Talkeetna Local Takes on National Karaoke Competition

Singer-songwriter Kayti Heller, who performs as Aspenyarrow, hadn’t considered karaoke as a part of her professional music career. But when Heller, who grew up in Talkeetna, heard that judges at the national karaoke competition were often from television talent shows like The Voice and American Idol, she decided that the karaoke stage might be a good venue for advancing her music career. To her surprise, she won the Alaska state karaoke competition against some accomplished singers.

Her Alaska victory earned her a spot in the national competition in Las Vegas. Her goal was to sing in all four rounds. She did, and she won second place.

The top four finalists from the national competition, including Aspenyarrow, are headed back to Las Vegas later this month for the Karaoke Worldwide Competition. She said that she didn’t know about the worldwide event when she entered in Alaska and almost decided not to go even after she won a slot at the national. Until she got some unexpected feedback.

“People were so excited on social media. Alaskans were really excited. I didn’t think anyone would really care. Then I was like, oh, Alaskans are excited to be represented at something at the national level, and something at the worldwide level. It’s so often that we are forgotten. People don’t really even know where we are, they think we’re down by Hawaii, you know? So now it actually feels like a cool community thing that we’re kind of all in together. So I decided to go.”

Competing in karaoke may be different than what you’ve experienced at a local bar. Singers are judged based on voice, costume, and stage presence. Singers like Aspenyarrow practice intensely, both vocals and movements on stage. And there are rules about what singers can do on stage, what props they can use, attendance at sound checks and rehearsals, and what types of songs they must sing. Aspenyarrow plans to sing songs by The White Stripes, the Beatles, and Duffy.

She said this experience has changed how she looks at karaoke.

“There is a stigma among professional musicians that it’s kind of not cool to do karaoke if you’re a professional singer. And that has really changed for me because throughout the competition, especially at the state and venue level, people were just expressing to me left and right a similar story of how they were really lonely or really shy, and then started going to karaoke at their local bar and now they have friends and they go every week and they feel really confident and good about themselves. I see karaoke as just another way that community can happen.”

Alaskans can cheer on Aspenyarrow in the world competition from October 25^th to 29^th. Karaoke World Championships will live stream the event at kwc.fi.

For KTNA, I’m Corinne Smith.