Sing On! premiered on Netflix on September 16, with the streaming service’s latest musical offering merging the charm of karaoke with the competitive element of a reality television show. The format of Sing On! differentiates it from a musical competition like The X Factor, where the music can be overshadowed by personal narratives, or from a show like The Masked Singer, where the hidden identities of the singers often takes precedence over the songs themselves.
With Sing On!, classic songs are placed front and centre in the same manner as a karaoke night. Netflix brought along a familiar face for hosting duties for Sing On! Tituss Burgess had plenty of opportunities to show off his musical and comedic chops in his role as Titus Andromedon in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. He brings his winning charm to his presenting role in this reality singing contest.
How the show works
The competition format of Sing On! has invited comparisons with Weakest Link. A team of six contestants perform a classic song together, sharing out lines to give everyone a chance to shine. The performer who hits their notes most accurately automatically moves to the next round, while the other contestants vote to eliminate someone from their team. This format continues until two remain to compete in a final sing-off, with contestants earning bonus prizes along the way and the potential prize pot increasing with each round.
This simple but effective format spices up what is essentially a karaoke session with a healthy degree of competition, with Burgess’ irrepressible personality ensuring that things stay light and fun. As with Weakest Link, there’s scope for tactical voting; do you vote out someone whose poor performance costs you money, or do you vote out someone who threatens your chance of winning?
Another interesting feature that differentiates Sing On! from other singing reality shows is the presence of a graphic at the bottom of the screen, which indicates in real-time the accuracy of a performer’s performance. Variety’s positive review of the singing show compares this feature with the Rock Band gaming series, with the accuracy graphic reinforcing that the stakes are higher than a casual karaoke session. However, the spirit of karaoke isn’t lost with the emphasis on accuracy, with engaging episode themes like ‘Party Playlist’, ‘Movie Night’, and ’80s Mixtape’ making it easy to get swept up the joys of seeing these performers interpret classic hits.
The popularity of karaoke
Karaoke developed in Japan in the 1970s before ultimately taking the world by storm, and some five decades later it continues to be a hugely popular activity. That’s not just true in the shape of television series like Sing On!, where viewers watch other people deliver the hits without participating themselves. James Corden’s ‘Carpool Karaoke’ segment on The Late Late Show tinkers with that formula, as the performers aren’t just “other people”: they’re celebrities. Corden drives around a famous singer each week and they duet on hit songs from the artist’s catalogue, with the likes of Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Adele all joining Corden for mobile karaoke sessions.
However, sometimes karaoke fans want more agency in their entertainment. This is where a game like Talking Tables’ Kazoo Karaoke in a Tin comes in handy. Players are given a set of song cards and, most importantly, a kazoo. They then blast out the tune on the kazoo and allow other players to guess the song, making this a cute twist on the art of karaoke. SkillOnNet similarly pay homage to karaoke with their Golden TV online video slot, which takes players behind the scenes of a TV show in the same style as Sing On! The microphone and disc symbols on the reels will be familiar to karaoke fans, with the slot’s dynamic gameplay representative of that feeling of how anything can happen at a karaoke night.
That is one of the main charms of karaoke: the idea that someone unassuming can step up and belt out an incredible number as if they were Madonna or Springsteen. Karaoke-style video games have enabled people to wow their friends with their hidden talents for years, thanks to games like SingStar and Just Sing. Karaoke games aren’t a thing of the past either, as Let’s Sing 2021 arrives in November 2020. That release date makes you question the game’s title, but at least it has the obligatory ‘sing’ in there. With huge tracks from the likes of Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande and Genesis in Koch Media’s release, people probably won’t care what the game is called.
All of these examples from the entertainment industry reinforce the evergreen nature of karaoke’s appeal, so it is unlikely that the first season will remain the sole season of Sing On! for much longer. Netflix has always been a big champion of light-hearted series to complement their grittier documentaries, with the likes of Selling Sunset and Love is Blind becoming cult hits through their easy-going reality television charms. In Sing On!, Netflix will be hopeful that they have another show to join those ranks of successful series.