The #1 Reason Karaoke Events Fall Flat
It rears its’ head every time there is a karaoke event….the number one statement of many a client. “I don’t know if my guests will sing.” I always say that if you don’t know if your guests will sing and you genuinely want them to sing and have fun, then the age old advice that works every time is plan for them to have fun.
With thousands of events under my belt, it never ceases to amaze me how little, or no, effort is put into most karaoke events where the inevitable happens and the karaoke falls flat on its’ face.  Would you go on vacation without a plan? Heck, even when you go grocery shopping, you most likely have some kind of list on what you are planning to buy. Why then would anyone spend money on putting a party together where karaoke was a big part of the event and not have a plan for it? I don’t know the answer to that question but I do know how to make it happen.
Here’s an idea that can be used for any type of karaoke event, corporate, private event or rental machine.
I recently did a very large corporate event where the karaoke was down the hall from the big ballroom and foyer where all the action was taking place. I was coming up the elevator with some of the guests and none of them knew they were having karaoke. That was a killer right there…few if anyone knew karaoke was happening. There were no signs letting people know if or where there was karaoke. No plan to make a successful karaoke night…nothing.
If you are a corporation or a private party having karaoke, you need to get a buzz going about it weeks in advance. Most people see karaoke as a boring, bad singer event. Change that perception around. Get a company, or intercompany, memo out a number of times. Put posters up in the lunch room. Remember the rule of print advertising…people need to see things in print at least seven times before it sinks in.
Better yet, get a company, or intercompany, contest going. Have the sales department go up against the accounting department, one office against another, etc. Encourage costumes, dance moves and give away some kind of prize to winners besides bragging rights. Movie passes are awesome for example. If it is a Christmas party, save some of those gifts given away in the boring raffle draw to the winners. Make a big deal out of it. You can also do karaoke theme nights but you got to let people know it is happening in a big way and you need to make it entertaining as well.
And if you have a contest, for sure have judges and an MC. I do regular karaoke hosting nights and sometimes when they have contests, they don’t want to bother getting judges. They pick the winner by applause and this results in a boring karaoke contest as no one makes much effort. All that happens is one group bands together and applauds the people in their group the loudest. Those that should win, don’t…it is not a real competition that way. It also discourages the good singers who don’t have an entourage from trying…and in the case hosted karaoke nights…very few new singers coming in to sing karaoke.
For anyone having a private karaoke event, all of the above apply but on a smaller scale. For birthdays for example, theme it by choosing fun birthday songs like “When I’m 64” or “16 Candles”, etc.
For a wedding, you can incorporate karaoke into your reception by replacing the boring tinkling of glasses with having guests sing, by tables or singularly, before the bride and groom kiss. You can theme it by allowing only love songs to be song or songs with love in them.
There are tons of other ways to work karaoke into your wedding or any type of event and a DJ should be able to have many ideas for you. The key thing to takeaway here is that planning will get you a much better result with your karaoke event than just throwing it out there and chancing the karaoke event to go wherever the wind takes it.