Karaoke is good entertainment and a great way to socialize and meet other singers or music lovers. Especially if you enjoy singing and listening to other singers perform, going to karaoke bars, clubs and restaurants is probably a casual night out with relaxing fun for you.
Some popular songs may be difficult ones for karaoke performances. Yet there are plenty of other numbers that any karaoke singer can manage to sing fairly well. You may be a rising star at your favorite karaoke venue, or you may be somewhere in the range of mediocre to poor.
The wonderful thing about this type of performance is that it really does not matter how much talent or lack of it you may have. Even if you are a poor karaoke singer, there are plenty of best karaoke songs for bad singers from which to create your repertoire.
What is Karaoke Singing?
For anyone who may not be familiar with the world of karaoke, it is a modern type of popular entertainment. It involves amateur singers performing instrumental versions of recorded pop music songs. The word “karaoke” combines two Japanese words: “kara,” which means “empty,” and “oke,” which translates as “orchestra.”
Music is recorded on a CD or as an MP3 file of an instrumental track played by an orchestra or a band. The vocals of this popular song as supplied by any singer who is sufficiently brave to take the microphone at a karaoke bar, party, or other social venues and events.
A Brief History of Karaoke
Karaoke singing was introduced in a Kobe, Japan bar in 1972. It was initiated by Kisaburo Takagi from the Nikkodo Company. Just four years later, in 1976, the first karaoke machine models for home use were sold to the public in Japan.
This new style of singing aligned perfectly with the traditional Asian custom of singing at various public gatherings and events. Long before karaoke was invented, inexperienced singers would come forward to perform a song for a wedding or other special occasion. This custom was meant to display goodwill and friendship.
The arrival of karaoke machines on the Japanese market enabled singers to select from a wide array of songs, reading the lyrics from a printed song sheet. Later on, video karaoke exhibited words on a screen along with a bouncing ball to encourage the audience to join in the singing.
Karaoke first spread from Japan throughout Korea and Southeast Asia. This new form of music entertainment arrived in the U.S. in the 1960s. The first performances were entertainment in Asian restaurants. On the tonight show from NBC, Johnny Carson featured karaoke singing in 1986.
Soon after its featured introduction by Carson, karaoke bars began to appear across the U.S. The most appealing aspect of this new form of vocal performance was that it ensured a brief moment at center stage for countless amateur singers.
After the wide use of karaoke as entertainment in bars and restaurants, home karaoke machines grew significantly in popularity during the 1990s. In 1999, karaoke was introduced to entertain refugees in the war-ravaged Balkan city of Kosovo.
The Nikkodo Company executive Akihiko Kurobe has been quoted as saying, “Karaoke has no boundaries or prejudices. It is ageless and impartial to gender. It will last forever. Karaoke is like your family or lover. It makes sadness half and happiness double.” Karaoke is still thriving today in bars, restaurants, and homes around the globe.
How Karaoke Can Benefit Bad Singers
Participating in karaoke performances can benefit both good and bad singers. In fact, vocalists with any degree of experience and quality can improve their skills with karaoke singing. Any singer can gain better pitch and enhance their ear training with karaoke performance.
There are many listings of the best karaoke songs for bad singers. Bad singers may improve significantly in multiple areas of their singing while enjoying the following additional benefits:
- Releases stress and stimulates the brain
- Supports expressing emotions and sentiments
- Showcases your singing style and talent
- Improves your breathing
- Sharpens your memory
- Improves your confidence
- Encourages you to socialize
- Lets you have fun
1. Releases Stress and Stimulates the Brain
Singing tends to make most people happy, which automatically reduces the amount of stress in the body. As endorphins (a group of hormones) are released by the brain, bodily stress and anxiety lessen. Singing also increases activity in the brain’s neurons for better coordination of physical, psychological, and emotional activity.
2. Supports Expressing Emotions and Sentiments
Most karaoke vocalists, both experienced and new, select songs that they identify with and love to perform. They feel a definite and lasting emotional connection to these songs.
This helps them express these emotions and sentiments when they sing, using their own unique personalities and style. It also enables these singers to communicate these feelings and emotions clearly and effectively to the audience.
3. Showcases Your Singing Style and Talent
Some people are very shy about singing in front of an audience, yet they have good pitch and singing ability. If you are a shy singer, karaoke will help you showcase your talent.
