Karaoke Forums

Thanx....was actually considering shooting m,yself in the head though!  :hi5:

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It's always time to sing!

Talked to Mr. Bar owner last night. I told him if he doesn't find me  2 good judges in a week I am done.I can not go to bars and try to get them involved without judges..I would really like 3 but that looks impossible.
So if he gets his s**t together we will have 2 judges for the qualifiers, they will also judge the finals along with 2 more judges.

We will see.....

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It's always time to sing!

We have had professional band members judge!  You will still have chaos!
No metter what you do, it will kill the crowd you worked to follow you.

The Sat night winners from 1st week to 9th week compete for the final $500 prize...So yes there was only one winner chosen at finals.    :)

There are only a couple regulars i can imagine losing...I am not being cocky ..it's just I sang with most of these people b4 I sang for them.
And well my Thursday night fols are about as Loyal as they come...really no dillusions of grandure here .

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It's always time to sing!

Thankyou Neo.

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It's always time to sing!

From reading the OPs post, it seems that the reason for the contest is to draw more people to his bar/gigs.

If that is the reason for the contest, and it usualy is, how aboiuit something different.

Someone here posted about a SECRET SONG contest.  A song was chose at random out of the song book, and it was tagged the SECRET SONG.  Money was put in the "pot" by the bar, say $20 for each so.  As long as no one sang that song, the pot keeps growing.  Now advertisins that "IF you sing the Secret Song you could win $200", assuming the pot will go that high, is probably going to make a lot more $$$ than the karaoke singing ontest, and won't tick off people.  And another benefit is that it will draw in MORE people than just a singing contest, since ANYONE can win, even the crapiest singer.

I also belive that if the song wasn't sung by the end of the night, a HINT was given to point people in the right direction.

Ummm sorta....another bar had a small off the cuff contest,some of my regulars were there..some couldn't make it. They were disappointed. So I made the suggestion to another one of my bars maybe we could hold a contest. Well that turned into this 10 bar contest . Can't blame him if It goes well it is good exposure for his bar.
I like your idea but can not think of a bar owner I know in this area that would put up money like that.
This is Rural---really rural.lotsa small towns with less than 2,000 people and 2-3 bars each .
There are lots of things I could do in a city that just wouldn't fly here in these small towns.

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It's always time to sing!

OK, Real world experince here from someone in a RURAL are too.  All towns within 50 miles around me have a population of 10 to 3000 people, and the town I am in is the biggest with a population of 5000 or a lil more.  So I know the rural feeling.

Anywho, a bar owner/KJ/DJ started a contest one spring with the finals to be held in my town's 4th of July celebration.  He had a couple regular gigs in a few towns around the area, and held some qualifying there.  He also did some KJ work in other town's celebration days, and qualified people there also.

Well, needless to say, it was a big pile of crap.  The judges knew some of the contestants, how could they not, it's a rural area.  Some judges were judging on outfits and how singers "looked", even though they we not supposed to.  1st and 3rd place went to "regulars" of the KJ guys bar.  He lost WAY more bizness that gainded by holding the contest.

Think LONG AND HARD before starting a contest, it WILL bite you in the but.

 :worship:

Please don't get me wrong..I see the cons I really do, but it's gonna happen. On the judges note the 2 that will go to the 10 bars and the finals are from wayyy outta town. The only person they will know is the bar owner. I told him that if I see ANY hint they are not judging based on singing and performance only I will override them.I have been in many contests in this area and frankly there are a LOT of top notch singers out there, my hope is that they show up and do their thing.
There are quite a few different contests in this area and I have at one time or another sang in most of them. Some were ran good ...some left a dirty taste in my mouth. Although I know someone is always unhappy, the reason I asked for advice was so I could run the fairest show possible.
I really appreciate all suggestion..critisisms..and suggestions.

Thankyou Joyce

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It's always time to sing!

I realy do hope your contest goes good!
BTW Check out the DOCUMENTS section of my website for some rules that the wife and I came up with after we complained about a contest, and the sponsers wanted a clearer set of rules.

CLICK the button below my signature for my website

I realy do hope your contest goes good!
BTW Check out the DOCUMENTS section of my website for some rules that the wife and I came up with after we complained about a contest, and the sponsers wanted a clearer set of rules.

CLICK the button below my signature for my website[/quotThankyou!! On my way there now!!

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It's always time to sing!

