GENERAL SANTOS CITY—After a day of barbering, Rodolfo Gregorio went to his neighborhood karaoke bar still smelling of talcum powder.

But Gregorio, 63, a witness to countless fist fights and occasional stabbings erupting from disputes over karaoke singing, did not dare choose one beloved classic: Frank Sinatra’s version of “My Way.”

Instead, putting aside his glass of Red Horse Extra Strong beer, he grasped a microphone with a habitue’s self-assuredness and briefly stilled the room with the Platters’ “My Prayer.” Next, he belted out crowd-pleasers by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck.

“I used to like ‘My Way,’ but after all the trouble, I stopped singing it,” he said. “You can get killed.”’

The authorities do not know exactly how many people have been killed warbling “My Way” in karaoke bars over the years in the Philippines, or how many fatal fights it has fueled.

But the news media has recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade and includes them in a subcategory of crime dubbed the “My Way Killings.”

Urban legends

The murders have spawned urban legends about the song and left Filipinos groping for answers.

Are the killings the natural byproduct of the country’s culture of violence, drinking and machismo? Or is there something inherently sinister in the song?

Whatever the reason, many karaoke bars have removed the song from their playbooks. And the country’s many Sinatra lovers, like Gregorio here in this city in Mindanao, are practicing self-censorship out of perceived self-preservation.

Karaoke-related killings are not limited to the Philippines.

In the past two years alone, a Malaysian man was fatally stabbed for monopolizing the microphone at a bar and a Thai man killed eight of his neighbors in a rage after they sang John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

Low tolerance

Karaoke-related assaults have also occurred in the United States, including at a Seattle bar where a woman punched a man for singing Coldplay’s “Yellow” after criticizing his version.

Still, the odds of getting killed during karaoke may be higher in the Philippines, if only because of the ubiquity of the pastime.

Social get-togethers invariably involve karaoke. Stand-alone karaoke machines can be found in the unlikeliest settings, including outdoors in rural areas where men can sometimes be seen singing early in the morning.

And Filipinos, who pride themselves on their singing, may have a lower tolerance for bad singers.

Indeed, most of the “My Way” killings have reportedly occurred after the singer sang out of tune, causing other patrons to laugh or jeer.

“The trouble with ‘My Way’ is that everyone knows it and everyone has an opinion,” Gregorio said.