlos Maldonado on lead vocals, Jeff Pilson on bass, Bruce Watson on guitar and Michael Bluestein on keyboards. It is a reduced version of the live lineup, adapted to the unplugged concept and without the pronounced role of a full rock rhythm section that characterizes large electric performances. Maldonado attracts particular attention, having taken over the role of lead singer after a period in which he played guitar in Foreigner. The change was publicly announced in 2025, when longtime frontman Kelly Hansen announced his departure after approximately two decades with the band and Maldonado was introduced as his successor. The European acoustic concerts in 2027 will therefore also be an opportunity for audiences to hear the new phase of Foreigner's live story in a highly exposed vocal format.
Such a lineup further emphasizes the continuity of a band that has gone through numerous membership changes over the decades. Original singer Lou Gramm remains inseparably associated with the group's classic recordings, Kelly Hansen became the face of its modern touring era from the mid-2000s onward, and Maldonado now takes on part of the responsibility for carrying the repertoire forward to a new generation of listeners. In an unplugged program, there is no possibility of hiding behind massive production: vocals, intonation, dynamics and interpretation come directly to the forefront. For that reason, these four performances also carry additional importance in assessing the direction Foreigner intends to take following the major change in the lead singer position.
Fifty years after its formation, the band still builds its program around its catalog
Foreigner was formed in New York in 1976, and from the beginning its identity brought together British and American musicians, something embedded in the band's very name. During the late 1970s and the 1980s, the group built a catalog that combined hard rock, melodic rock and pop sensibility, with a series of songs that have remained permanently present on radio stations and in concert repertoires. The official website of L'Olympia in Paris states that the band has sold more than 80 million albums during its career, while tour organizers highlight ten multi-platinum albums and 16 singles that reached the Top 30. Such figures should be viewed in the context of a discography spanning several decades and a market in which Foreigner's biggest albums were released long before the streaming era. That is precisely why today's demand for concerts rests largely on the longevity of the songs rather than on a single current hit or a short-lived comeback trend.
The band received additional institutional recognition of that status in 2024, when it was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the performer category. In its presentation, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame describes Foreigner's influence through its combination of powerful rock riffs, highly memorable melodies and ballads that enabled the group to achieve simultaneous success on both rock and pop charts. Among the representative songs, the institution highlights "Feels Like the First Time", "Hot Blooded", "Waiting for a Girl Like You", "Juke Box Hero" and "I Want to Know What Love Is". The Hall of Fame induction came almost five decades after the band's formation and further strengthened interest in its catalog at a time when the group continues to perform intensively. The announced acoustic tour is therefore not conceived as a retrospective in a museum-like sense, but as a new concert format for material that already has the status of rock standards.
"I Want To Know What Love Is" remains a central point of the legacy
Among the songs that most clearly explain Foreigner's global reach, "I Want To Know What Love Is" occupies a special place. The ballad from the 1984 album "Agent Provocateur" became an international hit and one of the band's most recognizable songs, while its slower tempo and strong melodic structure naturally suit an acoustic format. Alongside it, the concert announcement also highlights more energetic compositions such as "Hot Blooded", "Urgent" and "Juke Box Hero", whose transformation into unplugged arrangements will present a greater interpretive challenge. Rather than simply reducing the volume, such reworkings usually require changes in rhythmic emphasis, dynamics and the distribution of instrumental roles. The contrast between ballads and originally more forceful rock songs will probably determine the dramatic arc of the evening.
In its historical overview of the band, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame emphasizes how Foreigner's sound shifted over time from guitar-oriented rock in the 1970s toward greater use of keyboards and emotional ballads during the 1980s. This development means that the catalog already contains different textures in its original versions that can be adapted to an acoustic lineup. For audiences, this may be an opportunity to hear familiar songs without the production elements that defined them on record, while also recognizing common compositional patterns across different phases of the band. For the musicians themselves, such a format creates greater room for nuances in tempo, vocal phrasing and instrumental interplay.
Billy Lockett as guest in Dublin, London and Paris
British singer, songwriter and pianist Billy Lockett has been confirmed as a special guest at the concerts in Dublin, London and Paris. His name is listed by Dublin's 3Olympia Theatre and London's Live Nation, while the overall tour announcement specifies that he will perform on the first three dates. For Vienna, however, Globe Wien's official calendar currently lists the Foreigner concert without Billy Lockett, so it has not been confirmed that he will also take part in the final evening on April 18. This distinction is important for ticket buyers because promotional announcements describing the tour as a whole may create the impression that the same guest will perform at all four concerts. According to information available on September 6, 2026, Dublin, London and Paris are confirmed with certainty.
