Karaoke kings

After watching too many episodes of hit TV show Glee, we were seized with the urge to get our harmony on. While there are a few places in town where humbler souls can sing in a private booth, in true Glee spirit we went in search of a willing audience and found ourselves at Tambayan in the Al Ain Palace Hotel.

Turns out Tambayan is quite a small venue and every head turned when we came in – though the karaoke goes all day from noon till 3am, the room was sparsely populated on our arrival, so we had little hope of blending in.

Until, that is, we realised that patrons are not actually required to get up on the stage to sing. Bolstered by this information, our courage reared its confident head, helped by the addition of our green bottled beverages.

As we warmed up with a sure-fire rendition of Hotel California, more people started filtering in. We can only assume the crowd was forgiving of our rusty voice – we were too busy watching the lyrics on the screen to appreciate the reaction of our adoring public.

While we worked up our courage for our Glee duet, we settled in. With 93 pages of tunes, about half of which are in Tagalog, there were tons of songs on offer, and there was plenty to eat as well. We enjoyed a sample platter featuring a selection of several Philippine favourites.

At 9.30pm the disco ball came on as the band took to the stage. Between the band’s four sets, the karaoke continued but despite several glasses of courage, we were never able to manage the Don’t Stop Believing duet we’d practiced. Even so it was a great night – next time, we’ll come on a Thursday when the usually free admission goes up to AED 30, which means it must be huge.

Laura Fulton

What? Tambayan karaoke bar
Where: Al Ain Palace hotel
Contact: 02 679 4777