Singers From Around the World Compete for Record Deal and 1 Million Dumplings
Sponsor wants to unite the world under the banner of karaoke.
MOSCOW, Sept. 24, 2010— -- If you went to the kick-off of the eighth annual Karaoke World Championships expecting some of the off-key, cringe-worthy barroom belting of 1980s ballads karaoke is known for, you would have come away sorely disappointed.
Instead, the first night of the competition in Moscow on Thursday featured 31 talented singers from Kazakhstan to the Faroe Islands vying for two record deals, a shot at stardom and one million Russian dumplings courtesy of the event's sponsor.
"You have to be like the artist, but you have to put your two cents in," said 30 year-old Edward Pimentel of Albuquerque, N.M., trying to explain how the competition is like the karaoke most of us know. Except here, if you look at the lyrics on the stage monitor, you get points deducted.
"This is more like the Olympics of Karaoke," said Team USA's self-described mentor Brian Scott when asked how the competition differs from other amateur singing contests like American Idol. "It's a lot different, karaoke, than those types of reality shows. This is more like an Olympic event for all the countries of the world."
Indeed, setting the tone of the competition, the night started with the contestants lined up on stage singing Michael Jackson's "We Are the World."
"The goal for us is the unification of the entire planet under the banner of karaoke," organizer Alexander Shamaev told the crowd. "We hope it will become the most massive sport on the planet."
A few hundred spectators sat calmly at round tables in the low-lit ballroom, generally grouped with their compatriots and erupting into applause and flag-waving when their contestants took the stage.
Germany's Susann Chrapow stepped up to the microphone first, delivering a scratchy version of singing contest favorite "I Ain't Got Nothin'" by Alicia Keyes. Belarus' Kate Grichik bounced in front of the judges in baby blue dress singing an accented version of Abba's "Thank You for the Music."
The United States is represented by Pimentel and Tami Marie, 31, a petite blonde also from Albuquerque. Pimentel is on a break from his job at Verizon in tech support ("I'm a nerd at heart", he says). Marie is writing a book about her grandmother who was recently cured of spinal meningitis.
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