News of the Weird
Sing "My Way" Badly In A Karaoke Bar And You Might Die On Stage, Literally
By Bob Hudson
Feb 9, 2010 - 10:41:24 AM

One thing that the people of the Philippines love is karaoke singing, but sing the wrong song badly and it can get you killed. Talk about a tough room. One travel tip you won’t read about in a Frommers guidebook is this; the odds of getting killed in a karaoke bar may be higher in the Philippines, especially if the song is Frank Sinatra's version of "My Way."  

Authorities don’t know exactly how many people have been killed singing "My Way" in karaoke bars, or how many fatal fights in the Philippines it has caused over the years, but authorities have recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade. It’s a subcategory of crime that officials have dubbed the "My Way Killings." The murders have spawned urban legends about the song, but are the killings the byproduct of the country's culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song? Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars have removed the song from their playbooks.

And Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines. In the past two years alone, a Malaysian man was fatally stabbed for monopolizing 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." Some people hate karaoke singing so strongly you’d think the word “Karaoke” is Japanese for “bad singing.” Karaoke-related assaults have also happened in the United States, including at a Seattle bar where a woman punched a man for singing Coldplay's "Yellow" after criticizing his version. Filipinos have a lower tolerance for bad singers, perhaps because they consider themselves to be such good singers. Indeed, most of the "My Way" killings have
reportedly happened after the singer sang out of tune, causing other patrons to laugh or jeer.