Smokey Robinson Tribute On Ice

Smokey Robinson, the legendary American R&B and soul singer/songwriter, record producer, and former record executive will perform live in a special music and skating production at the St. Pete Times Forum, Smokey Robinson Tribute on Ice, on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2009. The cast will feature some of figure skating’s finest, including Olympic Gold Medalist Brian Boitano, six-time U.S. National champion Todd Eldredge, World champion Yuka Sato and many others.

If you're looking for the all-time No. 1 purveyor of mainstream romantic soul, Smokey Robinson may well be the man, in the face of some towering competition. With the Miracles in the 1960s, he paced dozens of tuneful Motown hits with his beautiful high tenor. As a solo performer from the 1970s onward, he was one of the staples of urban contemporary music. As both a member of the Miracles and a solo artist, Robinson recorded 37 Top-40 hits for Motown between 1960 and 1987. But his singing gifts, as notable as they are, comprise only one of his hats – he's also one of pop's best and most prolific songwriters. As a songwriter and producer, he was the most important musical component to Motown's early success, not only on the hits by the Miracles, but for numerous other acts as well (especially Mary Wells and the Temptations). Robinson was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.

Smokey Robinson will share the timelessness of his music as he performs several hits live and a cast of Olympic, National and World champions will take to the ice for an inspired evening of fun. Boitano, Eldredge and Sato will be joined by eight-time British National champion Steven Cousins, World Dance champion and nine-time Canadian National champion Shae-Lynn Bourne, World Champion Bronze Medalist Caryn Kadavy, six-time Canadian National champion Jennifer Robinson, five-time U.S. National champions Naomi Lang and Peter Tcherneyshev and four-time Canadian National Dance champions Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon. The show will also be televised nationwide on NBC on November 22 at 4:00p.m. EST.