Not so long ago (okay to be quite specific, ten years ago… wink, wink!), I would go and join auditions to do little intermission numbers for school-wide presentations and stuff, with much coaxing and taunting from my friends and I would actually get some parts in the program.

Well, I would not say that I am a good singer, but I am not tone deaf, that would be the best description!  Practices would be a breeze, having to laugh around with familiar faces in the program committee, but when the actual presentation came, OMG!  I would actually freeze!

But after what I felt was an embarrassing experience belting out ala Tyler Collins with my own rendition of Thanks To You from the movie Andre, I found people shaking my hand and introducing themselves to me as though I were a celebrity, but as far as I know, I know I had little booboos after much practice, which by the way was left unnoticed.  And how did I get away with it?  Now, let me tell you that I had no professional training, only those little choir practices I joined in–

On stage, in front of a thousand or so students, I found out that I had problems.  I was in fact insecure about how I looked.  I was scared of being humiliated!  Yes, folks, I had stage fright!  But how did I get through and ended up with “fans” who have in fact let me sing every time a school activity cropped up.  Here is my secret!

1.  Choose a song that means something to you.  It has to be something you can relate to, expression is everything and when your audience feels that you feel the song you are singing, then they feel with you.  As you are moved by emotions with your song, they are moved by it too.  Emotions are contagious!  The happy virus seems to be the fastest virus to spread around, so let everyone catch your bug, but if you have to sing a sad song, then you have to at some point, give a hint that you feel sad as well.

2.  I had some problem with movement.  At one time, in a comedy bar, because I did not move much, the host actually put a microphone stand behind my arm pits as if to tell me that I seemed to be like a log just standing there.  Standing in the same position and just clutching the microphone as if your life depended on it just made you all the more afraid and frightened.  Move around the stage.  Do hand gestures!  You do not have to bend ala Pilita Corrales to get those high notes, just move, sway, but do not be like a stiff log in the middle of the stage.  For five or so minutes, the stage is your kingdom!

3.  The room will be inevitably prepared with proper lighting with spotlights flooding the room, so if you are so frightened, find a spotlight you can keep your eye on for 30 seconds, and this will actually blind you for a few minutes, thus, not allowing you to see that there are hundreds of pairs of eyes ogling at you.  That way, you still have the illusion that you are rehearsing, with just the familiar people of the program committee behind the curtains.

4.  Blinded by the spotlight and all, never forget to thank your audience, do a little curtsy and be careful not to fall off the steps!

These have helped me out in my singing engagements, (naks!) and they have worked.
So, for those of you who may not be professional singers, but would like to have their time in the spotlight, just do as I do.