Rock n' roll dreams come through

There is, in my opinion, only one thing that remains constant about karaoke. Variety. On an average, there will be about 20 singers each evening, and at the end of it all, you'll always find that every genre you can think of has been covered. Almost always. Which brings me directly (aren’t you grateful?) to last evening at the KroaKing qualifiers.

If I didn’t know better, I would’ve assumed that yesterday’s Kroak had a rock theme that I wasn’t informed about. It started with Andy handing out a perfectly rendered version of Sweet Child of Mine. Axl (bless his torn throat) himself would have assumed that it was his own voice emanating for another body. Somewhere in the tail-end of the applause, Pragnya burst into her very brave attempt at Led Zep’s ‘Rock n’ Roll’, and from then on, it was one yowling distortion after the other.

Pragnya, I have to say this. It’s just unfortunate- again- that you didn’t make it. You have a good voice, and gauging from yesterday, I’d say you have more than your fair share of spunk. A piece of advice? Bathroom singing, for one entire week. I’ll wait for you next Wednesday. As the Beatles once said, “don’t let me down”. *Smiles, but refuses to use annoying emoticon*

The rock fest continued with Neville (Wherever You May Go), Venkat (Light My Fire), Siddharth (Roll Over Beethoven), Manu (Jeremy), Kannan (Plush) and a whole bunch of others. Mark Lazaro, one of my favourite gents, ended the magnificent over-indulgence with a song that I do believe only he can pull off- Too Much Love Will Kill You.

Evenings like this never end with a whimper. Stanley Pinto brought the tempo down to a wistful sway, with The Shadow Of Your Smile. His vibrato had all the women screaming for him. It always helps to have a judge who has a twinkle in his eye, and wine in his voice.

They say it ain’t over till the fat lady sings, and apparently there’s some truth to that. A fat lady sang, and she is I, so enough about her. Shall we move on to my favourite section, then?!

Marry Me!

This week’s Marry Me! features two people.

Jerusha
You know what is most endearing about you? Your ability to get people to love you almost immediately. It may be the big dimples at the end of each line, but I’m not so sure it’s just that. You have this effortless voice, and very good control. Learn up a whole bunch of songs, girl. You’re going to be in this competition for a really long time.

Barry
I love your voice, your presence on stage, your carefully constructed genre and your ability to move to the music, rather than against it. Some of us have no idea what that feels like. But more than loving your talent, there’s another reaction that stems from your perseverance and hard work. I think the scientific term for that is ‘respect’. I’ll check with Aretha Franklin and get back to you on that, but till then, just know that you are the undisputed King of Original.

Three more people qualified, which means there are now nine names on that list, which means there are fifteen spots left. This also means that I am finally equipped to take my ICSE Maths exam. Here are the guys who’ve made it:

1. Jacob Ninan
2. Tania Jones
3. Keerthana Mohan
4. Mark Lazaro
5. Pratik
6. Jude Lazaro
7. Andy
8. Jerusha
9. Venkat

And here are the guys who haven’t:

10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.

And they haven’t made it because YOU haven’t sung yet. So be there next Wednesday. Till then, it’s over and out from me. Terminology that Team India is getting alarmingly fond of, I’m afraid.