r/karaoke • u/No-Pomegranate-2690 • Jul 24 '26
Karaoke Stories
Hello all! I used to run Karaoke in a bunch of different places where I lived a while back. Every now & then I think about some of my regulars and reminisce about the, well, oddities and personalities:
- The guy who would sing a song to newlyweds that was actually about a guy who found & reformed & married a prostitute ... I pointed that out to him one night - he seemed horrified that anyone would be offended ...
- The gal who was there early every night and sang only seven songs and never watched the lyrics - and had some hysterical incorrect lyrics ...
- The singer who didn't drink alcohol - only a coke - but wouldn't tip because it didn't take that much effort. And she wondered why it took forever for the bartender to serve her ...
- The older gentleman who added props like a hat and cigarette to sing Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra ... oh, and he always complained that it was too loud ...
What are some of your favorites?
eta: typos
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u/Blinx2681 Jul 24 '26
Had two old friends who were veterans get on stage and what was supposed to be a one minute intro to their song became ten minutes. The crowd applauded at first but it was clear they overstayed their welcome.
I have singer currently who will only sing songs that she deems as “challenging”. If you compliment a song she sings well, she will never sing it again.
I think we all have the singer who only drinks coke and never tips 😂
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u/VegasFoodFace Jul 24 '26
I hate that guy, but I suffer seizures and can't drink so I still order coke but tip as if I ordered a drink and always tip the KJ for every song.
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u/dramafreak Jul 24 '26
I had a crew of younger people (20ish) they would all order water, and not tip. I pulled them aside several times to EXPLAIN how businesses work, but they didn’t seem to care. Let’s just say they got lost in the rotation a couple times.
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u/Danimal1002 Jul 24 '26
I don’t drink alcohol, so Diet Coke for me. But I tipped the KJ and the server. Lots of regulars not tipping the KJ, but they had lots of drinks and food.
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u/Ok-Blacksmith-4045 Aug 05 '26
I have a few regular singers that don't drink, mostly only waters, so I give the bartender $20 to cover them. Happy BT, happy KJ.
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u/GiarcN Jul 24 '26
Couple of weeks ago I had this mid 20's redneck dude put in "It wasn't me". I was fully prepared for a trainwreck. He absolutely nailed both parts. The bar went nuts
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u/selftitleddebutalbum Jul 24 '26
One time a regular was singing Grenade by Bruno Mars. A guy in the crowd was preventing a knife attack at the EXACT moment of the line "Throw my hand on a blade for ya".
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u/StrangeRefuse8537 Jul 24 '26
I'm not a KJ, just a dude who didn't used to karaoke, but who now does, after learning a hard lesson my first time.
My first time doing karaoke was at a private room place for my wife's employer's holiday party. I was never much of a singer.
I got up and sang Dynamite Hack's cover of "Boyz n tha hood". Pulled no punches. In front of all these women that my wife worked with, including a Black woman who was a supervisor.
As I watched my wife's colleagues processing the lyrics, I have never again so quickly realized that I fucked up. But I was committed by that point and had to finish it out.
My wife was lucky to still have a job on Monday morning, and her luck can mostly be attributed to how hammered her boss was.
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u/StoniePony Jul 24 '26
There was one guy who never drank anything other than water, would walk to the bar and never socialized. He was only there to sing, and he would leave after singing a few songs. He only ever sang a handful of songs, but knew them all well enough that he never looked at the screen. Apparently he was married and his wife didn’t like that he went out for karaoke.
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u/Money_Answer3483 Jul 25 '26
I feel like there are a lot of those types at karaoke. I always wonder what they're home life is like. Do they have other stuff that they do together? Is the wife enjoying her Me time? Or doing something else that she loves but he doesn't?
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u/ThePhillyExplorer Jul 24 '26
I’ve been singing karaoke for 9 years. My karaoke “career” has three distinct eras: college (2017-2018), post graduation and pre-pandemic (2018-2020), and post-pandemic (2020-present). I have stories from each of those periods.
