KWCUSA Rules

We have been receiving your comments and used them to build the rules for the KWCUSA contests. It will be up to the host to ensure that they are enforced by providing a copy of them to the contestants who request them. Contestants are required to be faithful to the rules and honest in all things related to this contest.

Hosts who incorporate this contest with other contests may have more rules in addition to these and are also required to provide a copy of those additional rules upon request by a contestant. This also applies to rules which the venues, sponsors, or hosts may elect to add.

Our basic rules...

Contestant must be eligible by the rules of Finland.
Contestant must remain civil.
Contestant must pay the entry fee in advance of the start of the individual contest. (No late arrivals.)
Contestant must fill out entry form and submit it as may be requested.
Contestant will be prepared to perform as may be requested, up to six songs, over a period of up to three hours of the competition. (Larger competitions may schedule the male and female competitors separately, extending the show up to six hours total.)

How things will be judged...well, sort of. We allow flexibility for hosts who wish to do things a bit differently in their local contests. It is after all, the hosts' show! Just bare in mind that the winners will eventually be judged by professional musicians in Finland.

Judges shall each judge all of the contestants.
There shall be a minimum of three judges on the panel.
In the event of a question or dispute brought to the host, the judging panel must be considered by the host and contestants to have the final "say".
A form will be provided for each judge which will be used to score contestants, and the judges shall fill it in based upon their best of abilities in judging. The judges shall summarize their decisions by ranking the contestants from best to worst numerically (1, 2, 3, ...) on a form. The rankings of each performer shall be summed, and the best (lowest number) karaoke singers announced by the Host as the official event winners. Judges shall settle ties by voting.
The following are guidelines and may actually mean different things to different judges. Our forms will include these below, but may be modified by contest hosts along the way. In the end, each contestant will be rated and assigned a rank by each judge; the rankings of the judges will then be added together, and by comparison two contestants (a male and a female) will be selected and announced as the winners. (This eliminates the scoring variation between judges.)

Voice (Vocal quality.)
The quality and individual characteristics of the voice.
Dynamic range. (loud and soft)
Tonal color range. (smoothly here, gravely there.)
Strength and range of voice.
Pitch (Intonation and pitch control.)
Awareness of the intended key and mode.
How accurately does the singer harmonize with the music.
Use of vibrato. (often over used.)
Phrasing.
Emotional expression.
Articulation. (understandable words)
"Riding the wave"
Awareness of the rhythmic style of the piece.
Staccato and legato sung correctly.
Presence (stage presence.)
Facial expression, and body gestures.
Command of the audience through eye contact etc.
Appearance of confidence and relaxation on stage.
Costume or dress appropriate to represent the nation.
Audience
Entertainment value (overall of performance.)
Audience reaction. (Applause.)

Finalists shall receive a certificate indicating their eligibility to compete in the contest's next level.
Certificates indicating a singer's honorable participation in the contest are also available. We suggest printing one out and bringing it with you to the competition for your host to sign and complete if you wish. Hosts will generally have only the winner certificates with them.

As mentioned, the forms may have additional modifications made by the hosts as desired, but a copy of this shall be made available to the contestants for inspection so that they may know how they are to be judged prior to paying their entry fees.

Contest hosts who participate are required to hold the necessary number of rounds of this contest to result in 3 pairs (3 male and 3 female) of finalists. We suggest a 'five to one' ratio be planned in advance. (I.e., if you have five entry level contests, you will need one more contest to pick the winner, and if you kick this concept up a notch: for 25 entry competitions, you will need 5 more for eliminations and then 1 more to pick your final winner from them.)
Hosts are expected to post the dates in advance, to enable everyone to see the dates for the elimination rounds and the finals. (We suggest that there be 3 levels of competition, with entry or qualifying in August, September & October, then in November hold the semi final rounds and the final round be in December, but it is up to the hosts and venues to determine what works best for them.)
Here are the rules from The Karaoke's World Championship competition in Heinola, Finland... updated Monday April 8 2002. The winners of our USA contest will be subject to the following rules when they get to Finland.

The competition is open to amateurs who are interested in karaoke-singing. Competition is not for professional singers.
Anybody over 16 years of age can compete (men and women).
Men and women will have their own categories.
The language used in singing may be chosen freely and every competitor must bring their own karaoke backgrounds to their songs (6 different songs).
The finalist winners will be awarded (three best women and three best men). Also the favorites of the press and spectators will be awarded with money and other prizes.
The winners of the men's and women's categories will be THE WORLD CHAMPIONS OF KARAOKE 2004.
Competitors will have to pay the expenses involving finals by themselves. Also the entry fees must be paid by the competitors themselves.
KWCUSA Note: Our goal is to provide this to our winners and so this rule may be considered to be amended as appropriate with respect to reaching that goal.
The jury of the finals will consist of music and singing professionals.
The finals will be held in Heinola, Finland, organized by KH-Viihde and copartners.

Our aim is to enable our final winners the chance to compete in Finland by Charging a fee in the USA contests which will in part be used to pay our winners expenses. (Contact us immediately if you wish to pay your own expenses and we will see that you are included, as we are not limited in the number of contestants we send.)
Finland has requested that we send all of our regional winners to compete. If we have the response we hope for this may be possible in the future. Half of our entry fees received on the national level will be used to pay our contestant's expenses including items such as the entry fee in Finland and Lodging while there.