Karaoke fever is spreading in all directions within the city of Gaborone, what with the pubs, bars and cafes outdoing each other to become the best spots to belt out the voices that are better left for shower hour at one’s house.
The latest to join the craze is Caf├® Rio of Game City, which offers karaoke on Thursday nights.
This past Saturday, the Caf├® invited the Telegraph to come and experience live karaoke, with former My Star Top 8 finalist, Tshepang Mogale, a very confident young woman with a strong stage presence.
She did very well in interacting with the audience and she seems comfortable in her own skin, another plus for the night.
According to Maria Baiao of Caf├® Rio, the idea of having Tshepang sing every Thursday is so that she could attract a larger crowd because of her popularity.
Baiao said that it’s not the first time the Caf├® had hosted Karaoke nights; she said they started it last year but had to stop because of the winter. It was only last week that they decided to bring it back.
Karaoke lovers would do themselves a load of good to try it when they are in a particularly jolly mood on Thursdays.
The downer about the place though, is that it hasn’t quite attracted an impressive turn-out for the night though the numbers of people attending are slowly increasing as word of mouth wafts around Gaborone.
They have good service and good food offered on the night but it seems like the people that sing on Karaoke night are people who can sing rather very well which, according to yours truly, is a bit of a problem.
You see, to others, like me, karaoke means happily making a fool of yourself by singing with your off-tune voice in front of people you don’t know and not giving a damn what anybody thinks.
There are people who can sing well, yes, but the atmosphere should be conducive for anybody who wants to jump up and have their 30 seconds of fame on the mike.
Some are so good at the mike that chancers like me feel embarrassed even to exhale.
Baiao said that she is confident the turnout will increase with time as she is already considering companies to do promotions with for the weekly event.
