Not hearing the music, not feeling the rhythm, not understanding the lyrics of a song—this is how more than 300 million people with hearing impairments live worldwide. 10% of this number are children and teenagers. Not so long ago, deafness served as a barrier to such familiar entertainment as attending a concert of a favorite band or having a party with friends in a karaoke bar.
Deaf Karaoke
In 2003, the “Deaf Idol” project was shown for the first time in London—an analog of a talent show for the hard of hearing, where they sang and danced, striking the audience with their optimism and abilities. Over time, the project closed because the participants migrated to regular shows, where efforts have long been made to show tolerance to everyone, regardless of their specific needs.
The idea embedded in the British show—that karaoke is accessible to everyone, even to those for whom singing is not the easiest task—has been reflected in dozens of contests and special parties around the world. Similar competitions are held in Russia as well. Once a year, Chelyabinsk becomes the capital of karaoke in Russian Sign Language. Participants are judged on the expressiveness of their signs and how well they convey the meaning of the song.
More Than Just Entertainment
In the US, the karaoke system has long become an integral element of teaching sign language in specialized schools. It is an excellent way to bring sign proficiency to automaticity. More importantly, karaoke allows people to open up and feel comfortable in an unfamiliar environment.
Often, people with normal hearing become students of such schools. Through signs, they try to convey the emotionality of a particular song, reveal nuances, and transmit the mood, acting as mediators between the music and the hard of hearing. It hardly needs saying how important it is for deaf people to step out of their soundless bubble and feel like part of the big world.
For example, for 30-year-old Ashley, sign language karaoke helped her overcome her insecurities and meet new friends and like-minded people. Having completely lost her hearing at the age of 2, she had to learn to understand the world without sounds. In 2006, Ashley started a YouTube channel for communication and karaoke, and this step drastically changed her life—she found out she was not alone.
Another major breakthrough for the hard-of-hearing community was the 2015 Broadway musical Spring Awakening. The performance is entirely in sign language and tells the story of troubled teenagers living in Germany at the end of the 19th century. The colorfulness of the production, dynamic choreography, and a fresh interpretation of the eternal conflict between fathers and children performed by deaf actors caused a storm of delight among critics and audiences.
We are used to thinking of karaoke as a good entertainment for a Saturday night, but for those who are deprived of the ability to hear the sounds of music, it is something much more. When you see the joy on the faces of people singing in sign language, you realize that if karaoke didn’t exist, it would have been worth inventing.
