If you’re going to try to sing “My Way” at a Filipino karaoke bar, you should maybe think twice about trying to sing “My Way” at a Filipino karaoke bar

I’m just a little surprised that this is getting attention. Karaoke is inordinately popular in Asia, and mixed with alcohol and machismo, sometimes leads to regrettable violence.

Any major Ravela family gathering in Nueva Ecija inevitably centers around a videoke machine (the men are always better than the women, even at the dancing), grilled meats, and a shitload of beer (two Christmases ago, I saw my 14-year-old cousin chugging away at a San Mig Light. It was horrifying). None of us has tried to kill each other. Yet. (But if my mom starts reaching for the microphone, run. Run away)

fallingandlaughing:

The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled. But the news media have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”

Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines. In the past two years alone, a Malaysian man was fatally stabbed for hogging the microphone at a bar and a Thai man killed eight of his neighbors in a rage after they sang John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

“Sinatra Song Often Strikes Deadly Chord,” NYT