Karaoke Rage & Manila ‘My Way Boss’
Several months back, I got contacted by BBC Radio-4. They wanted to interview me for a radio documentary they were making about the karaoke craze in the Philippines, and specifically the veritable curse that surrounds the singing and often times killings that result from drunken revelers belting out Frank Sinatra’s famous song ‘My Way.’
They must have come across my second book, “The Traveler & The Gate Checkers,” which features a story about this very topic. In that story, entitled “Manila, My Way Boss,” I found myself involved in a karaoke filled drinking spree with local guys I had just met in some teeming Manila neighborhood, where the big boss of the group, of course, sang “My Way” to rousing cheers from all of his liquored up posse. After he completed his song, the big boss amazingly then handed me two tickets to see Frank Sinatra, who just so happened to be appearing at Manila’s Folk Arts Theater the following night.
An exhausted and quite elderly Sinatra was pretty much awful that night, flubbing his lines at least two dozen times. But then again this was Frank Sinatra, and his bad-boyish, thuggish charm had everyone spell bound. Despite the constant missteps, I can honestly say it was one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen. Frank was a walking vault of charisma.
And I can safely say that on that night many years ago in a steaming hot Manila, nobody got killed when the main man sang “My Way.”
Anyway, I digress. Here is the 30 minute BBC-4 documentary on the karaoke phenomenon in the Philippines. I even got to read from my very own book!
