Maria likes a good sing song and will often be heard belting out Whitney as well as forcing me to sing to Islands in the Stream with my own “Dolly”. Sometimes she is brilliant and other times not quite at the top of her game. In the early days of our relationship, I probably didn’t go into this wholehearted. There was some recognition that I wasn’t the best singer! But now I give it my best shot, and I apologise for any bleeding ears brought on by my enthusiasm.

A little while ago, Maria requested a karaoke set up so that she could enjoy herself anywhere – I will make no judgements on whether anyone else would be enjoying themselves! This allows us to set up on beaches, in fields, wherever….as long as we aren’t disturbing anyone. This has proved really useful since it allows us to subject our friends to our singing even if there is no 240V power!

On a couple of occasions, I have beeen asked what to get so below is the definitive list of karaoke gear for the true Mariadz experience.

•  StreetCube – good speaker beloved by buskers the world over with three inputs and able to run off batteries or mains power
• Wireless Microphone – one of the few that I could find that had a wireless microphone and a wireless base station. You need this if the diva is going to be able to do her dance moves although she would probably prefer the whole Madonna headset!
• ipad – other devices are available…. basically something to play the music with a phono output that can plug into the cube
• Tablet Tripod Mount Stand holder – something to hold the iPad with the lyrics on
• Wired 3.5mm long connector or Bluetooth Receiver which the iPad can link to and remove a trip hazard
• a selection of music on the iPad which can be standard karaoke or original songs with lyrics, we find the original songs work better for getting people who are not karaoke pros to get up
• a good bag, we use a dolphin sails bag made from old sails. Strong and water repellent
• finally a lot of batteries!

This is allows you to run the full karaoke setup. And don’t forget the camera! One final word of warning though, don’t video yourselves doing Islands in the Stream and put it on YouTube- warner music will claim copyright infringement even when it is clearly your imperfect voices on the soundtrack!