Skating to Hayley

[Libby]

Someone is skating to Hayley this season! It's Mai Mihara, a bright young star from Japan, skating to Whispers in a Dream as part of a program to the Mission. It's actually the largest portion of her music, and they seem to have somehow merged the music a bit, to where they added some drums into Hayley's song. I kind of liked that! Here's her program from the Cup of China this weekend; amazingly, she only finished 4th! I have not seen the competition yet, so I don't know who won. It may be that she messed up a bit in the short program, otherwise, I think she would have been higher!

[comet]

The choral section at the end is from the Mission soundtrack . I think the section at the intro is also from the movie soundtrack.

[Libby]

Well, I knew that wasn't from Hayley's album, and neither were the drums. There is a reason they just called the music The Mission, because it contained music from The Mission. I'm really glad she decided to use Hayley's song!

[Libby]

Mai Mihara performed brilliantly to Hayley's song at the Four Continents Championships in Chinese Taipei (is that the same thing as Taipei, Taiwan? I'm confused). She won the silver medal. Unfortunately, I don't believe she made it onto the Japanese Olympic team, so there will be no Hayley song performed during the Olympics.

Here is her program:



I forgot to post this, but Caroline Zhang also used Hayley's song as part of a Mission program this season; she doesn't use as much of the song as Mai does, but it's still nice that she decided to add it. I realized she used the same program last season, too. This is her performance at the recent US National Championships in San Jose, California. She did not place very well, only 11th, unfortunately. She has not done so in a long time, though she was quite a star when she first came onto the scene 10 years ago. At least we can say Hayley's music was heard publicly in the US this year, even if it wasn't very much. And, of course, all of these programs were seen on US television coverage, as well as in Canada (I watch a lot of the skating on CBC since their coverage is usually better).

[Libby]

Jan 23, 2017 7:34:27 GMT Libby said:

Hey, guess what! Last night while watching the Ladies' free skate during the US Nationals, I heard Hayley!!! 😍 👏 Caroline Zhang's program was to The Mission, and the credit was given to Yo-yo Ma. And her program did include his version. However... the program immediately opened with the first verse and chorus of Whispers in a Dream!!! Yay!! I wish they would have given credit to Hayley, but the channel wasn't very good in general about music credits. For example, one of the men skated to the music from Romeo et Juliet, yet the artist provided was definitely not the composer, and there was no singing in the program, so I have no idea who the person was. I had assumed he would be skating to I'm Kissing You by that singer, but he didn't, it was only instrumental except for the actors' talking voices here and there.

Anyway, here's the video!

Ah, so I did post her program last year, as well.

And although the quality isn't as good, Caroline's performance is much better; she placed 5th.

[Libby]

Dec 2, 2015 1:23:11 GMT Libby said:

My statement that Satoko's performance to Wings To Fly at Skate America is the first time a skater has performed to one of Hayley's Japanese songs in the US had me thinking. How many times has a skater performed to any of Hayley's songs in the US? I almost wondered if anyone ever had, since most of the skaters are Japanese performing them at Japanese ice shows, and some of the NBC shows used to be held in Ontario, Canada (in particular, the Kurt Browning special in which Hayley appeared).

I have all of the "skating to Hayley" performances in my Favorites. So, I looked up where all of the skating shows took place, to see if any of them were in the US.

Here's the list of skating shows/events in the US in which a skater performed to one or more of Hayley's songs:

Katarina Witt & Friends:

Air date: January 2005
Songs: Amazing Grace and Who Painted the Moon Black?
Skater(s): Yuka Sato (Japan), Katarina Witt (Germany), & Kristi Yamaguchi (US)
Location: Trenton, New Jersey

Stars on Ice tour (2005?):

Song: Amazing Grace
Skater: Yuka Sato (Japan)
Location: all across the US! (the video is from Nashville, Tennessee)

Skate for the Heart:

Air date: January 2008
Song: Prayer
Skater: Ekaterina (Katia) Gordeeva (Russia)
Location: Uncaseville, Connecticut

Skate America 2015:

Date: November 29, 2015
Song: Wings to Fly
Skater: Satoko Miyahara
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

It's about time I added to this compilation. There have been several skating performances to Hayley's music since this post; even though some are repeat songs, I decided to post all the links so I can refer back to them again in the future, in case any of the videos stop working. That way, if one of them doesn't work, there will still be another performance of the same program so nobody misses it (well, probably just me LOL). I decided to add the country the skater is from/represents, as well (I edited the quoted post above to do this, too).

2016 World Championships

Date: April 3, 2016
Song: Wings to Fly
Skater: Satoko Mihayahara (Japan)
Location: Boston, Massachusetts

2017 US Figure Skating Championships

Date: January 21, 2017
Song: Whispers in a Dream
Skater: Caroline Zhang (US)
Location: Kansas City, Missouri

2018 US Figure Skating Championships

Date: January 6, 2018
Song: Whispers in a Dream
Skater: Caroline Zhang (US)
Location: San Jose, California

[Joe]

Hi Libby,

Taiwan is referred to Chinese Taipei for international sporting events (and probably other things too). Here is a bit about it...  www.scienceabc.com/social-science/why-is-taiwan-called-chinese-taipei.html ...very politically complicated. 

Great that Mia Mihara was in the Four Continents Championships!  I watched some of it early yesterday afternoon. Was Mia on before Mariah Bell? I enjoyed the routines from a South Korean and Japanese skater who both had season bests! I will want to catch the entire ladies' free skate replay when it reairs on the Olympic Channel.  

