This year the annual Karaoke World Championships finals were supposed to take place in Toronto, Canada, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic the competition was transformed into an online event.
Thousands of singers around the world participated in this talent competition where you needed to not only be able to sing and perform your favourite karaoke tunes, but also produce competition videos.
76 karaoke singers from 23 different countries have qualified to perform three songs in the KWC Online 2020 competition which will take place between 2nd and 7th of November.
“During the lockdowns caused by the global pandemic, people have become quite good in producing singing videos. Many social media groups are full of karaoke singers spreading the joy of music from their homes now that it has been harder to sing with friends. The use of home made videos in our competition was a natural choice.” says Karaoke World Championships production director Luca Gargano.
Another big change in the 18th annual competition is the use of country jury panels. “This year there will not be one dedicated jury panel, but instead we will have jury panels in 20 different countries and they will give scores similar to the Eurovision Song Contest. We at KWC love the ESC competition and this special year gives us a chance to try a similar judging system for our competition.”
The judging criteria in Karaoke World Championships are voice, technique, artistry and stage presence. Every judge is informed to base their scoring regarding these elements in the video performances. There are strict rules for the video: it must be a continuous live recording, with absolutely no editing, and the singer has to be visible from the front throughout the song. The juries are informed not to give scores based on the technical quality of the videos.
KWC 2020 Schedule & How to watch and vote
The Karaoke World Championships 2020 finals consist of three rounds, and last from Monday 2nd to Saturday 7th of November.
You can find everything you need to know about the competition at www.karaokeworldchampionships.com. There will be instructions on how to vote for your favourites, and of course all the competition videos and the live stream for the grand finale on Saturday 7th.
ROUND 1
Monday 2nd – Wednesday 4th November
All 76 videos will be on the website. The national jury panels will give their scores and public voting is open to everyone.
ROUND 2
Wednesday 4th – Friday 6th November
All 76 videos will be on the website. The national jury panels will give their scores and public voting is open to everyone.
Scoring and public voting will end at 6pm Helsinki time on Friday November 6th. After that 22 singers with the most points will advance to the final Round 3. In addition 2 additional singers will be picked from most public votes.
All scores from the first rounds, and TOP 24 finalists will be published.
ROUND 3
Saturday November 7th
Tokyo 23.00-03.00
Helsinki 17.00-21.00
London 15.00-19.00
New York 10.00-14.00
Los Angeles 07.00-11.00
The KWC 2020 Online live stream is a four-hour show hosted by Michael Yelvington in Florida. We will see all the 24 ROUND 3 videos and be in live contact with singers and jury panels from around the world.
The Karaoke World Champion 2020 will be crowned during this live stream. There will also be sponsor prizes for the finalists, all TOP-3 singers will receive money prizes, and the TOP-3 countries will gather points in all time statistics.
Here you can see all the KWC statistics and learn about past competitions: https://www.kwc.fi/event-info/past-competitions/.
