Karaoke Forums

Reading this article on one of Whitney Houston's recent concerts, I had to feel sorry for her. Who hasn't had those times when one's voice just isn't up to par, or when your voice gives out halfway through a song (a very bad feeling), or when you pick a song that you realize you really can't sing that well until your 10 seconds into it and now you still have 4 more minutes of stage time? Hopefully the rest of the tour will smooth out the rough spots.

article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/ap ... ey-houston

I think I've experienced all of these things more than a few times. Of course, the nice thing about karaoke is that the next day most of the audience has forgotten what you sang and how you sang it.

I understand what you are saying, but it is hard for me to feel sorry for Whitney. I idolized her in her prime. She had it all and through it all away to drugs. Once she became a sloppy addict I lost all respect for her. I realize she is just human, but I can't feel sorry for someone who self inflicted her own demise. She lost her ability to sing well because of drugs. That was her own doing.

I was hoping her come back would be successful, but now I've heard her sing a couple times live it is clear drugs have ruined her once incredible voice. It is something she has to come to terms too.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Fame is a monster at times. I feel badly that a wonderful voice has been silenced, and for those who believe that drugs are optional once you start them, reconsider. For someone like Julie Andrews, who took such good care of herself and now cannot sing, my heart goes out to her. For Winehouse and Houston, well, you're poking around in a hornet's nest. One had a career that stretched beyond belief, and one could have the same. Choices are choices. My discomfort level while watching someone like WH sing again gets the best of me, I turn away because I don't want to see her fail as it only seems imminent. She was almost too good to be true anyway, just as MC is, and Beyonce. Difference is, Beyonce is a brilliant, with-it woman who has used her success to build more success. Nothing that she does is by accident.

Yeah, her drug use gets no pity from me, either. Like Karen said:

That may be true, but:
ONCE YOU START THEM.
Starting them IS optional and she KNEW the consequences BEFORE she took them. Only a complete idiot who's been hiding in a cave for the last 30 years or so would not know that.
So sorry, no pity there.
She CHOSE to do drugs in the first place.
The other thing that kind of shocked me that I didn't know was the fact that she smokes. And she wonders why her voice is crapping out?
HelllLOHHH!!!

I didn't know she smoked either. Very strange - I'd think she'd do what ever she could to sound good again. Does she read the press?

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Why would anyone with such fame and fortune need drugs......drugs are for broke M'f' ers like me..... so I can feel Impotent too.......

You take reverse Viagra?

The image that creates is strange, to say the least. I don't think I want to take reverse Viagra.

With regard to drugs and alcohol, addiction is a bedeviling thing. It is not totally voluntary. Most addicts are shown the seriousness of their condition, but some just can't get the mindset it takes to recover from it. It doesn't make sense, but it isn't totally voluntary.

Many addicts and alcoholics need to lose *everything* before they recover, and some don't recover even then. It is sad but understandable that normal people like you folk don't get this, but not surprising considering we still let beer companies flood the airwaves with commercials. Any other substance that had deleterious effects on 10% of the population would be banned. We've been moving in that direction for smoking, slowly, but I despair of ever stopping beer commercials.

And now we have a significant portion of the population who think we ought to be promoting marijuana use. Then we will have more legal substances that ruin lives.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Sorry but the first time they do drugs, it IS totally voluntarily, barring extraordinary circumstances, like being injected against your will etc, but that is extremely rare.
And given the fact that unless you live under a rock, you KNOW the possible implications of doing drugs, then you have to be a complete idiot to even try it.
Again, that first time IS voluntary.
No one MADE them do it. They CHOSE. Very important distinction here. They CHOSE, knowing full well what the outcome might be. Tough luck if they had the attitude "it won't happen to me". Well, guess what? You take a gamble, you could lose.
And I have much experience with addicts so I do know what I'm talking about. I just don't subscribe the whole "it's an illness" crap. Sorry, I know it's not politically correct, but that's the way I feel. I've seen far to much harm come to innocent people (like the kids of addicts, for example), to have any sympathy left for these morons.
Don't get me wrong, I feel for their struggle once they are there, but they are the ones that put themselves there, and not anyone else, so they got what they deserved.
And once they try to start the pity party, I tune out.
You make bad choices in life, you have to pay for them, one way or another. Unfortunately some consequences are worse than others, but it's all called life.
I think Darwin's theory comes into play here.

Of course. At least if you think that most 12-year-olds have the ability to choose wisely. And if you think their parents armed them well.


Glad to see you recognize it's emotional.


Here, I have an experiment for you. If you think you can exhibit willpower over a chemical reaction, stick out your tongue and put two drops of 70% potassium cyanide on it. Just two. Then see if your willpower will prevent you from dying in less than a minute.

And how about Native Americans? Nearly 100% who drink become alcoholic. You think that's willpower?

As I said, I don't expect you to understand. But it is pretty sad that you think you understand.


No question. The longer a society has had alcohol, the fewer alcoholics there are. They have been bred out of the stock. It is a contra-survival instinct. But the problem is nowadays, we don't let people like that die, and we don't shun them so they don't breed. We pay them welfare and they tend to have as many or more kids as non-affected people. So it is stupid to shove it under the rug by abdicating responsibility.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

yes and then there's my sexual addiction....at which I've been very successful keeping under control with the help of a very over-developed right arm....

I thought you were impotent. Or am I the only one who noticed you left out the "r?"

Leopard, consider the source....I love Reverb's comments...every single time. Need a laugh? Find something Sr. Reverbo has posted...

Does that effect your singing?

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

The people I knew who went down the marijuana path I can sadly say it greatly subtracted from their lives. One, a former classmate of 12 years ended up calling me from the hospital mental ward in his early twenties. I have no idea where he is now. Another died a tragic death. I think the drugs factored into both cases. With tobacco becoming more and more restricted as "a bad thing", it is hard to imagine marijuana being promoted as "a good thing", and yet Seattle's present mayor is in favor of legalizing it (this not too many years after our schools went through the D.A.R.E. program, and also considering that one of the region's largest employers, Boeing, does drug testing--go figure). For professional singers, it would seem crazy to touch drugs and yet the culture they are immersed in often seems to swim with drugs. Ruining one's career in such circumstances has to be pretty easy.

As a Native American Indian I drink but am NOT AN ALCOHOLIC!
Please do not put ethnic groups in one lump sum.

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I like everyone when I first meet them. If you don't like me that's not my problem it's YOURS!
A stranger is a friend you haven't met yet

Thank you for adding that Lone Wolf. I was hoping someone would. I have plenty of NdN friends who aren't alcoholics.

lmao............I spells 'em......like I sez dem.......now do you get it?.......

did you ever notice, the mic is always in my right hand, I'm bent over with a big hump in my back...........and I get all ugly in the face(at least a bit more than my usual ugly... )..........and I shake the mic up and down......with about a one inch travel in each direction........ ...........and then I let out that loud scream at the creshendo.......lmfao........and then I light up my cigerette.......

I tried to joke back but evidently it all fell flat.