First time doing karaoke!

26/07/2025


I saw a post on Instagram advertising a karaoke night in a queer café/bar I’d never heard of before, and I decided it was finally time for me to face my fears. Before this, I actually never thought I’d even attend a karaoke night. I’m not good at singing and I have horrible stage fright, so I didn’t like the idea of it.

During the days leading up to the event, I went on YouTube daily and just tested out a bunch of different songs to see what would work best for me. My top pick was probably Teenage Dirtbag, since I’ve listened to that song so many times, I know the lyrics pretty well, and I don’t sound too bad when singing it.

The days passed, and it was time for me to head out for karaoke night. I went with a friend who LOVES singing, I was sure she would enjoy this outing. We got to the café and sat down, and shortly after, staff announced that we were starting by having everyone in the room sing Hot To Go.

I was having the time of my life singing along and dancing to all the songs people went up to sing. This group of friends sang two Kpop Demon Hunters songs which was kind of crazy to me, I knew that movie was big, but I didn’t think it was at that level! Other than that, the songs chosen were pretty classic for karaoke, with the occasional meme song. Oh, and one person sang opera, which was pretty fun!

At some point, my friend mentioned that Gnarly by Katseye would be a fun choice for karaoke, and I said I’d been considering singing that one. She begged me to go up and sing it, and I had to think about it for a little while before finally agreeing. She promised to sing with me though, which eased my anxiety.

We requested the song, and then waited for our turn. The people going before us were all doing emotional songs that were hard to sing, which made me a little nervous, lol.

We were called up and my life was forever changed. I fumbled a little at the beginning but it was all good. I was trying my best to incorporate some sort of dancing inspired by the original choreo in my performance, while my friend sang all the “gnarly” parts in the song, and eventually fully joined me in singing. I could feel my legs shaking like crazy, but I looked at the crowd and a lot of people looked like they were having fun, which gave me the courage to keep going!

When it was over, I just felt overwhelmingly happy and I was veryy proud of myself. :] The night continued on, someone’s kid sang a Lady Gaga song, and before we knew it, it was over. We went our separate ways, and as I was walking home, I couldn’t stop smiling. It was so funn!!!!! I feel so joyful every time I think back on this experience, and I definitely wanna do karaoke again, even if it isn’t as special.