Thursday, December 18, 2008

"And Now . . . The End Is Near"

A Malaysian man has been stabbed to death for refusing to stop singing and hand over the microphone at a karaoke bar, as reported by the BBC.

Abdul Sani Doli, 23, reportedly angered some of the customers when he hogged the stage at the bar in Sandakan town on eastern Borneo island. Witnesses said he was attacked, and the fight spilled out on to the street. He was punched before being stabbed to death with a knife. His body was found a short distance from the bar.

According to the Guardian’s Ian MacKinnon, Karaoke rage is not unheard of in Asia. There have been several reported cases of singers being assaulted, shot or stabbed mid-performance, usually over how songs are sung. Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” has reportedly generated so many outbursts of hostility that some bars in the Philippines now do not offer it on the karaoke menu anymore. In Thailand this year, a gunman shot eight people dead after tiring of their endless renditions of a John Denver tune "Country Roads".

No comments: