‘My Way’ karaoke murders where people are killed for out-of-tune performances

A series of deaths, including a bloke stabbed to death for belting out a tune too many times, has been linked to the "My Way" killings and bouts of global "karaoke rage".

Bobby Ray Carter, from Dallas, Texas, was stabbed to death after fellow bar attendees were sick of his insistence on singing.

His death came as the individual refused to stop singing or leave the stage after a band had played Eagles' hit track Hotel California, which enraged Mr Carter, 51, who had requested a different song.

READ MORE: Tragic postwoman, 32, dies after getting stuck in tower block lift for three days

Instead, he powered through and sang until he was stabbed to death with sharpened metal poles, as three men had enough of his crooning ways.

Mr Carter, a father-of-two, had been hoidaying at the Little Longhorn Saloon in Ao Nang, Thailand, and his death has since been listed as one of the "My Way" killings.

The killings, which became a social concern in the Philippines before spreading globally, stem from a karaoke encounter which heard a man sing the popular song My Way so often he was killed for it.

Although the Frank Sinatra cover classic was not played during Mr Carter's final moments on stage, the 1969 cover kickstarted a grim trend of murderous intentions in karaoke bars.

One of the peaks of these killings came in May 29, 2007, just six years before the death of Mr Carter, where an unnamed man was shot by a bouncer, who claimed he was prompted to open fire because the man was singing so out of tune.

  • Racy couple caught bonking in forest as biker nearly crashes into them on dirt track

The murdered individual had been providing a cover of the song at the time of his death, as had a series of other patrons scattered across the globe.

One man hogging the microphone at a coffee shop in Malaysia enraged patrons to the point of being stabbed to death, while in a Chinese karaoke parlour, one man murdered two relatives with a meat cleaver.

"Karaoke rage," the phenomenon channelling the anger of punters attending these pubs, was coined by Butch Albarracin, the owner of a Manila-based singing school.

He believes the lyrics to My Way increase the violence as they "evoke feelings of pride and arrogance in the singer, as if you're somebody when you're really nobody. It covers up your failures. That's why it leads to fights."

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.

Source: Read Full Article