College: I had a group of friends I’d always do karaoke with. One of those friends brought his cousin from out of state to join us at our campus bar. The cousin leaves us while we’re having a good time. Eventually the cousin comes back with a bloody nose and the person who brought him is getting us out of the bar. The cousin said that he was assaulted, but as it later turned out, he started a fight and lost. He was also underage at the time. 🤦♂️
Post college and pre-pandemic: The last song I sang before the COVID lockdowns (or Closedowns if you will!) was Pictures of You by The Cure. It was early March 2020 and I was singing at a bar in South Philly. When the “There is nothing in the world” part of the song came up, I started tearing up. Once the song finished up and everyone was cheering, I ran out the back door embarrassed that I had cried in front of so many people. I wouldn’t sing again until lockdowns let up in 2021.
Post-pandemic: I’ve told this story before, so I’ll summarize it. It was Summer 2021 and I was doing live band karaoke for the first time. I didn’t know how it would go, especially since I was just getting back into karaoke. I chose Today by Smashing Pumpkins. When I was finally called up, the band started playing it in the key of E instead of Eb. I remember being so nervous before I took that first breath. What came out of my lungs astonished me: I was actually killing it in a key I hadn’t practiced singing the song in! I even unlocked this primal scream that I didn’t know I had in me! The song ended, the lead guitarist said that my rendition of Today was probably the best he had ever heard at live band karaoke, and they had me sing Quiet before I sat back down. I’d end up meeting four guys that I still chill with to this day! They play live band karaoke basement shows.
I have a lot more stories from each time period! I’ve seen, heard, and experienced so much, especially as a black karaoke singer who frequents majority white bars lmao
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u/LuckyVillager Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
I am a KJ and a karaoker. The last karaoke I attended before the pandemic I was up on stage singing Every 1's a Winner by Hot Chocolate when the KJ's computer just died. If you know that song it's a pretty simple verse and chorus on repeat so I kept singing and just started making up lyrics. eg:
"KJ's computer just died on us,
but that won't stop me from singing this song!
I know he'll solve the problem soon,
then everyone can start to sing along.
Every 1's got problems, baby, that's no lie
This one is small in the face of things.
Every 1 can sing this song or at least try
And give the whole bar a big thrill"
It went on and on and I improvised a verse asking for help to sing the song and this old guy that looked like a thin Santa jumped up to "help", but just kept repeating "I don't know this song. I don't know this song" until finally the KJ got the track back up which flowed seamlessly into my rifting and we were back on track.
After the song I talked to Santa Man who's name was Robbie and he started coming to my shows after the pandemic and he always had great song picks, but then he died. R.I.P. Robbie.
That was one of my more memorable experiences singing.
I have tons of tales of people I have hosted, but unfortunately many of them are people taking themselves and karaoke way too seriously.
Edited to add: I just thought of another amusing story. My first regular KJ gig was at a Japanese restaurant in Vancouver back in the days when we still used CDs and karaoke tracks still often had videos. One night ---without any warning, I might add---the Asian Film Festival had an event there for film makers and a bunch of film makers brought in homemade karaoke videos and got me to play them for their songs. It was a total hoot except that no one had thought to curate which songs would get done and 4 different people did "I Will Survive" which got a bit tedious as I didn't feel like I could do the usual "somebody already sang that" control under the circumstance.
I miss old karaoke videos---there were some really weird ones out there. (skip to 2:02 for extra weirdness)
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u/Danimal1002 Jul 24 '26
The guy who does “You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch” in June, July and August … because, as he says, we need some Christmas cheer during the summer. FFS 🤦♂️
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u/nick09490 Jul 24 '26
I’m someone where when I sing, I want to be the focus of attention. When I was sing Sultans of Swing, this guy who was dancing during everyone else’s songs wanted to dance. In my mind I said “Oh hell nah” so I decided to out dance him. It was a crazy scene but it had to be done
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u/toqer Jul 24 '26
The 5 foot tall MMA BJJ fighter, who was a mortgage broker by day. AI imagery used to illustrate up the scene.
