The idea of getting up and singing in front of a room full of strangers is not everyone's idea of fun. But the art of karaoke has got a lot of people gripped. Isobel Fox reports how the Japanese singing craze changed Sharon Crookes' life

FOR SOME people, karaoke is a trivial pastime, never to be attempted unless you've consumed at least five pints of lager or a litre carafe of wine.

But for others, the Japanese-style of singing is as popular as it is a serious way of getting their voices heard and their faces known.

And for 24-year-old Sharon Crookes, karaoke was to be the springboard into her career as a professional singer.

Now Sharon is a well-known face in pubs and clubs across West Yorkshire and beyond, singing a wide repertoire of styles from rock songs to Whitney Houston and Shirley Bassey.

Represented by an agent, work is steadily pouring in and Sharon often finds herself booked for up to four nights a week.

But none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for a karaoke competition at the Pennington Midland Hotel two years ago.

Says Sharon: "Around that time I was doing a lot of karaoke and I was going to every competition I could find - it was a challenge.

"Just over two years ago I entered one of the main competitions at the Pennington Midland Hotel.

"I was really excited that night. No-one really knew who I was at that time, but after I'd sung, they looked at me as if I'd come out of the blue. I won the competition - it was brilliant.

"And as well as winning I met my future agent. After I'd sung, a man came up with his card and introduced himself and said, once I'd got a repertoire of songs together, to give him a call."

Sharon made that call and has never looked back.

"Things just got better and better," she says. "You start off with not very much work because you're not very well known. Now I'm appearing in clubs all over the place, such as Doncaster, Hull and Manchester."

Sharon can trace her musical roots back to her childhood, when there was nothing she liked better than being in the spotlight.

"I've never been a shy person and always wanted to be a performer," she says.

"I started singing from an early age - mum used to say I could sing before I could talk. When we were little, we used to go to holiday camps and I'd see people singing and performing and think to myself 'I want to do that'."

Looking to satisfy her need to perform, Sharon joined ballet schools and dance classes, but at the end of the day, it was her performance as a singer which clearly marked her talent.

So when she left school at the age of 16 and saw an advert asking people to answer it if they wanted to be performers, Sharon immediately did so.

The advert was for Calderdale College and Sharon soon found herself on a two-year Btec course in the performing arts.

"It was a really good course and I did so many things I enjoyed," says Sharon.

Yet again, although she got to try her hand at a whole range of different disciplines, it was her singing that shone through.

On leaving college, Sharon got a temporary job at Bradford's Argos store. It was at this point she started to go regularly to karaoke events, a passion which was to lead her to competitions and eventually a professional career.

"When people think about karaoke they always take the mickey out of it," says Sharon. "But people who go to the competitions are really good singers - there's a lot of really good talent.

"Karaoke certainly launched my career - people enjoy doing it and sometimes they can make money out of it through the competitions. It's not something to be laughed at all."

Sharon, who is getting married to fiance Nick next May, is content with her career as it is at the moment, but has ambitions to appear in a production of The Phantom of the Opera or to sing on cruise ships like Jane McDonald.

"Everybody wants to be famous, but I know I'm not commercially-minded enough to go into mainstream music.

"I'm content to wait and see what happens and follow wherever the wind takes me. You never know what's round the corner.

"Whenever there's an opportunity I will go for it, but for now I'm happy with what I do. I've got a lot of people behind me and a lot of people proud of what I do."

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