Karaoke Contest - Submissions?!

[otakuforlife]

We are changing the way the Karaoke Contest contestants are gathered.
This year we are trying a submission based system through the website.
This is to make things more fair and ramp up the quality of the
contest as a whole. So there will be no fastest internet wins a ticket this year.
There will be submissions through the website and the karaoke department will
make decisions on the final twelve. Sadly that means no at convention sign ups for the contest which is a shame for those who didn't sign up in advance. These changes were made to make the contest better
overall and rules for submission will become available on the Anime Boston website.
Thanks again for coming back, year after year for us

[Ariandante]

Nice - definitely sounds like a good idea after what happened with the forums overloading during signups last time. Is there going to be an audition / prelim video required this year?

[otakuforlife]

There will be a place to drop in a video link so we can screen entries.
The easiest way to make the playing field even is unlisted YouTube link with just audio or audio/video.

[otakuforlife]

Reminder that the contest sign ups will begin on the 11th so keep them eyes open

[shio.kou88]

Is there a set day already for the Karaoke Contest?

Also what time should we expect the form to go live today?

[Cave]

Contest sign ups are now open!

Find the form here: https://animeboston.com/signup and click "karaoke"!

Sign ups will be closing on the 25th at midnight.

Reminder that this is for the CONTEST only which is on SATURDAY!

Sign ups for open karaoke (which goes all weekend, except during the contest) are at the convention only.

[Cave]

Just a quick update as we've received a few questions about this.

To clarify. We will need two songs from you when you fill out the sign up form.

1. Your audition song. This will be the same song you will sing in the contest if you are chosen. It will be you singing the song and it does not have to have visuals. It's okay if it's audio only. For this one, we're accepting YouTube links only.

2. The song that will be used in the contest itself if you are chosen. This will be your background music during the contest so you'll want it to be the best quality sound and off-vocal. This can be from YouTube, Spotify or an MP3 on Google Drive, etc, whatever is the easiest way for us to access the song.

If you have any questions - feel free to reach out to us. We have already received a lot of great questions and we're happy to help so don't be shy.

[shio.kou88]

Hi,

What time approx does the Karaoke Contest happen? Will it conflict with the Idol Showcase?

[otakuforlife]

The karaoke contest is traditionally held at 6pm on convention Saturday.
I'm an unaware of idol showcases event times at this time.

[shio.kou88]

The karaoke contest is traditionally held at 6pm on convention Saturday.
I'm an unaware of idol showcases event times at this time.

Ok great! I believe these will not conflict for others wondering, the idol showcase goes from 3:30-5:30.

However, may I ask that if we do get accepted what the call time would be?

[otakuforlife]

So if your selected you will know before the convention begins via email.
As for call time we would like you to be there about 15 mins before the event for
check in

[Cave]

IMPORTANT!!

We have received some submissions where there are issues with the audition video. I have reached out to everyone affected and have gotten some replies back but not all. Audition videos MUST be corrected by Feb 25th to ensure your submission is not disqualified since the video isn't right or we can't view it.

Please be sure to check your email or spam folder for an email from us which will have an animeboston.com email address.

I have abbreviated the stage names here, so if your stage name begins with part of the following, then please email us back with your corrected audition video. UPDATE: Also adding people here who submitted duplicate songs.

EVERYONE IS ALL SET!

Again, the audition video must be you singing the song you will perform in the contest if you are chosen. It can be acapella or with background music. It can have video or no video. It must be uploaded to YouTube and set to either public or unlisted - we can't view videos set to "private".

Also, the videos we have received so far have all been fantastic!! You are all amazing!

[Cave]

An update on auditions!

This is all new to us since it's our first time ever doing audition videos so we have run into a few unexpected things. Thank you all for your patience.

Since this is a contest, we feel it would be unfair and frankly awkward to have two performers singing the same song, however naturally contestants don't know which songs have already been submitted.

In this case, we are reaching out to the SECOND person who submitted the song to let them know to pick another song to try and keep it fair and not choose whoever the "better performer" was. Since it's unrealistic to expect anyone to submit a new song so close to the deadline, we are giving 3 days for the person to submit a new song.

We're absolutely open to feedback if people feel this isn't enough time or if we should handle this in a different way. I don't think making a public list of already submitted songs will be helpful since people submitting on the last day would still run into the same issue of not having ample time to prepare a new audition.

FWIW, some very popular songs - Idol, Baka Mitai, Moonlight Densetsu, Cruel Angel's Thesis have already been submitted. (Song popularity will NOT affect chances of entry. Also, if you were planning on one of these songs, you don't have to rush to do a new song before the sign ups close. Just submit what you were going to do and we'll send you an email with the 3 days extension).

ALSO...