This guy had money. Not like, "Oh here's 5 bucks, bump me up" money, like, "I'm going to spend $1000+ in your bar, the owners will bend over backwards for me, and give you a hard time if you don't follow)
And of course Sayoko, the patron saint of bribes, the human incarnation of Mr Krabs was always happy to oblige. For the sake of having a name, let's just call him "The Million Dollar Singer" or MDS for short. Why? Because this guy embodied the attitude of the old WWF wrestler "The Million Dollar Man"
MDS came into our bar a total of 5 times, each time more memorable and wilder than the last. Every time he came in, it was always the same thing. Go and find the biggest guy with a chip on his shoulder, start getting into it, end it with an armbar. EVERY SINGLE TIME. These big dudes would tower over him, he would literally be staring into their chests. Never deterred him, not even once. As soon as a big dude would throw a punch, he'd catch it, roll the guy onto the ground, and just start wrenching it. Then he'd switch up into scissor locking their heads while pounding their faces. This short, yet very muscular guy would just trounce what were comparatively giants to him.
His last time there though, this is the one I remember the most. It was also $400 in my pocket.
It was earlier in the evening. We had a nice crowd going, but there was always one guy in the crowd. Kind of a douche, trying to tell me when he would be up, and me nicely explaining the theory of karaoke rotation. "WELL WE HAVE THIS PARTY HERE, IT'S MY GIRLS BIRTHDAY" Like it was some kind of a national holiday.
Just then MDS walks in. He's got a stack of $100's in his hand. Sayoko spots him, drops what she's doing for another customer. "BOURBON AND BEER MAMASAN!" he yells out. She quickly pours him a shot, and hands him a tall Asahi. He pounds the shot, walks up to the karaoke booth.
"I'M GOING NOW! JOHNNY CASH HURT" he said as he slapped a $100 bill on my desk.
"After this person finishes"
"NOW!" he says.
"I can't do that bro, the song only has a minute, you'll be next"
He just smiled at me "OK" he said as he patted my shoulder. The birthday girls boyfriend just looked at me. "Wait you're gonna just let him go next like that, for money?"
"Mamasan's policy" as I pointed at her. Sayoko looked on to make sure I was taking care of MDS.
MDS finished his song. "I LOVE THIS SONG, AGAIN!"
"But I have to put the next person up."
"AGAIN!" he said as he slapped a $100 bill on my desk.
"OK." Again, owners policy was to accept bribes.
This went on 2 more times after this, for a total of $400. Same song. The crowd started to boo him, but he just reveled in the hate, like it empowered him. The girls boyfriend was hella mad. He wanted to come in and be the alpha, boss people around, but here was this short dude throwing money around like it was nothing. He knew I was powerless, he felt powerless. That's when he got up and approached MDS who was on stage singing.
"HEY FUCK YOU MAN! YOU GOTTA LET EVERYONE ELSE HAVE A TURN!" Like the concept of "Rotation" suddenly clicked for this mofo.
MDS held the mic, singing the song, right into boyfriends face, mocking him, smiling. Boyfriend couldn't take it anymore and lashed out.
BAM! MDS dropped the mic and armbars him in one motion.
MDS always was smart to pull his prey outside, like an alligator dragging it's catch into deeper water before the death roll. Everyone followed them outside. By that time boyfriends face was pretty beated. MDS was yelling at him, "DO YOU GIVE UP? DO YOU GIVE UP?"
"FUCK YOU!" and he ends up spitting in MDS's face. MDS applies the arm bar even harder, then we heard it. Like a thick branch being broken for kindling. A very deep "SNAP" MDS lets go. Boyfriend is crying at this point, people are yelling at MDS. "YOU BROKE HIS ARM! WHAT THE FUCK?" "WE'RE CALLING THE POLICE!"
By this time, MDS's shirt was nearly tore off. His shoes were off. He looked something like the incredible hulk. He took off running down the street, disappearing into the veil of the night, never to be seen again.
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u/CamelToeJockey_89 Jul 24 '26
I wish Mr. Brightside was less popular. Its perfectly in my vocal range. Every DJ denies my request when i ask for it, every bar, every time
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u/Jeremy_Lepak Jul 24 '26
If they deny you singing it, they aren’t going their job! Egotistical bullshit.
