Jimmy Borges, one of Hawaii’s most beloved performers, tells a small studio audience of hand-picked friends that he’s “in the process of learning how to die.”

I invite you to tune in and watch this concert and the man who shines through the music, in the show’s premiere on Thursday, January 21, at 8:00 pm on PBS Hawaii. The title, Jimmy Borges: Faced It All, comes from a phrase in the song “My Way.”

Jimmy speaks to his friends matter-of-factly, from the heart: “My cancer is back. And this time, it’s not planning to leave. But tonight, or any night, is not about ‘poor Jimmy.’ Tonight is about me having a wonderful life, sharing my music. And tonight is about someone out there whose life is going to be affected by what we’re doing here tonight.”

By “someone out there,” Jimmy has in mind a Hawaii high school graduate with financial needs who will benefit from the brand-new Jimmy Borges Vocal Music Scholarship fund at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. His friends in the audience established this perpetual fund in his honr.

Actor Jim Nabors, 85, has a moment with Jimmy during a pre-concert audio check.

Leading whirlwind fundraising were cancer survivor and retired Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) CEO Robert Clarke and Matson Chairman and former First Hawaiian Bank CEO and Chairman Walter A. Dods. Jr. They raised $300,000 in less than a month.

Taped last December 3, in PBS Hawaii’s studio, the concert marked Jimmy’s first public disclosure of the recurrence of liver cancer which has spread to his lungs. We at PBS Hawaii are honored to present this gift of a program from a former PBS Hawaii Board member and favorite son of Hawaii, who assures us, “I’m here living the life I chose to live. I’ve got the best musicians, and each song we’re doing tonight is a song seen through the prism of my life. So let’s cook.”

Thursday, January 21, 8:00 pm