With 10 weeks to go until KWC LAS VEGAS 2026, we’re here to drop exciting news: The Karaoke World Championships is changing how the world's best karaoke singers are judged.
Starting with KWC LAS VEGAS 2026, the World Finals in Las Vegas, a renewed scoring system makes the competition more decentralized, more transparent‚ and truer to what this competition has always been about: performances that move people.
A bigger, more global jury
KWC lives with the times. Reforming the old judging model is the first step: from now on, every round will be scored by a larger jury‚ a venue jury joined by video judges from around the world. More judges means more perspectives, fewer ties, and a result that no single voice can sway. As before, the highest and lowest score for every performance are discarded before counting‚ but now the system scales fairly no matter how many judges are on the panel, and every performance is scored on a clean 100-point scale.
The whole journey matters‚ not just one night
Until now, the final-round song has carried extra weight. That ends in 2026. All three songs of the World Finals are now worth exactly the same: a maximum of 100 points each, 300 in total.
The World Champion should be the best singer of the whole competition, not the best singer of one night. Two brilliant rounds will no longer be erased by a single difficult song, and no one coasts to a title on one great final either. From the first note of Round 1 to the last note of Round 3, everything counts equally.
Performances, not rubrics
Judges will also receive renewed instructions: to reward the artistic and entertainment value of a performance above technical execution. There is no required style, no checklist, no "correct" way to sing at KWC. A whispered ballad that gives the room goosebumps can beat a flawless vocal showcase and vice versa.
"But how can we know what to tell singers, how to win?"
You can't. That's the exact point. Bring the performance only you can give.
The system in brief
- Every performance is scored by venue judges and video judges worldwide; the highest and lowest scores are removed and the rest averaged, for a maximum of 100 points per song.
- Three rounds, three songs, equal weight, maximum 300 points.
- Twenty singers advance to the final round: eighteen on jury points, two by public vote, with online and venue votes combined.
- Scores are published after the competition, as always.
KWC LAS VEGAS 2026 will be held at the Veil Pavilion, Silverton Lodge, Las Vegas, on October 25-29, 2026.