That was funny  LMAO  LMAO  LMAO

I don't know why you single'd me out to visit your web site~~~ But~
out of curiosity I did.  Still makes no sense to me.  A good one though, but needs updated.
I did however see that on your website you stated every Thur. & Fri. Lil R & R.,
but you also stated on there Aug. 4th River Bar?????  That is a Friday!  Do you have 2 systems?  I read your rules for Karaoke Contests.  I have run contests, as well as a contest could be run.  Professional judges, videos, 200 plus guests!   $1500.00 in prize money, and on an another occasion for a contest in one single bar gave a trip to the Carribean. (Sure I mispelled that!   Sorry!)   Anyway, after all that, I would never be a part of another Karaoke Contest if my job depended on it.  You lose tooooooooooo many good people.  They are faithful followers, but even then they feel slighted if they don't win, and you  lose them forever.  Never do you see them again.  Guess they feel because they know you,  you should have helped them to win.  You should have some sort of pull with the judges.    NOT!!!
Your rules from the website are ok, but I would not adhere to all of them.  We had the best contest ever, in my own opinion, for 2 years, ~~but I would never do it again.  Won't even elaborate on this because it as already been said in many many post.
Anyway, if there was a reason for the big letters to [shadow=coral]"kjsrsbest click on the www. button" then let me know![/shadow]

That is a  very good set of rules. I printed them off...hope you don't mind.

I have been trying to come up with something like that for my judges .

kjsrsbest, I haven't read your posts on a contest, but I am sorry if you ran one and lost some people. I know the potential is there. In the other contest none of my people won.Now they were disappointed, but 1st and 2nd place were gimmes. gal came in from outta town with the most beautiful voice...everyone in the bar knew she was the winner, 2nd place was no question either. 3rd was up for grabs and went to one of the bars regulars. That one coulda been a few people. I think it was judged fairly.
There are alot of different contests in this area and most of these people are used to winning and losing. I have been talking to them...asking them what they think..explaining I am not a judge..most say as long as its judged fairly they are OK.
And frankly if I do not do this right they have every right to be pissed.
My hope is that since, "most" of the people in this area who can carry a tune have been in a contest or two already, if I put on a fair contest, win or lose they will walk away knowing it was legit.

This little contest is trying to get bigger and I am keeping it small.
Not just the bars I have talked to but the singers want to see it be BIG. I told them if I manage to do this contest good..and the majority of people walk away, win or lose, having a good time and feeling it was a quality contest I will make it a bigger deal next year.
If this thing goes bad its my fault. PLain and simple. Thats why I am asking for help .

At this point it is going to happen and all I can do is make it the best I can.....and PRAY!!

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It's always time to sing!

I have been reading the posts and just had to put a quick comment in. There are contests around here and from what I hear from a lot of singers is they tend to shy away from them because they feel that the "friends of the DJ"  or "the person that brings the most people" wins because most of them are based on audience applause or judges that are picked by the karaoke/dj host. I have a contest starting in January. 12 singers will be accepted each night. They will be in the regular rotation. At the end of the night there will be a drawing. One of the 12 singers will move on to the finals by having their name drawn out of a bucket (or bowl, or hat, whatever) by the manager of the bar. For 7 weeks, every Saturday night we will do this. The reason my singers love this so much is #1-NO JUDGES  #2-IF THEY DON't GET PICKED 1 WEEK THEY HAVE 6 MORE CHANCES #3-MOST OF THEM COME TO SING AND JUST HAVE FUN (It's Karaoke for God's sake) #4- SINGERS NOT IN THE CONTEST STILL GET TO SING
I will tell you how it makes our singers happy and makes our show grow. #1- It doesn't cut in to regular singers time. #2- People get there early to try and make the first 12 to sign up. #3- They come back every week to try and get into it. #4-Most of them bring a lot of friends who all stay until the end of the night to see if their friend gets picked. (The bar wins too)
I think contests for big money are great, if they are like American Idol or something but when it comes to karaoke, our regulars and the average singer are the reason we have a job and they are just as big a star as someone like Celine or Toby in my eyes. So, we try and make sure that's what our show is all about.

I really like this idea. I will bring it up with Mr. bar owner!
Thankyou

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It's always time to sing!

No problem... Like I said, I it wasn't for our singers (Great ones, good ones and some that sometimes have a little to be desired) we would not have a job. Our singers are the stars of the show and we try and make every one of them feel that way. That's why they are there. When you can make a living doing this, what else could be better?

Just an added tip, you don't have to have to have same judges every night. When I had a contest, I had members of bands as judges, but non of them could be available on every night of the contest due to there gig schedule.  But the good thing about mixing up the judges, is that people feel they have a fair chance. You can also try to have as many of these different judges be there for the final contest.
With my contest, the band members wanted to be there for the finals after being in the preliminaries, and said they enjoyed it. That was about the only thing in my contest that went completely smooth.

And just to let you know, most KJs are against contests, because they are a HUGE pain in the butt, no matter how well you plan it out. And you just don't get paid enough for that kind of aggrevation.  :D

Good luck with your contest!!

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