We have received an unprecedented amount of entries so far! We have TWENTY-FIVE so far... and tomorrow is the last day to submit so we expect more to come in. But we only have 12 spots open! I have been glancing at the entries to make sure they're all good and... you all are absolutely amazing. We are being blown away by the amount of skill and talent everyone has and it is going to be VERY difficult to choose who the 12 will be.

I think we're going to need a bigger trophy... (next year, this year's is already ordered).

[otakuforlife]

Less then an HOUR to go! let's get those last submissions in.

[Arok2010]

Less then an HOUR to go! let's get those last submissions in.

I was actually able to get my submission in the minute I got off work before the deadline. Fingers crossed and praying at this point

[Ariandante]

I know it was mentioned some folks were getting 3 day extensions due to submitting duplicates. With that in mind, is there a projected timeframe for when decisions will go out?

Also... out of curiosity, what was the final application count?

[Cave]

I know it was mentioned some folks were getting 3 day extensions due to submitting duplicates. With that in mind, is there a projected timeframe for when decisions will go out?

Also... out of curiosity, what was the final application count?

We'll be sending emails out around March 4, so in about a week. Be sure to check spam cause sometimes emails can end up there.

People who have been accepted or waitlisted will have to reply to the email by March 10.

If everything goes well, which I assume it will but you never know...

[Cave]

I forgot to mention the final submission count was 45.

We have 12 spots and a few waitlist spots.

Let me say, we went through all current submissions and......

The bar is VERY high. Like, WOW. Some of the performances are at an unbelievable level and every, single submission is worthy of being in the contest.

[Cave]

UPDATE:

All emails have been sent out! If you don't see it, be sure to check your spam folder.

If you still don't see it, you can contact us through here and we'll check on it: https://animeboston.com/contact/361

IF YOU WERE ACCEPTED OR WAITLISTED - Please reply to the email and confirm by March 10.

[Cave]

ANOTHER UPDATE!

Someone pointed this out to us since it was not stated on the sign ups. We have been running the karaoke contest about the same time each year so it slipped through the cracks as something we should have mentioned. I am very sorry to anyone who was not aware because we didn't state it. It's been added to next year's sign ups.

The Karaoke Contest does overlap with the Masquerade on Saturday night!

Also! We realized in the rules on the website it doesn't explicitly state lyrics cannot be used in the contest, even though this has been a common rule for the contest for many years. Because of this, we will allow lyrics for this year only and will update so it's clear for next year.

There have been a lot of changes this year with how we run things and the new website so I do apologize there has been so much confusion and hurdles as we get used to these changes.

[arkanesky]

Hi friends! It sounded like it went well last year! Do you know when y'all are thinking of setting up submissions/auditions for the 2025 karaoke contest? Thank you!

[Ariandante]

Hi friends! It sounded like it went well last year! Do you know when y'all are thinking of setting up submissions/auditions for the 2025 karaoke contest? Thank you!

It's actually listed on the "upcoming schedule" calendar on the AB homepage, March 25th through April 8th!

And actually I've got a question too... is the process/ submission requirements going to more or less be the same as last year? (In case I want to start my audition video early.)

[arkanesky]

Oh, yay! Thank you, Ariandante!! I totally missed that!

And what a coincidence, I live in Union Square, hah! Looks like we'll be reppin' the mean streets of Somerville this year at AB

[Cave]

Hi friends! It sounded like it went well last year! Do you know when y'all are thinking of setting up submissions/auditions for the 2025 karaoke contest? Thank you!

It's actually listed on the "upcoming schedule" calendar on the AB homepage, March 25th through April 8th!

And actually I've got a question too... is the process/ submission requirements going to more or less be the same as last year? (In case I want to start my audition video early.)

We are planning on it being the same for this year! There might be another change coming to the contest this year though. I don't think it's been posted anywhere yet but we'll be sure to let everyone know eventually (maybe when submissions open?)

(Also, so sorry for the late reply! My husband - the other karaoke co-coordinator - and I have been having a hectic time recently with our cat having various health issues. Hopefully the cat is fine now.)

[Ariandante]

Hi friends! It sounded like it went well last year! Do you know when y'all are thinking of setting up submissions/auditions for the 2025 karaoke contest? Thank you!

It's actually listed on the "upcoming schedule" calendar on the AB homepage, March 25th through April 8th!

And actually I've got a question too... is the process/ submission requirements going to more or less be the same as last year? (In case I want to start my audition video early.)

We are planning on it being the same for this year! There might be another change coming to the contest this year though. I don't think it's been posted anywhere yet but we'll be sure to let everyone know eventually (maybe when submissions open?)

(Also, so sorry for the late reply! My husband - the other karaoke co-coordinator - and I have been having a hectic time recently with our cat having various health issues. Hopefully the cat is fine now.)

No worries at all, just glad to hear your cat is okay! (I'm a cat mom too, I know how it can be!)

Excited to hear about whatever the change is for this year...