Kieran's story. Be inspired.

A little while back I wrote a small piece into a News Email about one where2sing.com subscriber who was enjoying karaoke as well as launching his own career as a songwriter/singer.

I thought him worthy of mention because, although I've heard a number of compositions by karaokers, his seemed to be in a different league altogether.

Kieran Morrow's website, www.myspace.com/itswhatimherefor , has several of his songs available for download, and he received a positive response from many who have visited the site. I asked him if he would write something for W2S that would tell his story in relation to karaoke, and perhaps inspire others.

Then he won the karaoke competition Sing Your Way to Indy 2006 in October, and made it into a photo-story about the event that will soon run on the W2S main page (subscriber only feature).

Here is Kieran's story:

The road to an album must be so different for different artists. For me, I had always been told “Why don’t you do something with your voice? Why aren’t you in a band?” But it wasn’t until about 3 or 4 years ago that I was influenced to begin writing songs with the view of having my own album out someday.

My sister and her husband were making really good money as a duo around Sydney (they are Two Good Reasons if you ever get a chance to hear them), the first Australian Idols had just had their first year of being ‘famous’ and the songs that were written for them seemed plain enough, and I actually thought that I could have been up there in the top 12 if I was a year younger (damn those age limits!!).

So I penned a love song, ‘Broken Heart From Stone’ for a girl I felt for at the time. She cried! Geez, maybe I could write a good song then hehehe, if it had that power. But then I recalled how many other girls I had known to cry at the drop of a hat or basically because something was written about them, regardless of its ‘powerfulness’. So maybe it had nothing to do with my songwriting at all hehehe. Sorry girls, but you are an emotional bunch. But we love that too, don’t we guys!! (Do we??)

Then after a night out in Melbourne night clubs, I got into bed and the ringing of the doof doof was still in my brain, but it must have been a blessing that night. For 20 minutes later I had written 2 pop songs, ‘Silent Crush’ and ‘Move’. When I sung them over the next few weeks a capella for my friends and their friends, I was given the thumbs up. So, my quest was then born. Let’s make an album and become a star!! Well, the star bit wasn’t really thought of, but the mission was there to produce an album.

OK, 5 paragraphs in and you are going “where does the karaoke come into this??” Well, if I am going to have an album, then theoretically I am going to have to perform the songs live off the album. Since musical theatre 7 years earlier, I had not performed live on stage, so it seemed a pretty daunting prospect. Then I remembered the times of fun and laughter I had at karaoke with the Ugly Sambuca Bros in Canberra as a young chap just out of school. Ahhh yes, karaoke can be my way to get the performance skills up to scratch I thought.

I forget how, but I ended up going to a karaoke venue called DF Lounge and sung there. Before I knew it, they had entered me in their Wintersun competition. I won the venue final and then came 3rd at the State final singing ‘Unchained Melody’. How much fun was it dressing up and singing in front of people and getting applause!! It was definitely a buzz. I was hooked. Wow, so as well as getting my performance skills up to scratch I learnt there was a wide variety of competitions I could enter. And in going in competitions, it would only hone my performance skills because ultimately, to perform well you have to entertain! And what better way to improve than seeing how others entertained and getting tips and hints that way, and improving myself.

So, for the last 3 years that is what I have done. I have been in numerous competitions around Melbourne and even ventured north on the odd occasion when visiting family or friends, and participated in competitions up there. I have seen it all. Yes, there are some competitions that are rigged . . .(full story on where2sing.com)

Read the rest of this exclusive Karaoke Gig Review, and find whether this karaoke gig is still running on Where2sing.com . . .

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