Happy Thanksgiving! Feliz Día de Gracias!

Here's a hilarious take on a favorite karaoke tune, by a very hip turkey. I posted this back in 2010, but it's worth repeating. Click on the photo to see the video!

R.I.P. Murito...we hardly knew you!

Just a quick note to say that Murito, the little sister to Muro Cantabar, has closed its doors after opening just a few short months ago in the former JJ's Bar location on Cuadrante. So for hosted karaoke in San Miguel, we're back to four locations and five nights a week:

• Tuesdays 11pm at Mama Mia
• Wednesdays 9pm at La Galería, 11pm at Mama Mia, and 9pm at Muro
• Thursdays 11pm at Mama Mia, and 9pm at Muro
• Fridays 9pm at Muro and 10pm at Sportia
• Saturdays 10pm at La Galería 

Also recommended is karaoke on demand at Olé Mami, where the DJ will play it if you wanna sing it! Open 5pm-1am Wednesday through Sunday.

Fun facts about your favorite artists

Irving Berlin

Every once in a while, I run across tidbits of information that enlighten me about a popular song or artist. Here are just a few of them. Feel free to add your own in the comments section!

So sweet! Irving Berlin wrote "Blue Skies" in 1926 after his first daughter's birth as a song just for her. It's about how he felt about being married and a father for the first time: "Blue days, all of them gone; nothing but blue skies, from now on."

At Karaoke Annie we've got the Willie Nelson version and a jazzy version by Ella Fitgerald.

Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett's given name is Anthony Dominick Benedetto. He fought in World War II, when the armed forces were racially segregated, and got himself demoted by having dinner with a black friend from high school. After that, he sang with the Army Special Services Band under the name Joe Bari. It was Bob Hope who gave him the name Tony Bennett.

Karaoke Annie has several Tony Bennett songs including a famous one recorded the year I was born: "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."

Patsy Cline

Patsy Cline was only 30 years old when she died in a plane crash in 1963, but during her short career she became one of the most influential singers of the 20th century. Patsy hated "Walking After Midnight" and "Crazy" (written for her by Willie Nelson), and almost didn't record either one of them. Ten years after her death, in 1973, she became the first female solo artist inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

Want to sing Patsy Cline? We've got all her greatest hits at Karaoke Annie shows, including this favorite: "I Fall To Pieces."

Research shows "We're wired to sing"

When I lived in Minneapolis, I hosted a radio program called Night & Day with Anne Nicolai, about arts and culture happenings in the Twin Cities area and throughout Minnesota. My mantra—which I repeated every show—was, "Art is not optional. Without it, we would die."

I said that partly to cause controversy, and it did—people called in to argue with me. I'd quote research and real-life examples to support my point that orchestrated sound, color, shape, texture, movement, etc., gives us the information we need to survive. A friend owns an antique medicine bottle with ridges in the glass on one side to warn the user of its contents should it be grabbed in the dark. A sculptor made that bottle, not a scientist.

There are many, many examples of art as essential to life, and today I found an article in the online magazine Salon.com that sheds more light on the subject. It says that art—including music, dramatic storytelling, applying certain shapes and colors to our environment, and other forms of artistic expression—is an urge all of humanity shares.

"Like sex, hunger and religion, art emerges, somehow, from our biology," says David P. Barash, in the article reprinted from his book Homo Mysterious: Evolutionary Puzzles of Human Nature (2012, Oxford University Press).

“Art is not optional. Without it, we would die.”

In other words, "we're wired to sing," as the headline of the article says—and to dance, and to care whether the walls in our house are blue or yellow, and to chuckle with pleasure when a toddler spontaneously bobs to the beat of a salsa band playing in the Jardín.

As a karaoke party host, of course, I love coming across research that helps me to corral people into singing. Yesterday I met a man who's here with a friend from Las Vegas, where karaoke bars are plentiful, and when I invited him to come out and sing with me, he said, "Oh, ha ha, no, you wouldn't want that. I can do a lot of things, but I can't sing."  

Au contraire, my friend! As it says on my business cards, EVERYONE can sing. No one said anything about being in tune, or on the beat—it matters little compared to the exercise of it. Creating a joyful vibration in the body is the point; that and strengthening the social bonds that form whenever people sing together.

Am I saying karaoke is an art form? Well, speaking from the perspectives of psychology, sociology and evolutionary biology, yes, it is! And while I wouldn't substitute karaoke for art in my mantra that without it, we would die, I do encourage everyone to grab a microphone once in a while.

You're just as "wired" for singing as Celine Dion or José Alfredo Jiménez ever was!

Goodbye Vecindad ... hello Pamplonada! Adios Vecindad ... bienvenido a Pamplonada!

When La Vecindad closed in December, it was a sad day for fans of David Cruz, his wife Sara Chavez and son Christian, who hosted karaoke there every Friday and Saturday night for a few years.

Cuando La Vecindad cerró el diciembre pasado, fue un día triste para fans de David Cruz, su esposa Sara Chavez, y su hijo Christian, quienes fueron los anfitriones de karaoke en ese lugar cada viernes y sabado desde hace unos años.

But now we singers have reason to celebrate because Cruz & Co. will host the grand opening of Pamplonada Karaoke Bar (Calle Juárez #21, Col. Centro, San Miguel de Allende) on Friday, March 30!
 
Pero ahora los cantantes tenemos una razón para celebrar, porque Cruz & Co. van a encabezar la inauguración del bar de karaoke Pamplonada (Calle Juárez #21, Col. Centro, San Miguel de Allende) el viernes 30 de marzo!

Details/detailles: Friday, March 30, grand opening 10pm-1am. Viernes 30 marzo, 10pm-1am, "Gran inauguracion del mejor karaoke de san miguel de allende, con el audio profesional de dj david cruz, sara chavez, y christian cruz. We're giving prizes & surprises... Tendremos muchos regalos, y muchas sorpresas..."

See you there! Nos vemos alli!

R.I.P./D.E.P. Whitney Houston

She was found only a few hours ago at a hotel in Beverly Hills, and we haven't been told how she died, but we will miss diva extraordinaire Whitney Houston.

Se encontró solo unas horas antes en un hotel en Beverly Hills, y no sabemos cómo murió, pero vamos a extrañar a la diva extraordinaria Whitney Houston.

If you're inclined to croon in her memory, here are the Whitney Houston karaoke songs on our list for karaoke Wednesday nights 9pm-2am at La Galería:

Could I Have This Kiss Forever (duet with Enrique  Iglesias)

How Will I Know

I Will Always Love You

If I Told You That

I'm Every Woman

One Moment In Time

Saving All My Love For You.

When You Believe (duet with Mariah Carey)

¡Canta con Annie y Aarón los miércoles 9pm-2am en La Galería!