Karaoke Forums

I haven't experienced many folks that I would call true Divas. But last night, I covered a show for one of my hosts that is out sick with pneumonia. One of the first people up is a regular I am on good terms with. He chose Elvis Presley - "Suspicious Minds", which according to his history, he has performed 20+ times. Half way through the song, he stops singing, and speaks into the mic, "This isn't the right version. It sucks." and walks off the stage. It completely caught me off guard, and I was a bit off my game last night anyway, so it took me a few extra seconds to recover.

I approached him and asked him what was wrong with it. He just said, "It sounds different when Darrell plays it". I asked him if he wanted to sing a different song and he selected Billy Idol - "Rebel Yell" (which he has performed 40+ times). Again, he stops singing a few measures in and says, "This sounds like sh!t" and walks off the stage.

One of his friends was putting her song up and looked at me, shrugged, and said, "I guess this is a diva night for him".

Fortunately, he tamed it down and made it through 2 other songs later in the evening without even a hint of divatude.

</shrug>

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-Chris

At my last show I had a new singer tell me during the song that "this doesn't sound like the one I sing to in my car". After the song was over she told me that her version is with the original recording artist! In other words not a karaoke version.

Funny you mention this, LR. Happened at my show; a guy offered me $50 to have him sing 4 songs in a row. I told him No, you have to wait for your turn, besides I don’t take bribes nor would I allow 2 solo songs in a row, let alone 4. He was up 20 min later, guess what the song was: Sinatra’s “My Way”.

Nothing wrong with his pick, vocals sound okay except the high notes were just piercing & out of tune. Wish I could describe the feeling but it damn near almost broke my speaker dome tweeters! I might be exaggerating a bit but that’s a pretty close description. No choice but to listen & squirm.

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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!

The ones that bother me the most are the ones that have to sing with everyone else they came in with. You get a group of 12 people, and everyone puts in a song, including Ms. Diva, and she's up with every single one of them. I have people so angry with me that she has so many turns, and you really can't tell people that they can't have a turn if she's singing with them, and the point of them singing is so SHE can sing yet another song, because they are barely singing at all, and she is belting out with every ounce of her being.

I had a Ms. Diva last weekend. She was in with a bachelorette party. She did precisely as I described above, and then she had a song in for her own turn. I told her I had time for one more song, and it was either going to be her or the bride. She said the bride would want HER to sing. I looked at her and her friends and said, "Really? Her friend finally spoke up and said perhaps they should give the slot to the BRIDE.

What a lovely woman. I hate divas.

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Birdofsong

Maybe you should have told that Diva, that for the price of $xxx (what you charge for a private party), he could hire you and then sing as many songs as his little ol' Diva heart desired.

I’ve thought about that Cue, & from a realistic standpoint is it worth $$ (tolerance & discomfort) hearing this guy in concert for a full 2-3 hours? worst case scenario his guests could put the blame on me for not making him sound better.

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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!

To me the worst case scenario would involve a diva personality that decides to become a karaoke host. The show would be centered around them and they could control how much singing time they were able to squeeze in. I have seen a few shows like this you would think they would fail, most of the time they do. Once in awhile though one manages to survive for some years, unfortunately.

Yes I could. And did. And would again. I would go to people and tell them that they must either sing by themselves or they will have to wait. Once you explain that you can't have this one person up on the stage every other song, they always understand.

I hear that reasoning all the time from those that become hosts - "I can sing when I want to!"
That was PART of the reason that I became a host - NOT to have the host sing all the time after watching it with another company I worked for and other shows I went to at the time.

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

Unfortunately, they don't seem to understand. I'll tell them that other patrons get angry if they see someone up all the time, and I've asked the DIVA to stand back so they are not the "main event." However, drunk people don't really want to hear why they can't sing -- they only hear that they can't. Things must be nicer where you are.

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Birdofsong

You are lucky Chris that Darrell works for you, if he didn't I would suspect this singer is trying to cause trouble to get their friend the gig. That is an old trick, where a singer or a group of singers try to undermine a successful show and host to get their buddy the hosting gig. He didn't make the his comments over the mic did he? That could put a real crimp in your karaoke hosting evening.