Karaoke might be the perfect ice breaker for travelers. Whereas 100 years ago, travelers used to gather around the inn piano for a good old-fashioned singalong, we now can find an instant sense of camaraderie beneath disco lights and the LCD screen. Plus, even if you’re a total bomb at the mic, the beauty of karaoke on vacation is that you never have to see any of your audience again.

Today you can find karaoke almost everywhere (except for North Korea, where they banned it in July). Finland, of all places, holds the world record for the most people singing karaoke together at one time (imagine 80,000 people singing heavy-metal hit “Hard Rock Hallelujah” in an attempt to usher in the “arockalypse” to Helsinki).

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member angelsil.

A few weeks ago, 29 countries--including the U.S., Kenya, and Kuwait--participated in the World Karaoke Championships in Bangkok, Thailand. Karaoke has even made it to the high seas. Last year, when I went on a cruise, the private karaoke lounges framing the Pride of Hawaii’s dance club meant it was only a matter of time until I was corralled by my shipmates into shrieking along to “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

Maybe soon we’ll all be singing along when we take to the skies. Or maybe not.

What got me started on the topic of karaoke tourism was that this Saturday night I attended a friend’s birthday party at a karaoke lounge here in San Francisco. There, I watched a white-haired man get catcalled as he rasped his way through the “deedle daidles” of “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof. Soon after, he was followed by a rambunctious group emulating the Village People as they sang and danced to “YMCA.” Still later, another woman concluded her song by saying, “I’m from out of town,” as if that explained everything.

All night long I wondered, did the karaoke pioneers of 1970s Japan ever envision this worldwide craze? Where’s the most exotic place you’ve seen or performed karaoke?