Abba the most performed at karaoke

For immediate release

ABBA THE MOST PERFORMED AT KARAOKE

Waterloo the nation’s favourite over last 15 years

PRS for Music, the organisation that collects royalties on behalf of composers and songwriters, today reveals that Swedish pop band ABBA hold the top spot for most performed Karaoke work in the UK with ‘Waterloo’. A close second are Queen with their 1975 hit ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

The chart is dominated by some of the most famous songs of all time; written and performed by the best in the business, Queen, Frank Sinatra, Madonna, Kylie, Neil Diamond and the Beatles all feature in the songs we like to sing at Karaoke bars and pubs across the country.

The full top 25 list is as follows:

	Song	Performer(s)	Writer(s)
1	Waterloo	Abba	Benny Andersson & Bjoern Ulvaeus
2	Bohemian Rhapsody	Queen	Freddie Mercury
3	My Way	Frank Sinatra	Claude Francois & Jacques Revaux / Paul Anka
4	I Will Survive	Gloria Gaynor	Frederick Perren & Dino Fekaris
5	Dancing Queen	Abba	Benny Andersson & Bjoern Ulvaeus
6	Angels	Robbie Williams	Robbie Williams & Guy Chambers
7	Like a Virgin	Madonna	Billy Steinberg & Kelly Thomas
8	It's Raining Men	Weather Girls	Paul Jabara & Paul Shaffer
9	Summer Nights	Olivia Newton John & John Travolta	Jim Jacobs & Casey Warren
10	I Should Be So Lucky	Kylie Minogue	Mike Stock, Matt Aiten & Peter Waterman
11	Don't go Breaking My Heart	Elton John & Kiki Dee	Elton John & Bernie Taupin
12	Sweet Caroline	Neil Diamond	Neil Diamond
13	American Pie	Don McLean / Madonna	Don McLean
14	Killing Me Softly	Roberta Flack / Fugees	Charles Fox & Norman Grimble
15	Hey Jude	The Beatles	John Lennon & Paul McCartney
16	Don't Stop Me Now	Queen	Freddie Mercury
17	(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction	Rolling Stones	Mick Jagger & Keith Richards
18	Delilah	Tom Jones	Barry Mason & Les Reed
19	New York, New York	Liza Minnelli/ Frank Sinatra	Fred Ebb & John Kander
20	Total Eclipse of the Heart	Bonnie Tyler	Jim Steinman
21	Livin’ La Vida Loca	Ricky Martin	Draco Rosa & Desmond Child
22	Livin' on a Prayer	Bon Jovi	Jon Bon Jovi
23	I'm a Believer	Monkees	John Stewart
24	Love Shack	B-52s	Catherine Pierson, Fred Scheider, J Strickland, Cynthia Wilson
25	River Deep Mountain High	Ike and Tina Turner	Phillip Spector, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich

Source: PRS for Music. Data based on Karaoke performances 1993 - end of Sept 2009

Commenting on the results, Ellis Rich, chairman of PRS, said “Karaoke is the modern take on communal singing which has been part of British culture for over a century.

Singing is traditionally an uplifting pastime which genuinely brings people together - whether they can actually sing or not doesn’t matter!”

The results are based on the most performed Karaoke songs in licensed venues by PRS for Music. Data is collated to make accurate royalty payments to its 65,000 composer, songwriter and music publisher members whenever music is publically performed or broadcasted.

ENDS

FACTS ABOUT KARAOKE:

The first Karaoke machine was invented by Daisuke Inoue in Japan, in the early 1970s.
Finland holds the record for the largest number of people singing karaoke at one time, for 80,000 people singing "Hard Rock Hallelujah" on 26 May 2006 in Helsinki after Lordi won the Eurovision Song Contest.
China holds the record for the longest non-stop rally of karaoke, for 214 hours, 20 minutes, and eight seconds on 1 January 2008.

For more information, get in touch:

Barney Hooper, Head of PR:
barney.hooper@prsformusic.com
02073064548 / 07979 757052

Andrew Fyffe, Votive Communications
Andrew@votive.co.uk
020 7353 9305

PRS for Music:
PRS for Music is the leading copyright and royalty collection society representing 65,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. A not-for-profit organisation it ensures music creators are paid whenever their music is played.

PRS for Music provides business and community groups easy access to 10m songs through its music licences. In an industry worth £3.6bn PRS for Music is uniquely placed to be a voice for music and can provide data for all aspects of the business: live, broadcast, sales, online, touring and music creation and up to date analysis, research and trends about the industry.