The most massive karaoke performance took place in 2009 in the USA at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. Before the start of the NASCAR Sharpie 500 race, about 160,000 people simultaneously sang Garth Brooks’s country hit “Friends in Low Places”.
The longest karaoke marathon by a single participant lasted 101 hours, 59 minutes, and 15 seconds. This achievement belongs to the Italian Leonardo Polverelli. In September 2011, at the Astra Caffe in Pesaro, he sang a total of 1,295 songs.
Polverelli broke the record of South Korean Kim Sun-Ok, who sang for 76 hours (1,283 songs). She was ready to continue, but concerned relatives intervened. Before her, the title was held by American Marcus Lapratt with 75 hours of continuous singing.
But the longest singing marathon for multiple participants lasted 895 hours and 2 minutes. It was organized by Virag Madhumalati at the Little World Mall in India in 2019. For over 37 days, participants took turns singing to draw attention to social and environmental issues.
Prior to this, the record for continuous group singing belonged to the Finns (446 hours). It could have been even longer if one of the participants hadn’t accidentally sung a song for the second time, which violated the strict rules of the Guinness World Records. The Finns also held the record for mass singing for a long time: 80,000 people simultaneously sang “Hard Rock Hallelujah”, celebrating the victory of the band Lordi at Eurovision.
Mass karaoke is incredibly popular and is often held at festivals. For example, the Massaoke project regularly gathers thousands of people who sing anthems like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, reading lyrics from a huge screen.
The longest marathon for a duo lasted 35 hours. It was set by Jacqui Brits and Rinus Lotz from South Africa. They planned to last 48 hours but ran out of energy. The couple sang for charity to raise funds to build a church.
Karaoke video games also have something to boast about. In December 2009, 10,490 people in Madrid simultaneously sang along to the game LIPS: CANTA EN ESPAÑOL. And the longest continuous gaming session lasted 24 hours and 21 minutes — a record set by Briton Julian Hill in 2012 for charitable purposes.
Among the most performed karaoke songs in the world, “Summer Nights” from the musical Grease, Idina Menzel’s “Let It Go”, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”, Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”, and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” hold steady positions.
There are also sad records in the karaoke world. In the Philippines, Frank Sinatra’s song “My Way” is unofficially banned from being performed. By a strange coincidence, performing it often led to brutal bar fights (a phenomenon dubbed the “My Way killings”). At the same time, the Philippines holds the record for the number of karaoke systems per capita — they are in almost every home. However, China leads in the number of karaoke bars themselves (over 100,000 establishments).
Let’s end with a specific fact from the UK. According to 2009 polls, the karaoke machine took the top spot on the list of the most annoying and hated home gadgets among Britons. Apparently, modern home systems with high-quality sound simply hadn’t reached them yet!
