Screaming in company, with the words of the songs scrolling on a screen and the music blaring in the environment where the ritual takes place.
Is karaoke still this? Panta rei, said Heraclitus, everything flows, everything changes, from empires to institutions, to being together for a birthday, a promotion, a reunion with friends. Singing without worrying about getting out of tune or not knowing the words, and in the meantime drinking and eating, can create embarrassment at first, but soon the ties loosen and everyone, the stiff colleague, the sulky friend, the shy boyfriend, melts into the fun.
Karaoke, a Japanese invention, is not as old as other Japanese arts: it dates back to the seventies and has a father, the musician Daisuke Inoue from Kyoto, who developed the first device to be installed in clubs. The Italian father was Fiorello, then known as Codino: on TV (Italia 1, year of grace 1992) he made the squares sing with the traveling program called Karaoke. An overwhelming success.
From there, the ritual took hold, becoming a noisy phenomenon, good for partying. Well, things have changed. In addition to the most vulgar sound scourge, which shows no sign of abating, large halls and clubs are going strong with one ambition: to harmonize popular practice with the high style of cuisine and service.
In Milan it takes place in a building dedicated to the East, House of Ronin in via Alfieri, between Parco Sempione and Chinatown. There are four karaoke rooms on the floor of Madame Cheng’s (the second), with different capacities: the largest accommodates about fifteen guests. They are all in Shinjuku style, they refer to the lively neighborhoods of Tokyo, crowded with writings, neon and cyberpunk suggestions, as befits the metropolis that Wim Wenders (look back at the film Perfect Days) portrayed with a gentle soul.
In the rooms, which must be booked well in advance, there is a tablet to order quality bento boxes, glasses and bottles from the cellar selection or masterfully prepared cocktails from the adjacent bar.
«A secret passage between dinner and night»: this is how the Ronin website defines the karaoke floor. In fact, why limit yourself to singing Battisti, Battiato, the hits of Morandi or the Rolling Stones, Paoli, Patty Pravo, Achille Lauro or the Beatles; why add the songs of the heart as you like and not stop for a dish at Ronin Robata, a restaurant on the first floor with a grill in the center of the table, prize-winning sushi, wagyu meats and other Japanese delicacies?
House of Ronin, born from an idea of the brilliant brothers Jacopo and Leonardo Signani (on the venue’s control board), is the palace of wonders, a format that has raised the bar of Milan’s Asian offer. While we dare as a group Com’è bella la città, a song by Giorgio Gaber, an artist born not far away, we taste the stirrup cocktail on the third floor, at the Arcade bar, a mixological synthesis of the building.
A few steps away, this time in the heart of the Chinese district, here is the PolyGram KTV in via Paolo Sarpi. Open until late at night, it has seven karaoke rooms, with drinks included in the ticket. You can bring your own food, perhaps the street food on offer in the neighborhood, and you can set up the rooms freely. A more popular approach than Ronin, it is markedly Chinese in style: you are in Shanghai, not Tokyo.
Special experience, again in Milan, at Milleluci, a proudly pop trattoria. You go there to eat tortelli and cured meats from the Marche, of course, but you can’t wait to sing the classics of the Trentennio, that period which from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s constituted the golden age of Italian song.
The goddesses of the place are Raffaella Carrà and Mina. In 1984 they hosted the show Milleluci, eight episodes directed by Antonello Falqui and considered the apotheosis of the television variety show, today a dead and buried genre. The (almost) karaoke of the Milanese trattoria is the apotheosis of singing in contagious joy, without regard for perfect, or at least passable, performance.
Heading down towards the capital you can’t help but stop at the Vanity Club in Trastevere where excellent cocktails and live music are served, one of the liveliest nightclubs in Rome. Here karaoke is the icing on the cake, appreciated not only by the Roman people, but also by the many tourists who choose it for an evening in company.
More intimate, the Karaoke Room, a pub with all the new things to sing, both local and international. No reservation needed, the best thing is to get into the wave and get carried away.
Open since 1994, managed from the beginning by the brothers Chiara and Tiberio, it was among the first Italian establishments, not just Roman ones, to adopt the genre. Superlative cocktails, there is no kitchen.
But this type of venue is not only found in Milan and Rome. In Florence it has the crown jewel, for karaoke, in the Red Garter. Here those who try to perform famous songs go on stage and are accompanied by a guitarist. Global clientele and, on the plates, perhaps the best burgers in the city.
We conclude this singing journey in a holiday capital such as Rimini, now far from the cobbler tourism of the past, celebrating karaoke at the Carnaby Club, a historic three-storey disco. The highest one is dedicated to Carnaoke, for vocal surfing, Mediterranean drinks in hand, among the songs of the moment, in an ideal embrace with the vast national tribe of burning uvulas.
