'My Way' Killings

'My Way' deaths lead karaoke bars in Philippines to ban song
Frank Sinatra's "My Way" has been banned from many bars across the Philippines after at least six people were killed in the last decade while performing karaoke renditions of the song.

The so-called "My Way killings" have led to many bars in the karaoke-obsessed country removing the song from their playlists amid fears of violence.

Bar owners believe the number of deaths could be fuelled by what some perceive as "arrogance" in the lyrics of the song.

It is one of the most popular karaoke tunes in the Philippines which also has a more than one million illegally carried guns.

Most of the killings are reported to have happened after the singer sang out of tune and crowds jeered.

In one fatal case Romy Baligula, 29, was shot dead in the city of San Mateoin 2007. He was halfway through My Way when a security guard shouted that he was out of tune. He carried on regardless and the guard shot him in the chest with a revolver.

Karaoke killings have been recorded elsewhere in Asia. In Thailand two years ago a man shot dead eight of his neighbours after becoming enraged when they repeatedly sang John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads.

In 2008 Abdul Sani Doli hogged the microphone for so long in Sandakan, Borneo that listeners stabbed him to death.

Rodolfo Gregorio, 63, a karaoke singer in the Philippine city of General Santos, said: "The trouble with My Way is that everyone knows it and everyone has an opinion. You can get killed."