Karaoke advice for less talented folks.

[PSchwisow]

A follow up to #4. For someone who is not naturally talented at singing and has had some flops in the past, what should I look for in a song to avoid embarrassing myself? Anything else you would suggest doing or not doing for relative newbies to karaoke?

[elazar]

1. Pick a song you already know or want to learn. You'll have the lyrics on the screen if you slip up and need a prompt, but ideally you should already be fairly familiar with the lyrics and melody.
2. Ideally, choose songs you enjoy hearing; it's more likely that you'll also enjoy singing them. Others can tell when you aren't really into the song you're singing, which takes the fun out of the performance.
3. Avoid long songs and songs with long intros or breaks. If you can, find a song that has several short breaks to give you room to catch your breath. "Piano Man" by Billy Joel is a good example of such a song.
4. Once you've chosen a song, listen to it and practice singing it on your own outside of karaoke. Practice makes perfect, as they say. In particular, try to get a sense of the song's pitch and key and whether they fit your voice well. Also look for good places within the song to breathe.
5. YouTube has a fairly extensive collection of karaoke versions of songs, including lyrics. Spotify does too, though to a lesser degree. Take advantage of this to test your familiarity.
6. Try not to stress too much about performing or beat yourself up too much if you don't perform as well as you expect. Overall, just aim to have fun.