I can’t remember the first time I tried karaoke. But somewhere between 1996 and today, it’s become one of my favourite pastimes. My friends and I go for celebrations (like birthdays, hen’s nights), to blow off steam (e.g. after uni exams, a rough week at work), or anytime, really!

My addiction to karaoke began when I was in high school, when my mother brought home a video CD (VCD) player from Indonesia, along with karaoke VCDs and microphones. Karaoke nights at my place quickly became a favourite activity for my friends and I—not just because we loved to sing (not necessarily well, mind you), but also due to the bonus hilarity provided by the completely unrelated video clips that accompanied the songs, as well as interesting misinterpretations of the words (if you’ve been to an Asian-style karaoke place, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about).

When my friends and I were old enough to go out in the city at night without our parents worrying too much, we mixed it up a bit by frequenting karaoke joints in Sydney (mostly in Chinatown). Just to clarify, when I talk about karaoke I mean Asian-style karaoke, i.e. in a private room, with your friends, rather than pub-style public karaoke. Those who know me well know I have a mortal fear of public speaking, let alone public singing.

Coming from Sydney, where there were a lot of karaoke places to choose from (though there were some dodgy ones, my friends and I learnt to avoid any place with a name that ended in the word ‘box’), I was disappointed when I moved to Canberra eight years ago to find there was no such venue here. My friends and I had to settle for playing SingStar on the Playstation 2 (that said, I do love SingStar, it’s the perfect combination of my love of karaoke plus my tendency to be a bit competitive…).

That changed when City Karaoke opened in Civic. To say I was happy when I discovered it would be an understatement, which my friends will attest to. Since that day, I’ve enjoyed many a karaoke session there, as well as introducing a number of my friends to the fun that is Asian-style karaoke.

If you’ve never been to such a place before, this is what you can expect: you’ll find a door that leads to a flight of stairs leading up or down (City Karaoke is up), and arrive at a counter. In one or both directions will stretch a (usually dark) corridor with numbered or named doors. You’ll tell the person manning the counter how many people are in your group, which will determine the size of room you get (small, medium, large), and how long you want the room for, in hour or half hour blocks. My experience is that an hour is usually enough for four people, while if you have eight or more people then you’ll need at least two hours (based on the assumption that everyone will choose a couple of songs each).

Once you’ve paid, they’ll show you to your room, which is dimly-lit, sometimes featuring disco lights, and set up with a tv mounted on one wall and a lounge stretched across the opposite wall. There will be a table in the middle with two books, two microphones and a big, complicated looking remote control (usually not in English) on it. And sometimes tambourines (oh yeah!!). Trying to figure out what all the buttons on the remote control do is always fun—there’s usually a moment where you think you’ll remember from last time, but quickly realise that nope, you have no idea and you’ll have to ask the staff what does what.

The books have lists of songs, usually with Korean, Chinese and English sections. Each song has a number, which you plug in with the remote which then adds your song to the queue. Once you hit start and the first song starts playing, away you go! It’s always good to have a few songs lined up, so you don’t waste precious paid-for minutes in silence while people are deciding what they want to sing. For those of you who need a bit of Dutch courage to get going, even in front of your friends, a lot of karaoke joints sell alcohol or let you BYO for a small charge.

One of the things I like best about this kind of karaoke is that since you have your own private room, you can be as silly and sing as badly as you want. My friends and I have sung songs in ridiculous accents, come up with interpretive dances to songs which everyone then joins in on (examples that come to mind are Rick Astley’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ and Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’), screamed the words to The Offspring’s ‘Self-Esteem’, and broken out into fits of laughter while singing songs with inappropriate words that you didn’t realise were inappropriate because you didn’t actually know what the words were til you saw them on the screen (yes, we are that mature).

In addition to those I’ve already mentioned, here are some of our tried-and-tested favourite karaoke songs (see if you can guess what decade(s) we grew up in):

• To Be With You (Mr Big)
• Livin’ on a Prayer, or anything else by Bon Jovi
• Step by Step (New Kids on the Block)
• Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) (Backstreet Boys)
• Torn (Natalie Imbruglia)
• Lady Marmalade (whichever version the karaoke place has)
• Wannabe, Stop, or anything else by the Spice Girls
• Barbie Girl (Aqua)
• Under the Sea (Sebastien from The Little Mermaid)
• More Than Words (Extreme)
• Build Me Up Buttercup (The Foundations)
• Angels (Robbie Williams)
• Baby One More Time, or anything else by Britney Spears
• Mr Brightside (The Killers)

So if you like karaoke, but like me would hate to sing in public, I highly recommend you give Asian-style karaoke a go. City Karaoke is open every day except Wednesday and is located at 21 East Row, Civic (near Shooters), phone number 02 6230 1828. If you’re going with a big group, it’s best to book in advance to make sure you’re guaranteed a room.

Do you karaoke? What’s your favourite karaoke song?