Luis Maldonado remembers being about 5 years old when he listened for the first time to a Foreigner song. It was the late ’70s in Mexico, in the border city of Nogales, Sonora, where he could dial the family’s radio into the rock stations in Arizona.
“It was ‘Feels Like the First Time,’ and I just remember hearing all those sounds, you know, the keyboards, the big guitars — I’m like, ‘Wow, listen to that sound!’ That’s kind of what made me obsessed with music,” he tells Billboard Español. Little did he know that, decades later, he would end up fronting the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer band.
Born in Nogales and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Maldonado immigrated to the United States shortly after with his family, where his father — an electronic engineer — found a job in the semiconductor industry. But music was always part of the household: His grandfather was a violin player and an orchestra conductor; his dad also sang and played guitar.
Watching Maldonado perform with Foreigner is an electrifying experience. Perfectly in sync, band and frontman sound and feel as though they’ve been together from the very beginning, despite the many lineup changes over the years. Today, Mick Jones is the only founding member remaining (although he cannot longer tour), with original singer Lou Gramm — who said earlier this month he plans to retire from live performance by the end of 2026 — joining them onstage on selected dates of their ongoing 50th Anniversary Tour.
