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Kristi Yamaguchi's Salute to American Music 2004

Giant Center - Hershey, PA - Nov. 5, 2004
Written by Shannon

The show was incredible! I wish my seats had been closer to center (would've made us closer to the stage) but that's a minor grumble. Let's see how much I can remember...

Kristi comes out and then the cast joins her, all in black and white costumes. The skate order isn't listed in the program but I'll do my best to recall the music.

Kristi skated to "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" (Kim Locke sang live) in a pretty two-piece sparkly lavendar costume and "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Art Garfunkel sang live) in the costume from SOI 2000.

Kurt skated to "Time In A Bottle" and "Don't Fence Me In".

Brian skated to Josh Groban and I'm drawing a blank on the other program.

Paul skated to "JFK" and it was so cool to see that live!!! Just awesome and he even got a partial standing-O at the end. He got this huge smile on his face and was like whoa! For me? He got such a warm and loud reception and I think people love seeing him back out there. I know I do. He also skated to Michael W. Smith singing live.

Roz skated the first solo to "Delovely" and had Ilia and Brian(?) skating around her with these red feather fan things. Her costume was flashy red sequins and very pretty. Later she skated to "8th World Wonder" sung by Kim Locke.

Ilia skated to "Green Tomatoes" (pretty sure) and I loved the costume. He had these purple pants on with a blueish shirt with purple in it. Not sure of the music on the first number.

Caryn skated to "Amazing Grace" in this classy green dress and I'm sorry I can't recall the other program.

Renee & Gorsha skated to "Teach Me To Shimmy" - the same music Kristi skated to in 1997 with that yellow fringe costume. Renee's was red fringe tonight.

A few group numbers in between the others had Kristi, Roz and Caryn in these pastel costumes with Michael W. Smith singing live. Not sure of the song title though I believe I heard it before... " and friends are friends forever if the Lord's above..." The lyrics are something like that. Pretty number.

Also Renee, Gorsha, Paul, Kurt and Brian came out in the same costumes from the opening - black and white - and had a cute group number.

The closing costumes were from the SOI 1999 finale and right when they were almost done, Gorsha's lace broke/ripped and he skated behind the curtain. This voice came over the sound sytem and was like "Obviously his lace needs to be fixed so we'll be skating that number over since this is being taped for tv." Kurt just puts his hands over his face like "Ah, darn." Anyway, we got to see the whole thing skated again and luckily Gorsha's lace cooperated

Unfortunately, it wasn't Gorsha's night overall. During "Teach Me To Shimmy" he fell (don't know what happened) and they skipped over about 10 seconds until they could get back into it. That was going to be a retake for sure. Kristi, Paul, Brian, and Kurt all did retakes too (not sure why Paul did, though). Kurt is hilarious! He just couldn't seem to get his double axel and after the second attempt he made this motion like he was stabbing himself in the stomach. He nailed it on the third attempt and the audience erupted so if you wonder why the audience goes nuts for his double axel (when it's aired on tv) you'll know why! LOL He also sat down on the ice in a huff which was so funny. I took a pic and hope it comes out. Too bad they don't make a blooper tape from all the retake stuff and when they talk to the audience with the microphone.

They also did a "photo shoot" (as LeaAnn Miller said) so I assume the pic(s) will appear in one of the skating mags. Kristi came out and thanked her along with many others for helping to get the show together. I couldn't see LeaAnn very well, though. She was up too high. I was hoping to see Keara but I didn't notice her anywhere.

Added later...

A few other things I remember (after getting some sleep) is Caryn's other number was to Alicia Keys. Kurt also skated to "Be A Clown" which was well suited to him!

They were selling Kristi bobbleheads in the lobby for $20. I didn't buy one but they were cute.

Before Kristi skated her retake she was nice enough to sign someone's program who was in the first row holding out a pen. That was really sweet of her.