Hopefuls vie for spot in Oprah’s Karaoke Challenge

Seymour, Tennessee, the sleepy little town between Knoxville and Gatlinburg, showed its star-power on Friday evening when Big Mama's Karaoke Café received a visit by a production team from the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Over the course of the evening, the production team, headed by associate producer Brian Piotrowicz, interviewed singers, regulars, staff members and the owners of the Café, Norbert and Debi Stovall.

The hugely-popular show is now hosting an online karaoke contest, that allows entrants a chance to appear before the millions of viewers who watch each weekday, but they scoured the country first, looking for standout talent in the nation’s most popular karaoke hotspots.

Big Mama's Karaoke Café was chosen for a visit by the show due to its status across the nation as a karaoke mecca, according to Chris Gajilan, an associate producer for the television icon. The production team reviewed a dozen videos of performers at the Café, selected ten individuals that stood out to them, and requested their presence during the video shoot.

In the show's entourage was international gospel star and winner of four Grammy Awards, BeBe Winans, who along with Oprah herself, will be co-hosting a series of episodes on karaoke that could air on the syndicated show as soon as November. Winans interviewed many of the singers who stood out that evening, and graced the crowd with his own rendition of “How Deep Is Your Love?”, made famous by the Bee Gees.

For the Café, the answer to that musical question is “pretty deep.” Two regulars at the Café, Frank and Helen Clickner, moved from North Carolina to Seymour just to be closer to their favorite venue. Frank, possessed of an expansive voice and sparkling personality, and well into his seventies, first started in show business as a vaudevillian, and now spends weekends at the Café entertaining guests with his versions of popular Frank Sinatra tunes.

The singers hand-picked by the production crew and given on-camera interviews were told they each have a chance to appear on the series of shows. For some, like baritone Heath “Ace” Smith, it represents an opportunity that comes along once in a lifetime.

“This has been really special,” Smith said after his stint in front of the cameras. “I'm really grateful for the chance to be here tonight.”

“We've built a reputation, not only as a center of great karaoke, but as a fun, family-oriented venue where folks can come and have a great time,” said Norbert Stovall of the visit. “It's wonderful to be recognized, not only for the fine singers who take our stage every week, but for the important work we do for the community, and for the everyday release we provide for the thousands of karaoke fans who just want to come out and have a great time.”

Big Mama's Karaoke Café, along with Chartbuster Karaoke, the nation's largest producer of karaoke tracks, Big Mama Recording Studios, and The Chartbuster Experience, which in the past month was a featured attraction at Boomsday, the Sevier County Fair, and the Tennessee Valley Fair, are all headquartered in Seymour, TN.