[alanross]

Regulars winning the contest even if there are non-regular vocalists who sing better is entirely a function of how the contest is administered.

This thread has existed for the past couple of years and since my first post to this thread, we've had several contests, each more popular than the last because we put the contestants in charge of the judging (I'm still in awe of whomever first thought of doing that).

We no longer have any griping about the winners, we have had many non-regular winners and everyone knows to take it seriously.

If you're going to have a contest, you must make sure that everyone participating is on the same page. Contestants must be made to pay attention to each other and understand that they should judge each other as they would like to be judged.

There needs to be a clear definition of the criteria for the judging and everyone must be made aware of it. A printout with the basic guidelines is extremely helpful. This way the contestants know how to present themselves and their songs and what to look for in the other contestants when they perform. We've refined our criteria to Song Choice (how well does that song seem to fit the singer's personality and appearence - 25% of score); Stage Presence (how well they command the stage - 25% of score) and Vocal Talent (how well do they use their voice and how pleasant is the quality of the voice - 50% of score).

Each contestant/judge is seated with a good view of the stage, they're not allowed distractions by having their boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife sitting next to them. The waitstaff deliver their drinks, and every four or five songs, we take a short bathroom break by either playing one song or having a non-contestant sing one song. The three or four minutes that the song plays is usually enough for a quick comfort break and it's not so long that people lose interest. This seems to work very well.

Once the contestant/judges have scored the last singer, all judging forms are collected and one of the staff will tally the scores. We continue with general Karaoke until the scores have been tallied twice to make sure there are no mathematical errors and then the winners and prizes are announced.

Run properly, you can have a very successful event, but as bryant was trying to point out - there really is no way to take the subjective point of view out of judging. By making the criteria very specific, you can reduce the subjectivity of the contest, but it's all about personal tastes and there is no way around that.

As long as people want to compete and other people want to watch, the bars will make money and the KJs will have to do their thing. It's the way of the world and there's never been any claim that any contest is 100% fair.

- Alan