By singing for other people, you hear your voice in a different way. You can also gain many advantages and much encouragement as you get feedback from your audience. If you have not yet developed your singing voice, you may want to try singing the best karaoke songs for bad singers.
4. Improves Your Breathing
Most people become physically expressive or animated when they sing karaoke. They may use their entire body to reveal emotions and enhance their singing style. When your abdominal muscles are active, they become more relaxed.
The muscles around your diaphragm and lungs are more active and expanded. All of this activity improves your breathing for better quality performance on karaoke night.
5. Sharpens Your Memory
When you sing the words to a song with musical accompaniment, you must use the memory capacities of your brain. Even if you are reading the lyrics as you sing, you will still rely on your own memories surrounding the song.
Other areas of your brain that are stimulated when you sing are the parts that control concentration and learning. These areas also work to strengthen and sharpen your memory.
6. Improves Your Confidence
It can require high degrees of confidence to get up and sing in front of a room of strangers. Yet singing in karaoke fashion frequently can build high levels of confidence and self-esteem. If you are unsure of your current singing ability, you may want to try singing the best karaoke songs for bad singers.
You will also lose any shyness or hesitancy about singing by participating in karaoke singing. In fact, karaoke singing can actually improve your self-assurance and performance at work, in your studies at school, and in other areas of your life.
7. Encourages You to Socialize
Karaoke nights are excellent opportunities for socializing with the people attending. You can mingle with the audience and get to know the other singers.
Your friends, coworkers, and family members may also come to see you perform. This can give you additional support for your performance and put you at ease to sing and socialize.
8. Lets You Have Fun
Even though karaoke singing can be nerve-wracking at first, you will discover that it is a lot of fun. Although attending a karaoke night as a member of the audience is enjoyable, participating as a singer can really be fun.
You will feel much happier and more relaxed at the end of the evening if you take part along with the other singers. Many of them may also be newbies to karaoke who started by singing the best karaoke songs for bad singers.
Easy Popular Karaoke Songs for Bad Singers
The following popular songs are some of the best easy songs to sing for bad singers. In fact, singers of all levels of talent and skill will impress their friends, coworkers, family members, and strangers by performing these songs.
These songs can also be of great aid in helping you acquire a strong, smooth, and soulful vocal delivery while enjoying singing for others:
- Britney Spears: “Baby One More Time”
- O-Zone: “Dragostea din tei”
- Lou Bega: “Mambo No. 5”
- Fugees: “Killing Me Softly With His Song”
- Celine Dion: “My Heart Will Go On”
- Bob Dylan: “Blowin’ in the Wind”
- Nirvana: “Smells like Teen Spirit”
- Joni Mitchell: “Chelsea Morning”
- Bruno Mars: “Just the Way You Are”
- Neil Diamond: “Sweet Caroline”
- Spice Girls: “Wannabe”
- Katy Perry: “Teenage Dream”
- Jim Croce: “Bad Bad Leroy Brown”
- Shania Twain: “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”
- Jeffrey Osborne: “On the Wings of Love”
- Abba: “Dancing Queen”
- Whitney Houston: “I Will Always Love You”
- Billy Joel: “Uptown Girl”
- Lady Gaga: “Born This Way”
- John Travolta & Olivia Newton John: “Summer Nights”
- Christina Aguilera: “Candyman”
- Mariah Carey: “Always Be My Baby”
Britney Spears: “Baby One More Time”
This classic pop song and popular karaoke number is a good choice for a poor singer. It is actually one of the best easy karaoke songs to sing for bad singers. Many young working people who have taken up karaoke singing will remember when this song was first popular.
Singing it now in retrospect will give them and their friends a pleasing sense of deja vu and offer them a challenge to create a new interpretation of the song.
O-Zone: “Dragostea din tei”
This Romanian song gained worldwide popularity, even though only multiple language speakers know how to sing the lyrics correctly. It has good energy and vibes for a karaoke number, and the melody is fairly easy to sing.
This is a good karaoke song for any karaoke enthusiast, especially for new singers. It is actually a good choice among the karaoke songs for non-singers. If you are already singing fairly well, but lack the vocal skills that you desire, you may want to learn from singing the best karaoke songs for bad singers.
Lou Bega: “Mambo No. 5”
Since its release, this happy-sounding song to the mambo beat has been a standby at parties and clubs. It is also extremely easy to sing, which makes it an ideal pick for karaoke singing newbies. Even bad singers can make this number sound pretty good when singing to its simple track. This is truly one of the best karaoke songs for non-singers.
