Singing Karaoke's Praises

I recently discovered that I like to sing. While I am no singer, my voice does not necessarily shatter glass either. Thanks to karaoke in private rooms with family and friends, I have learned to love the microphone, and sing along to songs that will entertain. I find that it relieves stress, injects humor into everyone involved. Karaoke with people you care about is a good thing, and I am glad I figured this out for myself.

I first realized how fun karaoke was when I went out for my sister’s bachelorette party in December in Manhattan’s Koreatown. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that instead of singing in front of strangers, our party had its own room, as did other groups. It was liberating to belt out along to songs from the 80s, 90s and 2000s with complete freedom and jump around if the feeling struck me. While I cannot sing high enough or mess up the words at times singing along to my favorite (and not so favorite) songs, I feel free and safe enough to keep singing until I am satisfied.

When I went out again in January with my cousins and siblings to celebrate three birthdays, I realized how excited we were to sing songs we didn’t have an opinion of or may not have even liked. While my brother sang along to a Phil Collins ballad (a song I think we all liked) the rest of my family and I waved our hands back and forth in the air along with the music. Why did we do this? We wanted to support him by setting the mood; it was a very plaintive and moving song. We felt so energized after singing our hearts out in karaoke that night that we didn’t seem to mind the cold so much as we walked to Port Authority, which is about a 12-20 minute about going one way. This is one of the reasons I see myself performing karaoke in the near future in the same manner.

Do you love or hate karaoke?