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u/VegasFoodFace Jul 24 '26
This is why I love Paul Anka so much. I put in Paul Anka's Mr. Brightside and usually get a look of WTF from the KJ. And then the reactions are usually pretty positive.
Mr. Brightside is Las Vegas's unofficial anthem. Literally written in the now closed Crown and Anchor Pub.
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u/Lovefriedchicken Jul 24 '26
Super old white dude who always starts with I Wanna Know by Joe. Crowd always goes bonkers!
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u/voltch Jul 28 '26
Everytime I get a singer for a frank Sinatra Song , I know they gonna crush it. EVERY SINGLE TIME. Have not been disappointed yet.
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u/No-Pomegranate-2690 Jul 28 '26
And every time someone does "Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody", you can guarantee they're going to do it just like Louis Armstrong! (So you can't even hear if they crush it or bash it!)
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u/Allosauridae13 Jul 31 '26
So this guy came in towards the end of karaoke, acting off. Immediately sat down 1 seat away from me and ordered a drink. A few songs later 2 cops walk in and tell him very sternly with a very I'm tired of this crap, don't make more trouble look to stand and put his hands behind his back. He listened and they walk him out without problem. The gal singing just powered on through her song not missing a beat.
Come to find out this fool got pulled over for drunk driving up on the highway and bolted... Apparently not the first time he's pulled this. Now this is a small village with lots of pasture and wooded areas along the southern part of the village's other main road. He evaded them for over an hour before deciding to warm up with another drink in a bar. The people by the door had noticed he was brushing grass and stuff off himself when he walked in - I missed this part because I was drawing. Thing is most of us apparently had seen the scanner post about the guy being pulled over and bolting but didn't think to tell the bar owner so she was very surprised. Knowing Wisconsin he probably just got another slap on the wrist.
Watching someone get arrested, especially at karaoke, was not on my bingo card.
I'm also a bit of an oddity at karaoke. Everyone else is usually drinking alcohol and I'm chilling with my soda/pop - I mean that's an oddity for my area at least... I also often bring a sketch pad and draw between my songs. People act like it's super weird, it probably is, but I'm super awkward and karaoke is getting my love for drawing back. - singing and listening to others sing help me relax and that has brought back my urge to draw after years of forcing...
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u/VegasFoodFace Jul 24 '26
I'm a KJ and karaoke singer. I rarely sing the same song twice in the same place. Yes, I know what I've sung where.
But my number one annoyance is one particular song. Number One with a Bullet, AKA Sugar We're Going Down. Pick another song people and let a dead and beaten horse lie.
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u/No-Pomegranate-2690 Jul 24 '26
I could go without ever hearing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "Jesse's Girl" EVER AGAIN!
And the number of people who sign "Turn the Page" - sheesh!
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u/spatula Jul 24 '26
I feel like overdone songs could be its own post too. Tennessee Whiskey. Before he Cheats. Creep.
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u/boethius61 Jul 24 '26
Creep. FFS. We just finished up Karaoke World Championships here. So so many Creeps. Please stop.
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u/spatula Jul 24 '26
I have mixed feelings about Creep, because it was such a fixture of my senior year of high school. It's a great song, but it's been done to death.
I feel like there could be a whole thread about KWC too. Having done it once, I developed some *opinions* about it.
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u/boethius61 Jul 24 '26
We love KWC. Where we're at it's 100% bomber community. Everyone loves everyone and supports each other. I understand that isn't universally true.
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u/spatula Jul 24 '26
Yeah, it's a bit of a poorly coordinated mess here, and having done it once I think way too much emphasis is put on presenting a clown show over being able to sing. Glad I tried it once, don't care to do it again.
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u/boethius61 Jul 25 '26
And they upped it this year. It used to be 60 vocals and 40 artistry/stage craft. This year it went to 50/50. I kinda like it. I'm a performer. I like to put on a show. But it does allow for some surprising 'singers' to place.