Fugees: “Killing Me Softly With His Song”
If you have been a regular at karaoke bars and parties, you are no doubt familiar with this great song. First made popular by Roberta Flack more than a few years back, it still prevails as a frequently requested number.
Many karaoke singers like this song due to its simple, yet haunting melody and poignant lyrics. It is also fairly easy to sing, even for beginners.
Celine Dion: “My Heart Will Go On”
Admittedly, this love song with strong dramatic overtones is a stretch for bad karaoke vocalists. Yet it can be entertaining for the audience when a brave novice makes an attempt to deliver this number.
Even if the struggling singer misses a high note or two, everybody will enjoy even a less than successful performance.
Bob Dylan: “Blowin’ in the Wind”
This iconic Dylan classic song may seem like a totally unlikely pick for karaoke night. Yet the repetitive melody line is easy for a less than a good vocalist. The lyrics are also fairly easy to master, and everybody likes a nostalgic hit from the early folk-rock era every now and then.
Even a poor rendition of this song will most likely get an enthusiastic response from the audience. This point makes it a good number for a karaoke newcomer to attempt.
Nirvana: “Smells like Teen Spirit”
This song’s lyrics about freedom and non-conforming led to its being considered the rock anthem of the ’90s. The audience will, no doubt. join you in singing this uplifting number. It will be firmly stored in their memory banks from the distant 1990s, to be retrieved and celebrated on karaoke nights.
Joni Mitchell: “Chelsea Morning”
This happy, upbeat and somewhat carefree song from Joni Mitchell is a good pick for poor-quality karaoke vocalists. This is another song that can be badly performed and still greatly appreciated by listeners.
When sung to simply recorded guitar strumming, this song takes off to enhanced degrees of success. Some of your karaoke song bar friends are likely to remember the 60s and 70s especially well, although their lifestyles are quite different now.
Bruno Mars: “Just the Way You Are”
This is the ideal song to win over hearts, dedicate to your special other or give everyone in the audience a feeling of happiness. Bruno Mars gave a calm, uplifting performance of this song, and the lyrics mean what they say.
This song is equally well suited to wedding celebrations and karaoke nights. Its lilting melody will stay with you, and you may find yourself humming it later on while you try to remember the lyrics. This song is one of those “forever” karaoke numbers.
Neil Diamond: “Sweet Caroline”
This well-known song from Neil Diamond seems to float through the air on soft yet dynamic clouds of style and meaning. The crowd usually joins in on the chorus, which is a great advantage for a novice and bad karaoke singer.
The haunting melody line of this song can carry a novice singer along as though suspended above the audience, totally airborne. Many newbie singers are just as captivated by this song as the audience is.
Spice Girls: “Wannabe”
This catchy dance-pop number is abundant with female empowerment. The lyrics suggest that true female friendship is of more value than a romantic connection. This former rap song by Mel B and Geri Halliwell is a good karaoke song selection for anyone who has trouble staying on the right note and pitch.
Katy Perry: “Teenage Dream”
This teenager’s fantasy song has no complicated note sequences, making it an easy song for bad singers to perform. The melody is soft and the words are easy to remember. It is a female singer’s favorite number for open-mic sessions on karaoke night.
This favorite karaoke song is heard at parties of all types and wherever female karaoke singers are performing. Though easy to sing, it has its own complex charms that teens and “older teens” who have “been there, done that” understand very well.
Jim Croce: “Bad Bad Leroy Brown”
This song was a big crowd-pleasing hit back in the ’70s, and it still is popular with karaoke vocalists and audiences today. It actually is suitable for both experienced and beginning singers. Regardless of the level of talent of the singer, this song always gets enthusiastic applause.
Its simple yet dynamic lyrics are easy to remember and repeat. This is especially helpful to novice karaoke performers. In addition, the storytelling quality of this song makes it touching and memorable to the audience.
Shania Twain: “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”
This country-pop song focuses on female empowerment. It is one of the most requested karaoke songs, for both older and new karaoke singers. It is one of those karaoke songs that gives you a sense of well-being and strength.
This major hit song from the 1980s is still a top-rated choice for karaoke. Just as some ideologies and customs never go out of style, this song seems to have won a permanent place in the world of karaoke songs.
