Karaoke Forums

I have decided to make a slight modification to how I do rotation based on the number of singers. I normally allow everyone a turn of their own, and if they choose to have someone sing with them, I do not count that against the "guest's" turn. However, at my busier shows, there will often be several people that sing with others, so I only let one "duet" per rotation per person other than their regular turn. I have decided that if my rotation is 15+ (hour or more rotation) that if there is a duet, it will count as the turn for each person.

The reason for this is the divas that complain about people singing 5 times in a night considering duets when they only get to sing 3. This will help make it more "fair" to the divas and keep the rotation flowing a little quicker.

However, there is a point to be made here. Said "diva" is a crowd favorite, but held up a booth all night by himself for five hours, and his tab was $6. The "duet" regulars have tabs of $20 and $30 on average. So at what point do you try to please everyone and have an extremely strict rotation even having duets count as a song for both singers to pacify everybody? The point is, if you cater to the sipping divas, you are hurting the bar's bottom line and ultimately your own. This is at a bar that claims they are not making enough money to pay me $150, even though it is one of my busiest shows.

IMO, it would make sense if you've had many complaints, because you likely will appease those who feel it's unfair and also will deter mic hogs.If you make it clear that 15 is the magic number, everyone will likely be happy with it.

Having said that, if it is just the one diva,(again, just IMO), it shouldn't matter even if they have the vocal ability of Freddie Mercury and Mariah Carey combined-their opinion should carry no more and no less weight than anyone else's.People go to karaoke as much to sing or hear friends sing as to listen.

Also, just a thought...Your diva may well be a cool person, but the way you describe them sounds like a case of entitlement...so,if no one else is complaining but them,ask yourself this-if they are really such a crowd favourite, why are others getting invited to duet instead of them ?

I've done it both ways and your hybrid idea I think is best. I used to get asked to do several duets on most nights and it would be sort of frustrating spending my turn every rotation doing someone else's song. I kept the one song per for me unless I had requests from non-singers. I just bring this up so you don't have people become frustrated with doing duets each rotation. But if they know the 15 rule, you probably won't have to worry that much about it.

I also didn't let them swap sing. Two singers turn in songs and each help each other on both.

WE HAVE A GROUP OF 3 GUYS THAT DO IT EVERY ROTATION.

It's always the same thing. Singer A sings a solo on his turn. Then Singer A helps singer B on his turn and then singers A & B help singer C on his turn. If there are 4 rotations during the course of the show, Singer a sings 12 songs. Singer B sings 8 songs and everyone else in the bar that is there for the entire show gets to sing 4 songs. You wind up with two very happy Divas and every other singer in the bar is pissed off. The disc based KJ just lost that show to a pirate with the owrst equipment I've ever heard.

I've always treated duets as a turn for each just for the reason it LOOKS like these people are getting up more - and in effect - they are! On rare occasion i'll let a duet & single go up in the same round, but that is not the rule. But I wouldn't put a limit on the omount of singers, you either have to have steadfast rule that is always in effect, or don't bother because you will ultimately get more complaints that you did it this day, but not today?
The $6 tab diva can sometimes keep people there longer than they might have been that are spending, waiting for the diva to sing, so it can balance out - since you said he is a crowd favorite, i've watched this happen as well.

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If someone wants to do a duet, I ask which singer it is going under. It will count as singer a or singer b's turn. I also make sure I announce singer a is bringing singer b up for help. Hopefully everyone or at least a few are paying attention. Have not had a problem with this method or any complaints.

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PSS Entertainment

One thing is certain to me. No matter how you do it, you can't please everyone all the time.

Six people singing one song still sell six drinks. More people on stage? Great!

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Okay, who took my pants?

As far as no one wanting to sing with this particular diva (I occasionally have others that will have complaints at various shows) it is because this guy is actually a horrible singer, he is just very energetic and entertaining. I may simply suggest he attend one of my slower shows, as he travels pretty far just to come to this one and has only recently become a regular at said show.

I do my best to make sure that people can only manage to join in one duet outside of their song for a rotation, because I know people try to monopolize singing. The false name slips are actually a bigger problem, and I am going to tell the regulars at that show that I wont take slips anymore with silly names I don't recognize. They can keep their "nicknames", but when there are so many singers, it gets hard to manage. This last Sunday I had half a dozen slips with goofy names I never even put in the rotation, because they were "duet" slips for various regulars, and by putting them in it would mean they got up for more than one duet in a rotation.

This is how I do it, mainly because I tend to be at small neighborhood bars with a mix of abilities. I've had legally blind people who want someone with them to prompt them if they forget the words and others who need someone with them for one reason or another. So I'd hate to have someone give up their turn for trying to be helpful. If the singer does or doesn't have someone with them it doesn't make for any less turns for the other people per round and if someone resents that someone sang twice via a duet then they are free to put in a duet, also.

I do have a caveat in the books that if it is a busy night it would be nice if people counted their duets as both people's turns and also that I don't want to see 4 singers all helping each other 4 times in a row. Although even that can go out the window at the younger age group shows where they like to do mass singing and no one is counting turns.

I employ the rule that a duet or group song counts as a turn for each person. Often I have 25-30 singer rotation, so the people near the end of the rotation will feel slighted if some folks get to sing a solo song AND "help" out on additional songs while the people near the end of the rotation haven't gotten to sing at all.

To me doing this way is as fair as possible, and gives just about everyone the same number of opportunities to participate.

Having said that, I have relaxed the rule when the rotation is 10 or less, but more often than not a duet or group number counts as one turn per person.

I totally agree.

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PSS Entertainment

The guy down the street from me uses the following rotation criteria:

1) Younger girls, especially in groups - first priority
2) Breast/Azz quality - always bumped up
3) Regulars - sing 2/1 over non-regulars
4) Himself - sings at least once an hour regardless
5) New singers that aren't regulars

Seems to work for him

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I think the main thing is, be consistant and fair. Singers deserve to expect knowing how it works. When a new singer comes in, they go to the bottom of the screen. Duets, as been said by many hosts on here, counts as a turn in the rotation after one free pass. If it's early and very few singers (3 or 4), it's a little more relaxed. I've only ever had one singer question my rotation, I was able to show him that his perception was wrong, he apologized and we had no problem.

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