[Libby]

Yes, I think she was on close to the beginning. They showed Starr Andrews first. I hope you saw the men, too. Jason Brown brought back his program from last season (well, also from the previous season, but he did not compete much due to injury), The Scent of Love from the film, The Piano. It is stunningly beautiful music, and he skates to it perfectly and exquisitely.

So, it is the same Taipei where Hayley holds concerts? I did recognize that extremely tall building. Isn't that the one that has a hotel, restaurants and shopping, or something? I think Hayley stayed in it one of the times she was there.

[Joe]

Jan 29, 2018 1:56:48 GMT Libby said:

Yes, I think she was on close to the beginning. They showed Starr Andrews first. I hope you saw the men, too. Jason Brown brought back his program from last season (well, also from the previous season, but he did not compete much due to injury), The Scent of Love from the film, The Piano. It is stunningly beautiful music, and he skates to it perfectly and exquisitely.

So, it is the same Taipei where Hayley holds concerts? I did recognize that extremely tall building. Isn't that the one that has a hotel, restaurants and shopping, or something? I think Hayley stayed in it one of the times she was there.

Thanks...I will try to catch all of the replays from 4CC this week...I think the ladies' free skate is on Tuesday night.

Yep, it is the same Taipei...I think you are right about the building. So, and I know Frank Lin will read this...its Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China) ..and Taipei City, Chinese Taipei. 

I am in full Olympics mode now...my trading cards from Topps should arrive Monday (with about 15 figure skaters featured, with autographs too). I just printed NBC's TV listings for the Games for all their channels, and will print the Openng Ceremony Parade of Nations marching order (the countries will enter the stadium in Korean alphabet order). I could let you know on Facebook when Olympic skating is on for you. 

[Libby]

Yes, I remember a while back either you or Jillian (I think it was you, and Jillian joined in the discussion on it) posted a link to the scheduled dates for each Olympic event. I'd love to see that, too. I know what time regular NBC shows it; it's always at primetime. But, if there's some way to know when NBC Sports network is showing stuff, especially if any of it is live, that would be very nice. How many hours ahead of us is Korea? Is it about 13/16 (ET/PT) hours ahead?

Another thing I absolutely love about Jason Brown is that he's so gracious to his fans, as well as to those in need. At every competition he participates in, he donates all of the stuffed animals that are thrown onto the ice after his programs to the local Ronald McDonald house in that country or state. That means that he visited the one in Taipei, as well! He even has learned Japanese (and likely some Chinese, as well) so he can talk to his very enthusiastic fans that he has there. Here are some great pictures of his visit, just to show what a wonderful, kind soul he is, in addition to his gorgeous skating abilities. Click the arrow to see all of them; look how the one kid is looking at him in the 2nd photo. And I love the 3rd one especially.

http://www.instagram.com/p/BejoqPBgQxa

[Joe]

Hi Libby!

I watched Mai Mihara's 4CC free skate program replay tonight (with Hayley's vocals on The Mission) on the Olympic Channel. Yes, too bad she did not make the Olympics.

Korea is now 14/17 (EST/PST) hours ahead of us, and nine hours ahead of GMT. 

It is indeed wonderful how Jason Brown thinks so much of his fans; especially the younger ones.  No doubt he will inspire them to take up ice skating. Jason is very thoughtful to give his post-skate stuffed animals and cuddly toys to the Ronald McDonald House. For those that don't know, the Ronald McDonald House is a place to stay for families while their sick child is in the hospital. There is a RMH in Scranton and is just amazing. 

[Libby]

Special announcement:

I had the idea to make a page on the HWI website devoted to videos of skaters performing to Hayley's music. I sought the expert help of Dave, and he put it all together for us. I originally hoped to have it ready while the Olympics were going on, but anyway, here it is!

www.hayley-westenra-international.com/content/skating-hayley

In particular I recommend re-watching the first one that appears on the page, the Benedictus one. One of the skaters in that stunning number is Carolina Kostner, who at the moment is in 1st place at the World championships. Check out the off-topic Figure skating thread to see her beautiful short program to a Celine Dion song.

[Joe]

Mar 23, 2018 5:53:10 GMT Libby said:

Special announcement:

I had the idea to make a page on the HWI website devoted to videos of skaters performing to Hayley's music. I sought the expert help of Dave, and he put it all together for us. I originally hoped to have it ready while the Olympics were going on, but anyway, here it is!

www.hayley-westenra-international.com/content/skating-hayley

In particular I recommend re-watching the first one that appears on the page, the Benedictus one. One of the skaters in that stunning number is Carolina Kostner, who at the moment is in 1st place at the World championships. Check out the off-topic Figure skating thread to see her beautiful short program to a Celine Dion song.

Thank you Libby and Dave for assembling a great collection of Hayley’s music and world-class figure skating!  I know how much effort both of you gave in ensuring all of the info was correct and formatted for our website. 

I am only too too glad to share this wonderful HWI webpage to our friends on our Facebook page 

[Libby]

Thanks, Joe! I'm going to share the link on the Hayleysforum twitter page.

Carolina ended up dropping to 4th place in the end, with Canada's Kaetlyn Osmond winning. The last time a Canadian woman won the World championships was in 1973! This will be Carolina's last competition.

Satoko Miyahara, who also skated to Hayley's Wings To Fly a couple years ago, won the bronze medal. She was 4th at the Olympics, and skated her best free skate in a long time.

[Libby]

Did you see who liked your post about this on FB?? Costa Pilavachi! I do remember it was reported a few years ago that he had liked our FB page, but here is proof that he is still interested in Hayley's career...! For some reason or another.