Karaoke Forums

On Sunday, I volunteered to M.C., and provide the p.a. & music for a "celebration of life" for a highly-respected member of our local music & arts community who passed away earlier this year. The event was scheduled for the whole afternoon with guests arriving from all across Canada, and as far away as the British Isles.
It was a rather classy affair.

I'd never met most of the people, and many wanted to speak and pay tribute to the much-beloved lady.I had three or four of our karaoke singers offer to sing some of her favorite songs.

And of course, the bereaved lady-in-charge had no clue about organization, and pretty-much left everything up to me.

Needless to say, between providing audio services, hooking up someone's keyboard through my system, arranging the speeches and singers, operating the projector and big screens, releasing the tables for the buffet, and more... I was run off my size 12's.

Now, bear in mind that, as a rough guess, I have somewhere around 100-plus regular and semi-regular singers who frequent my two weekly shows... with usually between 35 and 45 singers at each show.

To me, just remembering the names of those singers is a monumental task... let alone what songs they like to sing. But there's always the prima-donnas... the "special" ones. Not only do I have to know their names, but the songs they sing, the artists they prefer, the versions, and the manufacturers too... and that's exactly what happened to screw up a wonderful lady's celebration of life.

All was going well until Ms Prima Donna got up to sing "Cabaret". I played a short version... she didn't specify, but apparently wanted the long version with the dramatic speechifying mid-way... So, part way through, where the speaking part was supposed to take place, I got the dirtiest look from her... while her husband somewhere out in the audience shouts out "F**K!!... He's playing the wrong song!!""

How's that for classy?

And this is a guy whom I had considered a friend.... (notice the past tense.)

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Earl
(BS, PHD & Certified CurmuDJeon)

[font=Times New Roman]"Growing Old may be mandatory... but growing UP is still optional."[/font]

That sucks. Did you feel like the preacher? Sounds like a Celebration of Life that I once did.

I've done free shows in the past where people don't understand that there are some things that just aren't the same. I did a fundraiser for a local school for free once and all the kids wanted all of the "bubblegum pop" songs that I normally don't buy unless they crossover to mainstream. I explained "Normally, I would buy the songs and download it, but this is not a paid event. If you have it on your phone, I'll be happy to play it".

"F-You, I'm not buying a song for you to play".

"Well, I'm not buying a song for you to listen to."

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I'm not a cheerleader, but I paid for my pom poms with my own money!

Earl, Some people have no class no matter where they are or at what function they attend. They cannot be helped. That was the case here and I hope someone else let them know how wrong it was for them to do that to you. A well rehearsed show would have caught the problem, but there were no rehearsals.....were there? Regardless, it was tacky with a big "T".

I probably would have said something (privately) back to him like, "Not for nothing but, who are we honoring here, the Woman who passed away, or your Wife?", and then add, "By the way, real classy of you to swear out loud at a public memorial event."

The good thing about karaoke is that nobody remembers what you sang the next day. Well, that might be a slight stretch, but it's pretty close. Time heals all wounds.

Still, it's kind of like requesting Friends in Low Places with the long spoken part. I sang it once, and it was the last time I did that version.

Isn't it annoying that despite all your preparations and willingnest to make the day / everning be a success there seems to be someone out there who want you to look a bit of a...person who's not very good. Don't cha just hate that.

There is a long spoken part in Friends in Low Places?

Yup. He goes on to describe how he felt the song just wasn't right, and how he decided to add a 3rd verse.

Is that the "Live" version? Must be cause I never use that one.

It's on SC 8162-1.

Yes it's the live version. I like this version better, the music itself is faster than the studio version. But I list them both, some like the studio, some like the live.

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