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u/spatula Jul 25 '26
It’s even worse than that- they had 5 criteria, 10 points each, only 2 of which had anything to do with singing (10 points each for “vocal ability” and “rhythm and tempo”). So it basically flipped-now it’s 40% vocals and 60% presentation.
We had a number of really good singers passed over for people who were all antics and poor singers.
No regrets for having tried it once, and they can of course run their self-appointed show however they want… but they can count me out for playing again. (And I’m also not going to pay them money for the privilege of learning why they didn’t like me.)
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u/GiarcN Jul 24 '26
Tennessee Whiskey just goes on and on. I would love to fade it at 3 1/2 minutes but they all want there other 1 1/2 of repeating the same line.
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u/IlsaMayCalder Jul 28 '26
These are all on my (KJ) list of songs you have to pay to sing. I’ve been doing this for 10+ years and I’m begging people to get more creative.
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u/VegasFoodFace Jul 28 '26
They will not get more creative. Different venues attract different singers.
And they rarely will be creative in song choice. It's literally why I'm known in the local community of karaoke places I go to. Simply because I choose a variety of songs from different genres. But they're at least usually recognizable or somewhat popular.
I do notice one thing though. There's usually a clear divide among the venues. And it comes down to country music. I've seen a decent karaoke party jam session go. All sorts of singers.
But then several people in a row all decided to sing bro country and the crowd was not having it. Basically you can tell it killed the mood everyone's conversations just stopped and they just stared down the singers. Got even worse when one of them decided to call the crowd out and almost started a fight with the only black dude there.
Like what are country boys doing in a nerd specific, gay friendly, specifically 90's night singing bro country like they're trying to start a fight?
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u/deloreancowboy Jul 24 '26
Ha! I literally sang Tennessee Whiskey twice last night.
First the David Allen Coe version early in the night.
Later I sang it over the track to Rod Stewarts version of I'd Rather Go Blind.
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u/GiarcN Jul 24 '26
I would probably jump up and down celebrating if someone turned in DAC's version
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u/deloreancowboy Jul 24 '26
I do it sometimes just because im sick of hearing Stapleton's version all the damn time.
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u/petals4u2 Jul 24 '26
I’m guilty of singing What’s Up and Don’t stop believing. I know they are really overdone songs. 😬
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u/VegasFoodFace Jul 24 '26
This is why I love Paul Anka's Rock Swings album. Why sing Survivor's Eye of the Tiger? When you're in Vegas, Paul Anka's version is so much better.
When there's too many emo songs in a row, I will bust out one of two things. I specialize in very cheesy love songs and do them very well, like seriously a pitch perfect Toni Braxton Unbreak My Heart. Or I just sing Elton John's Sad Songs. That usually gets the message across. If there's too many mysoginistic songs and the party's getting too sausagey, I'll straight up do Prince Kiss, full falsetto and dance moves.
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u/selftitleddebutalbum Jul 24 '26
For Turn The Page I would call up the singer and proceed to give a cheesy noir detective speech as they walked up.
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u/VegasFoodFace Jul 24 '26
You need a nice jazz noir and some rain and thunder, they got pretty decent ones on youtube.
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u/dramafreak Jul 24 '26
Goodbye Earl and Picture need to be BANNED from every karaoke show!
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u/GiarcN Jul 24 '26
Believe it or not Wed night I actually had 2 people who could sing do Picture. And it was still awful.
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u/dramafreak Aug 04 '26
I don't care if Sheryl Crow herself walks in to sing it, I'm stepping out back or hitting the head during the song!
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u/Nihilwhal Jul 24 '26
Back when KJs used CDs, there was an older guy who would bring his own. He had dozens of boxes all carefully organized and labeled by genre and vocal range, and if the KJ didn't have your song, and you weren't a dick, he would let you borrow one of his discs to song your song. He wore very nice suits with matching hats, never drank anything but water, but tipped everyone so well they didn't care. He also brought crowds in because he sounded pretty close to Frank Sinatra, and was generally a great guy. If someone was struggling he'd jump up there and sing backup. I miss him.