Lockett's music is based on piano, singer-songwriter pop and emotionally focused arrangements, making him stylistically well suited to an evening built around acoustic performance. In his official biography, he lists previous tours on which he performed alongside artists such as Birdy, Lana Del Rey, KT Tunstall, Lewis Capaldi and Electric Light Orchestra. Following the 2023 album "Abington Grove", he also released the album "Things Are Looking Up" in 2026, and Official Charts presented him as an independent songwriter and performer who produced much of the project himself and built a stronger audience through direct communication on social media. For visitors to Foreigner's concerts, his guest appearance will therefore offer a more contemporary singer-songwriter introduction to the evening before a repertoire that reaches back to the second half of the 1970s.
Ticket sales begin in September 2026
The fan presale for Foreigner's European dates has been announced for Monday, September 7, 2026 at 10:00 local time, while the general sale is set to begin on Wednesday, September 9 at 10:00. Individual promoters also have additional presale windows: Live Nation lists its own London presale for September 8, one day before the general sale. Dublin's 3Olympia Theatre has announced a starting price of 72.70 euros, plus listed fees, while L'Olympia in Paris lists a range from 57.50 to 123.50 euros. For Vienna, Globe Wien's official calendar stated on September 6 that sales would begin soon, without a publicly displayed price on the page reviewed. Because sales conditions, category availability and fees may differ between countries and ticketing systems, buyers should check the official venue websites and authorized ticketing partners.
Limiting the series to only four European concerts may increase interest in tickets, especially because the London Palladium, 3Olympia Theatre and L'Olympia offer capacities and atmospheres significantly different from the arenas in which classic rock performers often appear. Organizers have not yet announced additional European dates as part of this series. There is also no official confirmation that the concept will expand to other European cities after April 2027. Therefore, Dublin, London, Paris and Vienna are currently the only confirmed European stops for the "Foreigner Unplugged" project.
The acoustic format as the next chapter of a long-lived rock band
The announcement comes at a time when Foreigner is simultaneously marking 50 years since its formation and adapting to a new stage lineup. Rather than attempting to recreate the production from the period of its greatest commercial dominance, the band is using this series to emphasize the songs themselves and their ability to function outside their original studio framework. It is a logical choice for a catalog created over several decades, one that has passed through changing musical trends and continued to find audiences through radio, films, television and streaming. The acoustic concerts do not erase Foreigner's rock character, but instead translate it into a setting in which compositional and performance details can be heard more clearly. Whether this approach will remain limited to four special evenings or become a broader part of future tours has not yet been announced.
For now, it is certain that April 2027 will bring four European opportunities to hear Foreigner's classics in a more stripped-down form. Dublin will open the series, followed by London and Paris with Billy Lockett as the confirmed guest, while Vienna will conclude the tour on April 18. At a time when many artists with careers spanning several decades are looking for ways to present familiar repertoire from a new perspective, Foreigner is choosing a format that places less emphasis on spectacle and more on the song itself. The ability of hits such as "Cold As Ice", "Urgent", "Juke Box Hero" and "I Want To Know What Love Is" to retain their power in reduced arrangements will be the main reason this short tour is likely to attract both longtime fans and audiences who may want to hear the band live for the first time.
Sources:
- 3Olympia Theatre - official announcement of the Dublin concert, date, guest and ticket-sale information (link)
- Live Nation UK - official London concert page, date, sales schedule and Billy Lockett as guest (link)
- L'Olympia Paris - official announcement of the Paris concert, time, prices and historical information about the band (link)
- Globe Wien - official calendar for the Vienna concert on April 18, 2027 (link)
- Rock & Roll Hall of Fame - Foreigner profile and confirmation of the band's 2024 induction into the Hall of Fame (link)
- Blabbermouth - details of the "Foreigner Unplugged" announcement, four-member lineup, repertoire and confirmed guest for the first three dates (link)
- Billy Lockett - official biography and overview of previous tours and releases (link)
- Official Charts - information about the album "Things Are Looking Up" and the current phase of Billy Lockett's career (link)