Karaoke Fun

“What’s the next song?” I ask my friend Darell Lim while I sit in a small room that’s about 8 feet by 10 feet. Seconds later, out from the speakers sitting on-top of 2 shelves in the front corners, the popular Romanian song “Dragostea Din Tei” starts pulsing at a steady rhythm. It would only be a few seconds before I would start jumping up and down and singing up and down. My friend Darrell Kim was on the second microphone. We started singing “Mai ah hi, Mai ah ho, mai ah hoo, mai ah haha.” We sang the rest of the song without shame. Afterall, the door was closed, and there were only 2 other people the small karaoke room. Were we drunk? No. We each had two shots of cold Sake three hours before our final musical performance.

Karaoke, as we are familiarized with it today, was invented in the 1970s and is popular amongst Asian bars and American bars. The term Karaoke comes from the Japanese words Kara and Okesutora, meaning empty and orchestra, respectively. The karaoke machine was invented by Daisuke Inoue in 1971. However, he had never used a karaoke machine until his 59th birthday in 1999. There are still debates whether Inoue was the true inventor of karaoke machine. The machine became popular very rapidly. Karaoke is now more than a $10 billion a year business, which includes machines, karaoke lounges and bars, and competitions.

Saturday night was not my first time doing karaoke, nor was it my first time singing in front of other people. I performed bands for five years and in choirs for five and a half years prior to my random karaoke adventure.

The problem with singing karaoke for me is that my vocal range is in the Bass/Baritone register while many male artists have a more tenor range, which is higher than I can manage on most singing opportunities. I’m “ashamed” to call myself a singer after my great adventure at the Karaoke. And my music instructors might be very disappointed in my decline in talent.

Before singing “Dragostea din Tei” I took the opportunity to work on my rap skills. I had selected one of my favorite Linkin Park rap-rock songs “In the End.” I found this song much easier than the other songs I had performed earlier and later that night. My friend Sammy managed to get a hold of my camera and tape me. My friend, Rose Marcaida, backed me up in the more lyrical parts of the song while I took on the more challenging rap. The challenge was in the pace of the rap. But that still didn’t deter me from trying. None the less, we ended up having a great time together.

The whole point of doing karaoke is for entertainment and for good friend and family fun, which is what I really got out of it. I would do Karaoke again if I know it’s going to be as much fun as it was that night. Being with friends, and embarrassing ourselves is only one key element to being happy. Karaoke is just one way to do that. I can’t wait for the next time the four of us go back out and embarrass ourselves in front of each other.