Jeffrey Osborne: “On the Wings of Love”
This tender and joyful love song has a beautiful uplifting quality and resilience to it. It is nearly impossible not to feel positive and happy when hearing this karaoke song. Even the worst singers imaginable could never turn this number into a dreary or sad song.
I am not sure whether there is the best song for bad singing in the karaoke manner. This song has high appeal for a pop music enthusiast as well as a country fan. Regardless of its genre, it is a special number to sing on karaoke nights. The simple lyrics of this song plus some expressive dance moves can create an outstanding performance piece.
Abba: “Dancing Queen”
When karaoke audiences hear this song, it is nearly impossible for them to stay still and quiet. In most instances, they start to sing along and dance, if there is room to move about. This is the perfect karaoke song for most karaoke performers today with audience support, especially newbies.
This exuberant song truly gets everyone on their feet and participating in the performance in some way. Even just swaying back and forth in their seats while humming along shows signs of their strong desire to join in the karaoke experience.
Whitney Houston: “I Will Always Love You”
This heart-wrenching, the soulful song is much more powerful than a rock song as a karaoke number today. It has no need for catchy lyrics or a catchy chorus. This is the perfect song for a bad singer in a karaoke setting.
Even a haunting soft-rock song cannot compete with this ballad-genre song in terms of dynamic structure, words and meaning. A bad singer can actually triumph when performing this number due to the vibrant and touching emotional content of the song.
Billy Joel: “Uptown Girl”
This chart-rocking classic from Billy Joel is always popular with karaoke performers. Its upbeat rhythm, catchy lyrics, and exhilarating delivery make this song an ideal number for experienced singers. Yet even novice singers are eager to try their talents out on this dynamic song.
Even a terrible singer might make an acceptable stab at singing this happy-sounding upbeat tune. It is frequently requested of singers at a karaoke party. This song has some tricky vocal moves to maneuver, but a big vocal range and great singing abilities are not required of a new singer performing this number on karaoke night.
Lady Gaga: “Born This Way”
Karaoke performers love to sing songs by Lady Gaga. “Born This Way” is a favorite of many vocalists, and Gaga’s abilities to move smoothly from soul sister to angelic voice and back again intrigue both experienced and novice singers.
This song contains some of Gaga’s most simple, yet dynamic phrases, and the actual lyrics sometimes challenge the music accompaniment for pleasing an audience. This number has always been a favorite at group sing-along events of various types.
John Travolta & Olivia Newton John: “Summer Nights”
This song is rated highly among easy karaoke songs since it has parts for a male and female singer as well as a chorus. It is a great crowd-pleasing number at karaoke bars and clubs, especially because of its dramatic and staged features.
If your favorite karaoke night spot features a group singing on certain nights, this is a fabulous number to participate in as a well-experienced or a new karaoke vocalist. Any singer can enjoy performing as part of this lively, active number while learning new karaoke techniques.
Christina Aguilera: “Candyman”
This lively, happy song and dance number are great for a karaoke bar or club that has a stage for the performers. Even a small stage will do for presenting this active number. Christina gives it a spunky, stylish twist that complements and enhances the rhythm and lyrics of this song.
As far as rating this song among songs for bad karaoke singers goes, singers of all levels of expertise take an interest in this song and performance. It allows for dramatic interpretation and staging, which appeals to both experienced and novice karaoke vocalists.
Mariah Carey: “Always Be My Baby”
This sweet yet spunky song is a favorite of many female karaoke vocalists today. It is a perfect song for having fun singing while conveying a sweet loving message during a karaoke session. Mariah Carey performs this number beautifully.
You can have fun with the tempo and rhythms of this song even as an inexperienced karaoke vocalist. If you view Mariah’s accompanying video for this song while you learn the melody and timing, you will have a better capacity to perform it well, with emotion and meaning.
Final Thoughts
Karaoke singing is a great way to socialize and meet new friends while improving your singing skills. It can help you sharpen your ear for music in general and for individual notes and pitch. This fascinating Japanese form of singing with recorded music accompaniment has now become a healthy, educational, and entertaining pastime for many people around the globe.
If you are not yet skilled as a singer, there are plenty of good karaoke songs for bad singers. Karaoke singing can boost your confidence while helping you relax and enjoy life. It can also reduce stress and help keep you in good health and happiness. You can find friendly karaoke bars, clubs, and parties virtually everywhere today.
If you have not already done so, why not step up to the mic today and let your voice lead you to an exciting new method of self-expression while having fun with other like-minded music lovers turned singers.
