Karaoke Forums

Need some ideas for fun karaoke contest

What do you have in mind, an actual singing contest, suicide contest, theme night contest, impersonator contest, just a simple raffle ticket to anyone who sings & draw a ticket for the winner.
What are you thinking??

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Strip Karaoke!! Wet Tee Shirt Karaoke. .

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Seen it! Actually had a 'strip' club up here that had karaoke. Singers always wondered why they weren't the ones getting the applause.
It was very short lived.

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My advice? Don't do it!

But if you must, be sure to have others do ALL the judging, etc because you do NOT want to get sucked into the drama that will ensue.

And it will ensue.

Yeah, if it's a show based on talent, don't do it. Karaoke and talent generally don't mix.

It has been proven over and over that karaoke contests will pretty much alienate your regulars, who generally won't fare well in the contest, and reward random people who show up to your bar once and only once, take the contest money, and run.

Seriously. I live in a tourist town and there are plenty of bars that have karaoke contests. I've been to several, and I am not at all kidding, low-level recording artist will literally run the contest circuit around here. It's the same 6-7 people that win EVERY karaoke contest around here, and those 6-7 people would never be caught dead in these bars if they weren't just giving money away for anyone that can show up with more talent than the people who frequent that bar (see: tyical characteristics of people who frequent bars). So the end of every contest night is typically something along the lines of "random recording artist leaves with the $500.00 while all the regulars yell at the owner and KJ that the contest was completely unfair and they will never, ever, be back to that bar."

You're better off in the long run to just give the contest money to a stranger on the street (me, perhaps?) and skip the contest altogether.

Think up a better promotion to drive patrons to karaoke night....a singing contest will kill it.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Instead of a contest for money, how about you get with the bar and do little contests for drink tabs. 1st place a 25$ drink tab, 2nd and $15 tab and 3rd a free drink. Keeps it friendly, keeps it among your regulars, and would drum up more business for the bar.

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I am the ONLY SANE 1 HERE

Your better off either giving everyone who sings a first free drink night, or a $xx.xx bar tab to the person that brings the most people in night... Keep judging out of karaoke, as there's no way to keep hurt feelings and offence from occuring. Contests will backfire everytime on you...

Jon

Disagree, not if they are done right. I've ran hundreds of contests over the years and people still come back.
Karaoke is not any different than ANYTHING people want to compete for - look at American Idol or Americas Got Talent - QUILTING Bees, Air Guitar world championships, Spelling Bees (this is the worst, kids feelings will get hurt because they missed a letter - this type of competition shouldn't be allowed), the list of what people WANT to compete for is literally endless which includes karaoke. It's part of human nature. Feelings will get hurt in ANY competition - does it mean they shouldn't be done because if that's the case it should apply to every competition in the world - sorry, but hey they are big boys & girls & will get over it.
If you are going to worry about 'hurt feelings' worry about those people that didn't get to sing because you were too full or the people that didn't applaud/encourage their performance on a regular karaoke night. People that enter contests should have SOME clue in their head that - HEY I may not win this and if they let it get their little feel bads down, then they are the ones with the problems & shouldn't be entering in the first place!

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DITTO LON!!!!
IMHO, this is the ONLY way to have a "contest".

get some freebies from beer vendors
give some bar tabs away
ect.....

karaoke contests judging on "talent" just don't work, unless u want to pisss of the regulars.

progressive money pot


bar & I both put in $10 each for a total of $20 per drawing.

minimum you can win is $10 garrantied!

rules:
1. must be present to win
2. must have been at previous show & sang previous night and night of the drawing to qualify for the big bucks if not then they just get $10.

use 2 part tickets, cause they loose the 2nd half all the time. and then just call the number on the ticket. if you have them write name on ticket then they win more often.

i draw the big money ticket at 12am. if they were at previous show and tonights show then they win the entire pot. i've gave out almost $300 one night. if only at tonights show then they only win $10.

if no winner with the first ticket then we draw for $10 until we get a winner.

doing 3 nights a week this pot ads up quickly.

just hand out the tickets after they sing, i never reminded then to put in tickets before the drawing.. snooze you loose!

the drunker they got the more ticket they lost....

if you do the drawing to early then everyone sings and leaves....
if you do it to late then they come in late sing a song just for the drawing

have lots of people that love it....

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It's all good!

I will never ever ever do another contest! It's true.. the same people win every time... and you never see them until contest night. The only successful contest I've ever had was one that I DIDN'T do. I ran the sound and the sponsor did everything else. I got my usual pay, bar got good business.. and I wasn't accused later of rigging the outcome.

