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"  In the past six months, I&amp;#039;ve been invited to 10 karaoke birthday parties. And last weekend, my friend Thomas and I, bored and lacking any real plans, ducked into a neighborhood bar at midday to belt out a few songs for the hell of it. No drunken shenanigans, no elaborate preplanning. It was just another stop on a Sunday afternoon.  Blame it on American Idol or even Lost in Translation. In the era of the wannabe performer, karaoke has evolved from a silly pastime into something far more ambitious (if still ridiculously fun). Let&amp;#039;s just say that everyone takes it very seriously now. On a recent night at Karaoke Sing Sing, a bar in New York&amp;#039;s East Village, I noted no fewer than a dozen crooners who were neither &amp;quot;pitchy&amp;quot; nor &amp;quot;just all right, dawg.&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;d have put any one of them straight through to Hollywood Week.  After years of persuading friends, assistants, and even the odd curmudgeonly coworker to take a turn on the microphone, I&amp;#039;ve learned one thing: Everybody&amp;#039;s got a song. I met my former assistant Ericka Hunter (then Yang) at a hip-hop dance class six years ago; she was an ex-Rockette who&amp;#039;d played several small parts on Broadway. Ericka quickly became my all-time favorite karaoke coconspirator. When she was working with me, long shoot days always ended with a mic and a good song. My tune of choice was (and still is) Eminem&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Stan.&amp;quot; I&amp;#039;d do the violent rap, ratcheting up the emotion with each verse, while Ericka performed the Dido hook in a soothing angelic twang. When she soloed with Quarterflash&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Harden My Heart,&amp;quot; she killed it every time. Now Ericka is back on Broadway, as part of the ensemble cast in the hit Rock of Ages. Every night, she performs &amp;quot;To Be With You&amp;quot; by Mr. Big. And on evenings when, as an understudy, she fills in for the lead role of Sherrie, Ericka finally gets to sing &amp;quot;Harden My Heart&amp;quot; for a real, live, ticket-buying audience.  In honor of our annual music issue, this month I toast the performer in each of us. With the help of photographer Hao Zeng\u2014whose song, incidentally, is Stevie Wonder&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;For Once in My Life&amp;quot;\u2014I&amp;#039;ve rounded up a great cast of performers. Some have cool day jobs, a few are aspiring singers, and every one of them, of course, has a tune\u2014which I used to spin fashion alter egos using clothes straight from the spring runways. So, since we all know that the karaoke track you choose speaks volumes about you, what&amp;#039;s your pick? This month, at least, I think I&amp;#039;ll switch to Elton John&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Your Song.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/a11619/ericka-hunter-karaoke-style/>