Karaoke Forums

Thought I'd tell you guys what happened to me last night at my regular Tuesday night gig. I arrive, as I always do a little early to set up, etc. No sooner do I walk through the door when I see two regulars coming at me from different sides of the restaurant. It was almost a sprint by both to see who could get to me first. With not even a moment to set down the gear I was carrying in they both start talking at the same time.

These two regulars are both gentlemen in their late 6o's and have a minor history of karaoke drama over the last few years. Anyways, they both come running up stating they were here first and wanted to sing "my way" by Sinatra. I politely told them that after I was done setting up I would speak to each of them separately (to avoid drama) and we would figure out the best solution

As I'm setting up for the show I see one of the gentleman strategically send his friend up to me to give eyewitness account about him being here first, etc. and it was only fair for him to sing first. I quickly thanked him for the "inside" info and went back to setting up. Two minutes later guess whose friends are coming up to the stage telling me that their friend was here first and he deserved the first position to sing.

I could see this getting ugly fast and seriously considered singing the damn song myself and cutting them both out of it, but a cooler head prevailed and here's what I came up with. I spoke with what I considered the calmer and more reasonable diva and told him that I would appreciate it if he would let the other guy sing "my way" and in turn I would let him sing first in rotation. He was very hesitant and thought my idea wasn't fair. He was here first and blah blah blah! I figured as a last resort I would stroke his ego and that's exactly what I did.

I told him that he had such a broad variety of songs that he sang well and perhaps giving the other guy a chance to sing his only "go to" song would be a classy move on his part and would squash this nonsense once and for all. After getting his approval I approached the other gentleman and told him that the Sinatra song was his this evening but that he would have to be second in rotation do it.

At first, this gentleman didnt like the idea either, but a little persistence and patience did the trick and he finally agreed.

I also told then that should this situation arise in the future that I would let the other person who didnt sing the song the week prior the option to sing it first. They wanted to know how I could keep track of that and I told them about the history feature on Compuhost, etc. and finally started the damn show.

KARAOKE DRAMA!!

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Sound Choice and Chartbuster Certified

Such Silly old men. That's quite a DIVA story if i've ever heard one!

Drives me crazy when anyone wants to sing "My Way" at the beginning or near the start of a show.

"And now...the end is near..." way to start a show NOT!

I always get the "why did you let he/she sing MY song," to which I always give the obligatory...."I didn't know you were in that band..." kinda response. The first request gets the song!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

In that particular scenario, I would have said "Easy. We'll flip a coin".

Done.

Man I'm glad that is a song that rarely gets sung anymore at my show. I don't miss it!

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

Karaoke diva drama. I deal with this a lot. It's like dealing with little immature kids, but yet these are grown people.

I also thought of the coin toss, but I think you handled it very well. You know we have to be shrinks at work too.

I kinda like " No kidding! When did you publish it?"

I know it sounds a bit terse, but it usually lets the patron know that I won't be intimidated and it's first up, first served. No more problems...

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"No Contests, No Divas, Just A Good Time!"

" Disc based and loving it..."

My auto response:

Me: (answer tactfully, with a smiling face) Really? Hmmm, I thought I “own” that song; I was the one who paid for it. Its fair game if listed in my book.
him/her: But I have my own cd!
Me: Sorry, but I process song requests on a first come first served basis.

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To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

I see this all of the time.
It's either young women who want to sing "Before He Cheats" or it's old men who want to sing "My Way" or the latest which is men of all ages who want to sing "Hallelujah."
Part of the problem arises from one person who always sings that song every time they come in to sing and they come in almost every night singing the same song every time. After they have worn it out so, I don't understand why anyone else would ever desire to sing it. I suspect it to be less a matter of enjoying the song so much they just want to sing it, and more a matter of proving they can do it better (which often they prove otherwise).

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KNOW THYSELF

Sometimes it's also a matter of someone else singing it (whether they really wanted to or not), just to prevent that "Diva" from singing.

I believe I posted this a while ago.... There was a place that my friends and I used to go to for Karaoke. We used to bring our own discs with us as well. There was this one "Diva" there who felt ENTITLED. She used to ask the KJ for certain songs, and he didn't have several of them. Well, my friends and I did, and this Diva started to befriend us so that she could borrow these discs to sing from when we were there. We didn't have a problem with her doing that. What we did have a problem with, was when we happened to sing one of the many songs this Diva was familiar with, she would start saying (loudly), "Oh, That's my song!".

We got tired of that real quick, and one night we decided to fix her a$$ for good. We had about 10 of us in the Rotation (back to back), and this Diva was behind us in that Rotation. We made of list of the popular songs that this Diva liked to sing regularly, and we each (in turn) sang 1 of those songs. She was P.O.'d after each one of us got up to sing. By the time it was her turn, we had just finished singing everything she usually sang, so she had nothing to sing. Needless to say, we also stopped letting her sing from our personal discs as well.

I'm glad you were able to solve the dilemna. I wonder ehat would've happened if you daid the first one to turn in a legible complete sobg slip would get the song that week? But then again, these ARE divas so they probably don't need no stinkin' sing slips.

To hell with putting up with that crap! I would have told both of them "Put up or shut up! Since you both insist on singing it, which ever of you two gents is willing to pony up the most dough can sing the damn song! Otherwise, I'm singing it!"

"LET'S GET IT ON!"

Legible posts . But I've always said it's first come first serve. If a song had already been done in a night, chances are it's not going to be done again!

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

Lol. That's what I get for posting from a phone.

I don't take slips until AFTER I'm set up. If I ever get a couple of people like that I would tell them they are acting like children (actually children behave better) and that I am putting them at the end of the rotation. They will either never do it again or not return and I am fine with either.

It is your show and you have to take control. Don't take crap.

I'd love to take the person who started this customer is always right and shoot them. Well maybe not shoot but you get my drift.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

So, Tim, you packin"?

So the ladies say.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

i would have let them both sing the same song.

I'd let them sing the same song if they want. Just not in the same rotation.

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The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

The first thing to remember is the true diva doesn't want to be part of the show, they want to be the show. I had one patron who seriously wanted me to stop all the other singing patrons and let him do the whole show. His name was Bill so naturally my first thought was "Oh NOOOOO Mr. Bill". That's all the others wanted Bill in concert, not. That shows how delusional some true divas really are. That you are there just to cater to them and they are the center of the karaoke universe. If they are really that good it is too bad they don't have a recording contract, isn't it? I would have told them "My Way" was on the no fly list and that the Sinatra estate didn't want it performed unless they got a big check from the singer. Really tim you would shoot them remind me never to break the law in Canada. A good host is a diva in reverse, If I knew certain patrons did certain songs I didn't sing them, I have many others I did. Also if the rotation is too big I remove myself from the list, something a true diva would never think bout doing.