Karaoke Forums

It is interesting that at the England's recent Glastonbury Festival, his performance received high praise from the crowd which was singing along to all of his songs, and Lionel described it as "Karaoke at its finest." And while he as some up-tempo songs, he also known for his fine ballads.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-n ... wd-5966383

A lot of people hate karaoke and that's because of bad singers, particularly "ballad hell." I believe that mostly fast or upbeat songs should be sung, to please the audience (not just the other singers but everyone). I think it makes it better for everyone. The reason most people sing slow songs is that they're easier to sing (or so they think). For a faster song, you have to worry a lot more about rhythm and words, and you don't have a lot of time to take a breath. Most karaoke singers, from what I've seen, can't be bothered to actually learn the song, but they still don't want to mess up too much, so they sing the easier song. What they don't understand, though, is that singing a slow song WELL takes a lot more breath support and knowledge/talent. So they end up singing a slow song very badly. The songs are boring because the singers sing them in a boring way. They don't keep the energy going through each phrase. They don't sing some parts softly and some parts louder -- it's all the same volume. This is what makes the song boring. It's less obvious in a fast song, plus if you sing a faster one, you're going to automatically have more energy (usually). So, personally, I try to do mostly fast/upbeat songs because the audience and KJ really appreciates the break from the ballad Hell. Unless it's a small audience of just singers, where we're all trying out new songs or it's a very mellow laid back place where they prefer slower songs. It just depends... If I get to sing 10 songs then at least one will be slow.

Let's put it this way, a lot of the songs I post on SS, I would never sing in real life because they're just too slow or boring. Like I rarely sing Carpenters, for instance. I try to do mostly rock and roll.

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~Suzanne Lanoue~

i'm a person who digs slow songs. when i'm at my 9-5 office job, i'm usually listening to slow songs on my iPod to keep me calm.

my thing is, (and i thought that's where this thread was going to be about) as a KJ, sometimes, i like to PLAY slow songs in-between singers. and patrons don't want that. you know, they're out, so they want to be partying. but my argument is always this: most karaoke singers sing slow songs. so why can't i play a bunch of slow songs? i know folks wanna party, but since most singers sing slow songs, why can't i join in and play too?

anyway, as i said before on a different thread, i'd love it if i could arrange all of my best karaoke singers to all meet up for one night at my venue and only sing classic light-rock, slow songs. especially from the 70s and 80s.