Karaoke Forums

I avoid these pitfalls by not listing (or purchasing ) these songs in the first place. It's not that I'm a prude. Heck , I like an off colred joke as much as the next guy, but when I'm putting on a show, I make it absolutely clear that I am a "Gentleman serving LADIES and GENTLEMEN!

I just don't feel the need to offer songs with graphic language. Everyone at my show can still have a blast without those types of songs. In fact, several people have complimented me for having these standards.

At my regular show graphic language is common almost to the point that shock value has little shock value.

In fact a few singers at my club regularly "modify" songs to have graphic words that otherwise do not. If done in the right setting and well done so that the alternate lyrics fit well it can get a good laugh.

But I know the group. If I was in a setting that may include people likely to be offended I would nix profane songs.

Generally in the 21-45 year old crowd that frequent bars, little is shocking.

For travelers who happen to be in bars but are not regulars, or older people many don't approve.


A couple years ago I did a free show at a high-school lunch hour as a favor to a teacher friend. Of course the HS kids found a song that was a "NO" as soon as the song got to the point of being offensive I cut them out.

I probably should have known the song had some offensive words in it, but it is hard to know all of the songs. But since I cut them out as soon as it began to near the bad parts.

Not a problam at my show. I'm probably in the minority here, but on my last printing I removed as many of the offensive and rap songs as I could find. Total only about 40 songs total. Not a big difference in the total number of songs in my book, but it eliminated a lot of this type of problam. Most people can't sing rap very well anyway. The words come too fast for them. The less offensive songs I kept in like Baby Got Back, I Touch Myself, Strokin', Let's Talk About Sex, etc... Roses by Outkast, The Bloodhound Gang, Eminum all got gone, and nobody's missed them.

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My first choice IS Sound Choice.

I agree! I have a guy who only sings the slowest of the Josh Groban songs. Now granted he is a VERY good singer, but still. When you go from party central to ultra-ballad, you can FEEL the momentum getting sucked out of the room!

A few times last night I had to ask people to change their songs and everyone was very amenable. I did have one guy come in who did "She Hates Me" - but on a quick review of the crowd, I allowed it - this is a rather staid kind of room normally but we had an influx of people who had come from a fundraiser down the street and weren't part of the normal crowd. I find that most people, when you give them a quick explanation about the reason you'd like them to change their song (whether to speed it up, or whatever), they're good with it.

I had an interesting night last night - it was almost like we had 3 different shifts of people - first people came early, ate dinner, sang a few songs, and had other engagements so left early; as they left, others rolled in. In all this happened two times last night - ended up with a pretty comparatively large group for my room and many had never really experienced a good karaoke show. I thanked all my great singers for putting on such a great face for these people. I get a kick out of peoples' faces when they hear such great singers "just" doing karaoke.

One problem I have is if you tell someone they can't sing a song "because the venue doesn't allow it", when in reality, it's YOU the KJ that won't allow it. If the venue owner DOES allow it, but YOU the KJ won't, say so. Otherwise you are lying. If you are going to censor for whatever reason, be honest about it.

If I decided to not allow a certain song to be sung, because I thought it was inapropriate for the crowd in attendance, I wouldn't have any problem telling the person when they hand in the slip. I would POLITELY say, "I don't think this is a good song choice for THIS crowd, maybe some other time". "What else can I get for you?"

Srnitynow