Politicians have ruined karaoke

Introduced to the singalong craze by ‘Blue Peter’ in the 1990s, Will Gore prepares to belt out some classics

Ed Balls was an early adopter of karaoke as political conference party piece (Getty/iStock)

Many things that once were cool eventually lose their chic. The exotic becomes mundane; the rare becomes ubiquitous. Karaoke cannot perhaps ever be said to have been cool, but it did have a certain mystique once upon a time. And then politicians ruined it.

The last time I went to a political party conference, more than 15 years ago, it was still all about the discos. I saw well-known – if almost unrecognisably sweaty – journalists dancing glistening cheek by dripping jowl with junior ministers at Labour’s bash; while Young Conservatives stood nervously to the side of their dancefloor, until multiple glasses of warm white wine freed them of their inhibitions.

But these days, our MPs and their hangers-on seem to prefer an out-of-tune sing-song to an out-of-step gyration. It’s tempting to blame Ed Balls, who certainly likes a dance, but who also appears to have been a primary early adopter of karaoke as political conference party piece. Back in 2010, having lost the Labour leadership election, he entertained conferencegoers with a stirring rendition of The Killers’ “Mr Brightside”, while a few years later he was delighting in a self-duet, singing both parts of the Diana Ross/Lionel Ritchie classic, “Endless Love”.