Karaoke Forums

Let me clarify... I'm a mobile KJ... I do house parties, church parties, private parties... you get the idea...

For the first time ever... I get to this party... set up... start playing music... looked like a Salsa crowd... even bought extra latin CDG's to be prepared for this one... Invite people to sing, sing one song... wait... sing another song with my wife... By the end of the night... past 1AM... only one person sang... I spent the night as a Salsa DJ... quite painful for me... since I mostly listen to Rock...

I know this is not something that would happen to my fellow KJ's that work in clubs and bars... but I wonder if it's happened to anyone out there... I guess I need to be prepared for anything... Thanks for listening...

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Frank
Pelican in Flight KJ/DJ
Miami, Florida

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"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about."
Benjamin Franklin

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Frank
Pelican in Flight KJ/DJ
Miami, Florida

I've had nights at steady KARAOKE gig at this bar turn into DANCE PARTIES.
I've learned to be prepared for almost anything from oldies to club music. Usually when it's a slow SINGER turn out -people want to dance and party.  My feelings as a
KJ/dj  ( KJ FOREMOST) is that I'm hired to play to the crowd and keep as many people happy and entertained as possible.  I've been hired to straight DJ which turned into KARAOKE KRAZINESS at the end of the night and vice a versa.
The more flexable and adaptable your are the more succesful you will be.

That's good advice Jamkaraoke... now it's a question of me wanting to DJ or not, "if" I get requests for DJing... I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Thanks,

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Frank
Pelican in Flight KJ/DJ
Miami, Florida

My karaoke is most of the time 75% singers and 25% music. Many times I have done dance sets in the middle of Karaoke. I even started to bring lights. We also take non-karaoke request from non singers to keep the crowd there. Many times slow nights I have only turned 20 slips, and the bar had done more business then when I had 50 or more. If you play what people want to hear and they are having a good time they will stick around.

Here's what you do when it turns into a salsa party---You get a few of the people to get up and sing with the dance music. Hand them the mic and let them do the vocals! Then you can call it a psuedo karaoke salsa party. Thats the thing with salsa dancers--once they start THEY DO NOT STOP! They'll get there at 10pm and NOT EVEN BREAK until 2AM. So get a few of them to sing with the dance music and better yet if you have latin cdg's that are SALSA songs then the can dance AND karaoke without missing a step! Make sure you have some Merenque, Bachata, Reggaeton and Latin hip hop along too-just to mix it up. I've DJ'd/KJ'd many salsa nights. Regular karaoke realy doesnt mix well with a salsa dance party. BUT.................If you have LATIN CDG's then it works VERY NICELY! Also if you can speak some Espanol it'a boon to the audience! Better yet if you can SING an ESPANOL song!! But aside from all that it's FASCINATING watching a floor full of POLISHED SALSA DANCERS work it! They just FLY!! And the music's got energy and VERVE! We have a guy that brings his own conga drums with him--so thats an added plus. If they want a break from dancing they can play congas. We just mic up the drums and mix them in! After that they'll know your cool with salsa and latin Karaoke and that can turn into latin salsa dance/karaoke gigs. We have bout 20 latin CDG's plus the latin Pioneer lasers 501, 502.  Latin salsa and karaoke is a HUGE POTENTIAL MARKET that is largely IGNORED! Might be some opportunitys there!

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"You know that I sing the Blues and I do not suffer fools. When I'm on that silver mic, it's gonna cut ya, just like a knife"-The SWINGCAT

SC has a line of latin CDG's...

Btw, try singing 'The Ketchup Song' - it's not easy as I've tried!  and it works VERY well with a latin dance set....

Yes... thanks... I have a couple of the ones from SC... what happens is that Miami is a bit different market. SC tends to have a lot of Mexican, Ranchero titles... because obviously the largest amount of Hispanics in the US are of Mexican descent. But in Miami what we have is mostly Cubans, with smaller groups of other Spanish speaking Caribbean, Central and South American folks. So what people want is more Tropical music...

I've had good results with the Latin Star series and I also discovered the Zoom series, which is mostly done with acoustic guitar... but they cover stuff that I haven't found anywhere else.

"The Ketchup Song/Asereje" was a big hit in Miami when it first came out... but nobody requests it anymore... sort of what happened to "La Macarena".

Guys... thanks a lot for the comments! They are always appreciated!

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Frank
Pelican in Flight KJ/DJ
Miami, Florida