Singing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” Was A Life Sentence In The Philippines
Learn about the strange karaoke rules in the Philippines!
Frank Sinatra experienced a little professional revival long into his midlife during the mid-to-late 1960s rock music boom.
Both songs that made it into the Top five of the music charts in 1966 were Random people in the Night as well as That’s Life, with the former serving as his debut №1 record on the Hot 100.
Frank’s Career
In addition, as his child Nancy’s music career was beginning to take off at the same moment, the pair collaborated on Ol’ Blue Eyes’ 1967 hit single Somethin’ Stupid, which became his second №1 record. Even today, all of these songs are regarded as timeless classics, although in terms of recognition over time,
None of these, arguably, compare to the song My Way, which he produced some years later. My Way was written in English by 1950 teen hero Paul Anka (through France 24) and originally written by Jean Revaux, Claude François, as well as Gilles Thibaut in French. It was only a minor hit in the United States, reaching at №27 inside the spring of 1969.
However, it has been covered by a wide range of artists, including Elvis Presley as well as Sid Vicious (the latter version famously played in the Goodfella” end credits). If you ask a stranger in the street to identify a Frank Sinatra tune, odds are strong that they’ll cite My Way.
Unfortunately, My Way does not quite conjure up visions of a legendary Filipino. Instead, it makes people think of karaoke performers who were apparently awful singers and ended up dead after shouting out the song.
Over A Dozen Individuals Have Died Due To This
Everybody should have a good time at karaoke night, and you should be able to sing your hearts out without worrying that your voice is only good for American Idol rejects. In the Philippines, where numerous people have been killed for karaoke-singing Frank Sinatra’s My Way, that isn’t always the case.
In Jan of 1998, a fight between two groups of men in a karaoke bar inside the province of probably resulted in the first My Way murder in the country. By the beginning of the late 2000s, the My Way murders had taken on a life of their own, with investigators estimating that at least 12 individuals had died in connection with the song between 2002 and 2012. (via Esquire Philippines).
And it wasn’t only patrons of karaoke bars that were responsible for the deaths; in 2007, one security officer at one such venue pulled out a gun and shot a 29-year-old man as punishment for his allegedly subpar performance of My Way. The shot killed the sing.
People were still being brutally killed for playing the melody as late as 2018. When My Way began to play on karaoke machine in this incident, the defendant, a 60-year-old male, allegedly enraged his 28-year-old neighbor by grabbing the mic from him. This led to a fight that got physical and concluded with the younger man stabbing the victim, who eventually passed away in the hospital.
The Lyrics May Be A Little Too Offensive
While My Way’s opening lines imply that the speaker may be nearing the end of his life, the song’s remaining verses focus on how the person lived his days with “too few to list” regrets and consistently overcame obstacles, even that he had “[bitten] out far beyond [he] can chew.”
One may argue that those lyrics reeks of masculine braggadocio, which could explain why karaoke party guests frequently engage in violence whenever anyone performs the Frank Sinatra song while intoxicated. In a talk with The New York Times, Butch Albarracin, the head of Manila’s Center for Pop, remarked, “‘I did this my way’ — it is so arrogant.
“The song’s words make the performer feel proud and conceited, as if they were somebody when they were really nobody. It masks your shortcomings. It causes fights because of this.” Even Sinatra himself did not like the lyrical tone of My Way. As per G.Q, Ol Blue Eyes frequently made fun of the song while performing live.
During a 1979 performance, Sinatra reportedly said to the crowd, “And obviously, the moment arises now for the agonizing time — not for you, but it’s for me,” before announcing loudly how much he detested the song. Additionally, he “always believed that music was self-serving as well as self-indulgent,” according to his child Tina (via BBC). We can only speculate as to how Frank Sinatra might have felt if the My Way assassinations had occurred while he was alive because he passed away in 1998.
A Violation Of The Karaoke’s Unwritten Rules
The My Way killings may have been motivated in part by the lyrics, and it is not the only factor. In the Philippines, karaoke is strictly governed by a unique set of unspoken norms, just like many other activities.
One, laughing at a karaoke performer’s off-key warbling is never cool. According to The New York Times, the majority of the murders connected to the Sinatra tune happened as a result of someone making fun of another person’s poor rendition of the song.
The remainder of the “karaoke code” is as follows: don’t take the microphone from someone else, don’t choose a song that has already been played, don’t linger too long on the mic, etc.