Give out prizes for free... have a theme night, do a kamikaze hour...anything but forget the contest. IMHO

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

The stipulation here with the same people winning, is if you win, you are not allowed to enter for at least 3-6 months depending on how often you run a contest - we did 1 finals a month (small prize deals) so the winner couldn't compete for 6 months minimum - also stipulated you could NOT sing any song once eligible that you had won with previously - this kept down the 1 hit wonders. We kept a database of all the winners, dates, songs they sang, so they couldn't say they are eligible again or never did that song.
If it was a major contest - large cash, if you win, you don't compete in ANY of our contests for 1 year and the song stipulation still applies.

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We held our 6th annual contest in the fall... First prize $1500.00 Second $500.00 and 3rd $250.00 plus 2 peoples' choice awards of $100.00 each.

We don't charge an entry fee. We don't charge admission at the door.

Has it hurt our Karaoke night turnout... Heck no... We've always got a good turnout.

Have we seen our share of semi-professional contest enterers? Yeah, and they do tend to take more than their share of prizes...

Yes, we get our share of complainers too... but those people will complain no matter what the subject... I've simply developed a thick skin.

Our contest was envisioned to provide the best free show we possibly could for our economically depressed community, and we've succeeded beyond our wildest dreams...

Next month we'll be doing our 6th annual junior contest... Pretty much the same rules apply... except we'll have two age groups, and smaller prizes...

I'm sorry so many of you have had such negative experiences with Karaoke contests... but contrary to what you may believe, they're not ALL bad.


p.s. I can send you a list of our rules; entry forms; judges' forms; song choice registers; etc if you'd like.

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

Oh, I don't think all contests are bad. I just won't sponsor another one. The effort to result is not worth it. It does upset my regulars.. vast majority of them won't compete. They'll just sit there patiently and wait to see if they'll get a chance to sing. When the contest has run it's course, they are always happy to have things back to normal. As for keeping track of who won and what they sang.... I'm not willing to put in that kind of work for nothing.. and that's what it ends up being: A bunch of work for nothing AND complaints from people that didn't win. I'm glad hear that some have had successful contests, giving away $1,500 and not charging an entry fee. Wow, I'd never be able to gather together that kind of money for even one contest here. The bars won't pay a dime, I might get some gift certificates but that's it. Of course, I could go on and on about the things I've done to work up interest, gather sponsors, etc. I could write a book probably! Bottom line, for me, it's just not worth it. Now the give away of prizes.. the $10 idea (would be all my own money), theme nights etc.. those things can be worth it. Fun, no stress and no huge out-of-pocket expense.

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SoundChoice Certification coming soon!

We were in several state wide contests (bar level, semi finals, finals) where the winners would receive anywhere from $1500-2500 1st place PLUS do a 5 song opening spot for a nation band at the local fairgrounds. The 1st year we did it, our winner too it through the semi finals & won the 1st place opened for Diamond Rio. Next year our winner tooks all the way to second place, he only got $1000 and didn't get to open for anybody, can't remember who it was for the band/singer they would've opened for. Third year our winner only placed 5th - this one I would've liked to have seen, they would've opened for Peter Frampton that year. We haven't gotten involved in this big contest for the last couple years.
A few years back our venue hosted the Dick Clark Be A Star - the one where they would be made over to resemble the original singer. It wasn't our responsiblity, they were just holding 1st level auditions there and paid me to run the sound for it on a Sat afternoon - lasted 6 hours.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

Going back to the OP....

How about a Gender Bender Contest? --- Men sing Female Vocalist songs and Women sing Male vocalist songs.

Here's one for the Regulars --- $5 entry fee gets you a slot in the contest. All of the Regulars fill out 2 song slips... Song Slip 1 contains just the title (and song look-up code) of their Signature Song. Song Slip 2 contains just the name of the Singer. All the slips with Song Titles are placed in one container, and all the Name slips are placed in another container. Someone who is not participating in the contest then is asked to draw a Name and a Song from the 2 containers. Only stipulation is you can't be selected to sing your own Signature Song, so if that happens, the Song Title gets put back into the container, and another song is drawn. Winner takes all of the pot collected. Variations for judging..... Most valiant attempt.... Best Singer.... Worst Singer..... Funniest attempt....

Themed Contest --- Songs about Love... Songs about the weather... Songs about modes of transportation...

Funny you should mention this... I was just talking about this with one of my co-workers last week (he doesn't remember seeing this show). That was called "Your Big Break."

I don't understand how does $20 turn into $300?
are you charging an entrance fee?

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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

Over in the San Fernando Valley, a club runs a "P0rn Star" night/contest..
It seems the girls work over there.. and love the stage. (go figure) Anyway, it can get exciting.. and the crowds are good too..