Acordes mortais

“My Way”, com a melodia de “Comme d’habitude” de Claude François e Jacques Revaux, escrita por Paul Anka e imortalizada por Frank Sinatra. O New York Times traz-nos a estranha história dos bares de karaoke das Filipinas onde “My Way” foi quase completamente banida. As autoridades deste país não sabem ao exacto quantas pessoas já foram mortas por terem tentado entoar a canção de Sinatra em bares de karaoke nos últimos anos, ou quantos distúrbios provocou. Mas a imprensa já relatou pelo menos seis vítimas mortais nos últimos dez anos e incluiu estas mortes numa categoria própria: “My Way Killings”. E como escreve Norimitsu Onishi, “My Way” até não é caso único:

[…] Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines. In the past two years alone, a Malaysian man was fatally stabbed for hogging the microphone at a bar and a Thai man killed eight of his neighbors in a rage after they sang John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Karaoke-related assaults have also occurred in the United States, including at a Seattle bar where a woman punched a man for singing Coldplay’s “Yellow” after criticizing his version.

Still, the odds of getting killed during karaoke may be higher in the Philippines, if only because of the ubiquity of the pastime. Social get-togethers invariably involve karaoke. Stand-alone karaoke machines can be found in the unlikeliest settings, including outdoors in rural areas where men can sometimes be seen singing early in the morning. And Filipinos, who pride themselves on their singing, may have a lower tolerance for bad singers.

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