Update on getting discovered

I posted the question ("who was discovered singing karaoke?") on the karaoke forum and got some interesting answers...


One fellow - SwingCatKurt - expressed the sentiment that you gotta pay your dues. Good answer. Maybe that was the thought in the back of my mind when I asked the question? A message to people who have delusions about making it the easy way? I dunno if that was the thought... I don't spend much time in the back of my head.

SwingCat went on to list a number of folks he knows that have used karaoke as a way to hone their singing and stage skills. That is to say, they paid some of their dues on the karaoke stage. But, they went on to start bands or join bands and work hard to get there.

One fellow suggested that Tommy DeCarlo of Boston was discovered singing karaoke. The story is truly touching. But it was a MySpace video that got him the big gig, and not walking into a karaoke bar.
Another suggestion was Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland. From Wiki, it looks like she started her own band (twice) before joining Sugarland.

Mindy McCready is another interesting story. It looks like she discovered country through karaoke, rather than country discovering her through karaoke.

"After learning her craft with private opera training from a retired Julliard School Of Music professor, McCready discovered country music from the karaoke scene and decided to sing country rather than opera in 7 other languages." McCready's bio

So... here is my conclusion so far... No one (that I know of so far) ever found their road to fame by walking into a karaoke bar. There have been some notable folks discovered through karaoke videos on the internet, and some by peddling karaoke recordings of themselves. And naturally, karaoke competitions are breeding grounds for people getting discovered.