Sing your way to cash

Qualifying for our ninth Karaoke Contest at Tavern in the Forest will commence Wednesday, June 6.

As with our previous contests, the rules are fairly straight forward. Singers must be local, and they must be 21 years of age or older. Seems simple enough, right?

Now, to the fun part:

We're giving away a bunch more cash.

Each Wednesday for 10 weeks, we'll qualify at least one person. After 10 weeks of preliminary rounds, we'll get all of our contestants together for our semifinals on Wednesday, August 22. The singers will do two songs each in order to impress the judges in regards to our four judging categories: Singing Ability, Stage Presence, Stage Appearance and Crowd Response.

We'll cut our list down to the Elite Eight. The remaining contestants will return on Wednesday, August 29 for a chance for the big pay day. On that night, the finalists will sing two songs of their own choosing and one more in the Roulette Round, a popular addition to our contests that forces singers to pick a random song.

First Place: $750

Second Place: $250

Third Place: $100

In addition to the greenbacks we'll be tossing around on Finals night, every person who qualifies will receive $25 in Tavern House Cash on the night he/she qualifies.

Be it the qualifying rounds, the Semifinals or the Finals, singers can pick any song in the book in order to impress the judges. However, contestants will not be allowed to repeat songs they've already used to qualify or advance through the semifinals. (Exception: A singer who attempted to qualify with specific song but did not make the cut can reuse that song in a future attempt to qualify.)

Contestants wishing to sign up for any qualifying round must do so by 10:15 p.m. that night. Competition will begin promptly at 10:30 p.m.

Potential contestants can attempt to qualify as many times as it takes. In previous contests, we've awarded these singers "Wild Card" spots for the semifinals.

Qualifying contestants will be posted on this site (left-hand rail on this page) as we go.

Good luck, and if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch.

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MYRTLE BEACH KARAOKE CHALLENGE - "THE GAUNTLET"

We had a total of 18 contestants accept bids for the Myrtle Beach Karaoke Challenge at Tavern in the Forest, which started in January 2012 and wrapped up with our Finals on March 28. We gave away $1,100 in cash and another $400 in Tavern house cash.

Our three money winners separated themselves from the pack at the right time.

Winner: Steven ($750)

2nd Place: Randy ($250)

3rd Place: Ridge ($100)

Below are the songs that each of our three winners did throughout the duration of the contest.

Steven A. – Hard To Say I’m Sorry, Please Forgive Me, I'll Make Love To You, You Got It Bad, Grenade, Caught Up, Lately, Purple Rain, It Will Rain, Billie Jean

Randy A. -- Ballad of Curtis Loew, Beast of Burden, Fool In The Rain, Three A.M., I Wish You Were Here, Forgot About Dre, Bright Lights, F*ck You, Take On Me, Sexy And I Know It

Ridge - Anything Goes, Why, Bennie And The Jets, Tomorrow, Sweet Caroline, One Wing In The Fire, Use Somebody, Dirt Road Anthem, Runaround Sue, Wagon Wheel

Pictures from all seven weeks of the contest are available here.  

 Our Eighth Karaoke Contest at Tavern in the Forest was different than any other we had done in the past. Instead of contestants attempting to qualify, this invitation-only format started with 18 singers who had to be voted to return each week.

Contestants were not allowed to repeat any song throughout the duration of the contest, and it included three Roulette Rounds, the most popular portion of our recent competitions.

JUDGING WAS DONE ON THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES

1. Singing Ability

2. Stage Presence

3. Stage Appearance

4. Crowd Response

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PREVIOUS CONTESTS

Contest No. 7 (Oct. 2011) Winners: Randy (1st place, $750), Jessy (2nd, $250) and Steven (3rd, $100).

 Contest No. 6 (June 2011) Winners: Jessica (1st place, $750), Mike (2nd, $250) and Nick (3rd, $100).