Karaoke Forums

In my opinion...

Amateur contests are for people who have never been paid to sing. They will probably be judged by non-professional judges like the mayor, the school principal etc...These are usually the contests where the prize is "a fifty dollar shopping spree at the local grocery....And this is fine.

My problem comes in when there is a large award involved the contests can and possibly/probably will draw Professional level talent.

But if you are going to have a contest with a substantial sum/award involved they you need to be very specific about who is allowed to enter. IF it is amateur only then you should state that clearly and define what "amateur" and "pro" are in your rules.  You should also require contestants to show tax records to prove they are not "professionals" if your contest is amateur only.

If you encourage and allow pros- then you need to fair to them too. One thing is to have specific scoring and points allotted to each category. And the categories should not leave much leeway to the individual Judges "discretion' The best scoring sheet I ever saw had 10 categories each worth either 1/2 point or 1 point. And they were yes or no questions like "was this singer on pitch"  not open ended qiestrions like "Did you like them"

You also need to have pro judges. If you are gicing away something valuable enough to draw "pros" then you should also bring in People qualified to discern the difference between not just amateur and Pro- but between levels of "Pro" People like Record executives, talent agencies, vocal instructors, acting/drama instructors, other Pro musicians/singers, booking agents and the like. Your high school football coach does NOT fall in this category. And heaven forbid allowing an "amateur" karaoke contest winner/singer to judge a professional one. The worst thing I ever saw was when  friend of mine was in a contest. The week before, in the qualifying round, the previous year's winner and my friend had competed against each other( the previous winner wanted to come back and try again) My friend won. Then, When we showed up at the Finals- that previous"winner" had been brought back to judge. Her resentment towards my friend who had "beat her" in the prelims showed in the scoring. And the new winner was obviously a "friend" of the judges rather than the best talent there. My friend had spent considerable time and money to come for 4 different night to get to the finals- she had a fairly high bar bill, and she had brought many of her firends(like me) who also drove a long way to get there and had hefty bar tabs. I resented that I spent not only my money but my time to come see such a farce and I was resentful that my friend had put in so much effort for such unfair treatment. I will never go back because this establishment ran a contest that was so obviously unfair. I also wrote an article ot the local paper that was printed stating my opinion and why I was qualified to give one that gave the establishment and the karaoke company running the contest bad publicity.

So this is just my feeling...but if you are going to allow Pros to come out, travel( in many cases )to get there, and go to the trouble of costumes, choreography and practice involved in competing...then shouldn't your responsibility as a venue owner, KJ, or contest sponsor- be to provide a fair scoring system, and unbiased qualified judges to what ever level your contest calls for?? Aren't the judges JUST as important as the contestants themselves??? In my opinion they are!

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And once again I am reminded of why I never want to enter a karaoke contest.  I don't want to judge one either.  I did sit thru' one contest where the singers were judged by audience applause.  The guy I rooted for didn't even place in the finals.  (The winner wasn't bad, but he didn't do as well IMHO as this other guy.)  Plus, since I had elected not to enter the contest, I was getting antsy waiting for my next opportunity to sing!   I was thinking, "Come on!  How long is this gonna take?!?!?"  

Paula, I just checked your myspace site and I LOVE your singing!!!!!  Excellent!   I will PM you further about your website!

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I love being a mom!

When we do a large scale contest, we try to get 5-6 judges that are related somehow to the music field for our finals - during the qualifying I will get 3-4 people each week that I know can judge.  Karaoke friendly musicians from local bands (yes they do exist), vocal teachers, recording engineers/producers, radio personalities, other karaoke hosts that I know on occasion.  None of our judges in the bigger contests are associated with the bar in anyway (at least for the finals) - although some have become fairly regulars afterward in which they aren't used again.
Not saying that these people have any more credentials to judge, but i'd rather have someone with musical backgrounds judging me, than the owner of the local hardware store & gas station attendant!  We've been in 2 major statewide contests (over 100 bars entered) where 1 of the prizes were to open for Diamond Rio at the state fair.  Our finalist too it all the way & won the grand prize.  The next year was competing for $2000 cash first, $1000 second & $500 3rd, our finalist took third in the state finals.  These were both 'Idol' type contests & were looking for the full package - being entertaining on stage as well as being able to sing.  Judging criteria was basically vocal ability, song difficulty & stage presence/entertainment.  I've never used audience participation/response as a written criteria & tell the judges you can generally determine if someone is trying to 'stack' the audience with their friends - is the applause localized from their table only, or is it legitimately coming from the entire bar?  I also make it a point to allow all judges sheets to be viewable to the contestants after the announcements have been made.  I've literally seen contests that the judges were looking at each other baffled to a winner that was called when they weren't picked & the sheets were not viewable.
Also another thing that gets me - on a rant now - is the contestants better show up on time!!!!!  If you are late, you are disqualified.  Same goes for qualifying rounds, once we START a contest, we take no more entries, you don't get to sample the talent on a given night & THEN decide that you might beat all to be able to qualify for a finals.  If you want to enter after I start, then you must come back the next time!
In my eyes, everyone in the finals is already a winner - WHY?  Mainly because you are now no longer just a karaoke singer, our finals can generally fill the bar wall to wall with people listening & APPLAUDING everyone.  You are NOW a part of a very good show whether you actually win or not.  Some of our 'losers' have become singers in bands from the finals nights from people that were looking.

For our small $20 prize in house contests, we just use in house people & the winners will have to sit out from competeing for at least 4 weeks.

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

well..grin- Next time YOU decide to do a contest LON- Let me know! THAT sounds like the way it Ought to be done! (((((((applauding)))))

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I would laugh in the face of anyone who told me that I had to bring copies of my tax returns to enter a karaoke contest.

I would've probably said the same thing until I realised just how much Karaoke contests in some places are paying. I've done a several that involved me booking a flight and shelling out to stay in a hotel .. and they STILL paid off.  So if you had a good shot at winning a prize of five to ten thousand and they asked for tax returns why would you hesitate?    I didn't and I am "DARN" glad I didn't. When the prize is that big they could probably ask for a DNA sample and I'd provide it IF I felt like they had a contest that was on the up and up and would have unbiased judges.

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I would never trust MY OWN criteria and opinion as sole criteria for chosing a judge, or judges.  It'd take quite a few opinions IMHO.  So I don't know !  That's an event that I believe requires a "round table" type discussion, and objectivity that doesn't come from one individual.  I suppose for objectivity you'd want a fairly decent representation of at least two different age groups, different genders, different tastes in style, all depends on type of contest and genre of music I suppose.

JMHO.  My own opinion will never be objective.  It CAN'T be regarding an area of aesthetics !

I usually wake up OK What Now,  and ask him what he thinks !  He thinks of stuff I don't !!  LOL

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".