It’s SongBurst time! Karaoke Scene is very pleased to again be presenting this year’s SongBurst singing competition at the Orange County Market Place, “America’s greatest outdoor shopping festival.”

The excitement begins on Saturday, February 14th and continues every Saturday for 4 weeks (February 21st, February 28th and March 7th.) Rain out dates will be the corresponding Sundays. There will be both an adult and a junior competition. Juniors (17 years of age and under) will compete first and then the adults (18 years of age and older) will follow shortly after. Sign-ups for juniors are from 9am to 10:30am with the adult sign-ups from 11am to 12:30pm. The competition will begin for juniors at 11am with the adult competition starting at approximately 1pm. There will be over $3,000 in cash and savings bonds awarded at the finals which will be held on Saturday, March 21st (that’s 2 weeks after the last qualifying round). Lots of prize money and lots of excitement. Rain out date for the finals will be March 22nd.

For those of you who may not know, the Orange County Market Place is a fantastic outdoor maze of nearly a thousand vendors selling products of all kinds. It also includes a wide variety of places to eat and drink featuring a wide variety of foods from hot dogs to churros to fresh produce to gourmet foods to fresh squeezed lemonade to ice cold beer. Take your pick.

These competition weekends will be great fun for everybody, both singers and their friends and families. The Orange County Market Place is very “family friendly” and there is truly something for everyone there. So pack everybody up and come on down to spend the day. You’ll have a terrific time! Please see pages 14 & 15 or visit KaraokeScene.com for more SongBurst details.

Directions: The Orange County Market Place is located at the Costa Mesa Fairgrounds, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. Exit at the Del Mar/Fair Dr. off ramp on the Newport (55) Freeway South. The Fairgrounds will be on the right.

Congratulations to Christel Santo at Arbor’s Steak and Seafood in Huntington Beach for their very successful toy drive in support of the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots at her Karaoke show December 16th. This event was made all the more special by three-time KJ of the Year, Donna Thomas (no stranger to fundraisers herself), who put together a bus load of her regulars from the TomKat Lounge in Buena Park to come down and support the event. All of Christel’s Karaoke family of friends turned out and brought toys galore. Christmas carols were the main Karaoke fare for the evening and everyone had a great time. The event was a huge success and Christel would like to express her thanks and appreciation to everyone who helped make it possible. Kudos to Christel Santo and Donna Thomas for their selfless efforts to help these needy children.

Karaoke at the airport? You got it. This past holiday season, Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston offered Karaoke to its waiting passengers, and with apparent great success. This is very good “outside the box” thinking and a sensational idea to allay passengers anxiety and frustration while waiting for their flights. According to news reports everyone loved it. We think this an idea that should catch on at airports across the country. Who knows? Maybe Karaoke at airports will some day be as common as over-priced refreshment stands and lost luggage. A big tip of the Karaoke hat goes to Bush Intercontinental Airport for a terrific idea!

Thanks so much to the Karaoke community for the photos you sent to us for publication. We sincerely appreciate your efforts. Please continue to send us your pics so we can publish them in future issues. Attention KJs…it’s a great public relations idea to take photos of your customers while they are singing at your shows and send them to us. Karaoke folks love to see their pictures in the magazine. When sending photos please remember:

Be sure your photos are in a digital format (jpeg files); no prints.
Your photos should be about singing.
Please make sure your photos are as sharp and clear as possible.

Please send your photos by email to photos@KaraokeScene.com or you may put them on a CD and mail them to:

Karaoke Scene
PO Box 2633
Cypress, CA 90630

We are still looking for the “right” depiction of what “Karaoke Super Guy” might look like based on his description in the first and second installment. He is not described in intimate detail, but only generally, so you have some latitude in your efforts. The submissions, so far, have not quite hit the mark in the opinions of our staff and the writers. So, we have decided to sweeten the pot a little for the person who submits the best illustration of “Karaoke Super Guy” and his ordinary human counterpart, “Quincy Beanfang.” $100 will now be awarded to the person whose drawings/sketches are chosen to represent our new Karaoke super hero. In order to once again refresh everyone’s memory, here is the portion of the first episode that describes him, both as a super hero and as an ordinary human.

Suddenly Quincy experienced a searing pain in his throat and his scalp felt like it was on fire. He turned to the mirror and couldn’t believe what he saw. Looking back at him was a stranger unlike anyone he had ever seen before. He was completely bald (with a weird criss-cross type pattern on his scalp, almost like the head of a microphone), muscular with handsome chiseled features and was adorned with a kind of suit which looked like it had been made from parts of his living room.

It was a typical evening for Karaoke singer, Quincy Beanfang, a 25 year old male nurse of slight build and quite ordinary looks.

Please be sure to submit a drawing of both entities, “Karaoke Super Guy” and “Quincy Beanfang.”

Please send your submissions for “Karaoke Super Guy” by email to info@KaraokeScene.com or you may mail them to:

Karaoke Scene
PO Box 2633
Cypress, CA 90630

Sorry, we cannot return the submissions.

Be sure to check out the article about our KaraokeFest 2009 Male and Female Vocalists of the Year and their trip to Utah for their own personal recording sessions, courtesy of Priddis Music and ProSound (pages 16 & 17). They had a ball. Thanks again also to VocoPro and Ace Karaoke for their sponsorship of KaraokeFest. We sincerely appreciate the support and generosity of fine companies like these in helping us present these major Karaoke events.

See you at Songburst…and best of luck to all!