- Carlington WilmotEmcee Jennifer Small, right, hosts a popular karaoke session at the Hilton New Kingston Hotel.
Claude Mills, Staff Reporter
FRIDAY NIGHT. Hilton New Kingston Hotel. A woman in her early 20s, slinks up to the microphone. You can tell by her unsteady legs and the frozen grin on her face that she is nervous. Very nervous.
The first few bars of the Gloria Gaynor classic 'I Will Survive' come out weak and warbled. Beads of sweat begin to appear on her brow. She leans forward to adjust the microphone and the sudden feedback screeches from the mike, startling her. She jumps back, and a few scattered titters escape from the poolside crowd, which is full of karaoke regulars.
An overweight man rolls his eyes, while a girl close by pokes her index finger in her mouth in the universal gesture of 'that sucks'.
Keeping one eye on the words rolling across the screen, the young woman is soon caught up in the momentum of the song. Although her voice is innocent of melody, her verve begins to win the crowd over and at the end they are grinning and applauding wildly.
Nerissa has just crossed over. She is now a karaoke diva.
"That's the beauty of karaoke, you don't have to be a great singer to participate...it's just fantasy, role-playing and it's great fun," 22-year-old Nerissa Williams said.
Karaoke means 'empty orchestra' in Japanese. The pastime allows patrons of bars, cafes, restaurants and other establishments to go on stage and sing along to popular songs, played without their vocal tracks. A book provides sub-titles for those who might not know the words, but not the name of their favourite tunes.
Karaoke is more than just a craze in Jamaican night-time entertainment, it has become somewhat of a habit, a necessity if you will, for entertainment-starved young adults and teens across the island. And best of all, it's free.
Elimination of the 'passive' element is the meat of the karaoke craze, plus it's good, clean fun for the whole family. "It is about having fun. Even if you can't sing, and your friends are there, you will have a blast," said upcoming songbird Keisha Patterson who works with the Ashe Ensemble. "They might laugh at you, but they will be there to encourage you to get back onstage and sing again." She should know. Patterson is a karaoke regular at sessions all over the Corporate Area.
There are karaoke sessions uptown at Pepper's nightclub, the Halftime Sports Bar and Grill, the ultra-popular sessions at the Hilton New Kingston hotel with 'Jenny Jenny'. Karaoke has also drifted into the suburban mecca of Portmore, St. Catherine (just outside Kingston) where the karaoke experience packs that extra wallop. At the Portmore Mall, karaoke takes on a let-your-hair-down-dancehall-karaoke feel, which has earned it hundreds of new fans in the Sunshine City.
"We do our thing different, we play music in between songs, plus we have a special guest segment where we invite aspiring performers to entertain the crowd, plus a mad segment where almost anything goes or can happen," said Fresh S, who hosts the karaoke sessions at the amphitheatre at the Portmore Mall every Sunday night. (At the time of this story, the management of the mall had suspended the karaoke sessions because of "undesirable behaviour by patrons".)
The night that the Lifestyle team visited the Portmore Mall amphitheatre, the term 'almost anything goes' was a clear euphemism for people who had only a passing acquaintance with the concept of melody and tone.
Kadey-Ann, a young woman with a speech impediment, alternately had the crowd in comic discomfort and heartfelt glee during a 'massacred' rendition of the popular love song 'From This Moment'. At the end of her performance the crowd applauded loudly -- though it was impossible to tell if the audience was expressing appreciation or relief.
There were also cameos from upcoming artistes like Kafinol, Sambo, Black by Design and even young comedian, Pretty Boy Floyd.
"Portmore karaoke is not the stuffy, starched karaoke which you might see at Pepper's or at the hotels," noted the artiste Fresh S. "This is karaoke for the common man. People come from town to experience Portmore karaoke, sometimes we have handicapped youths singing karaoke. Every week, we unearth new talent whether it is in dancing or comedy, and these guys perform in between the karaoke tracks. It's great!"
KARAOKE WITH A JAMAICAN ACCENT
It may have be Japanese, but karaoke has taken on a decidedly Jamaican flavour with patrons adopting the tendency of re-starting a song a habit of professional reggae and dancehall artistes.
"It's good-natured fantasy role playing with the crowd shouting 'pull up, pull up!' to massage the ego of the karaoke singer after the first few bars of a song. It's like a feel-good dancehall session," one man explained.
Hi-tech equipment has made karaoke all that more popular in Jamaica and laser disc technology is used to add quality and increase the fun factor for the karaoke singers.
Ivan G. Steele, owner of Megastar Karaoke, is the man leading the charge of the new karaoke followers into the new millennium. Steele has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in his top-of-the-line karaoke equipment and plays out almost every night at karaoke parties islandwide.
"I've loved karaoke ever since I was first introduced to it in a bar a long time ago. Since then, it has become a hobby of mine and I've invested a lot of money in it," said Allan John-Chuan, owner of Al's Karaoke. "What my karaoke system is trying to do is introduce the original karaoke, with video pictures in the background, instead of the American type with the words on the blue screen and CD graphics.
"When I use the laser discs, I can delete the singer and let the karaoke singer go it alone. And if he stumbles and forgets the words, I can bring back the singer until the person catches up again. With CD graphics, you can't do that," he said.
The only drawback to the laser disc is that it can cost more than 10 times the price of a regular CD and karaoke buffs can find themselves paying as much as US$125 for a single disc.
In the meantime, the beat goes on with the base of karaoke fans expanding weekly. Until recently Trishanna Lee, a 19-year-old university student, was a karaoke virgin (a first-timer).
"The first time I heard the word karaoke, I thought it was a dish...don't laugh, I know I'm not the only one," said another recent convert, 20-year-old accounting clerk Tanecia Francis. "But in some ways it's like a special dish...only thing you never know what you're going to get," she noted.
Right now, karaoke is establishing itself as an alternative for other kinds of musical events in the middle and upper class sectors of the society. It is already a favourite of corporate entities which hire them as 'ice-breakers' for business associates and small, intimate parties.
