Crowdfunding campaign launched for Amsterdam's first Japan-style karaoke bar

A group of four Amsterdam friends plan to open the Dutch capital's first Japanese style karaoke bar by the end of this year, with six private karaoke booths where you can sing your heart out without worrying about strangers' opinions. To help them reach their goal, the friends launched a crowdfunding campaign.

Wessel Kruyt, Sylvester Jansen, Has Peters Sengers and Ben Warren - united under the name Duke of Tokyo - already built a mobile karaoke club last year. But they think Amsterdam is ready for a permanent location, Het Parool reports.

"We know Dutch karaoke as drunken singalongs with false hits for an unknown audience in a pub. In Japan, on the other hand, you have your own booth, where you can go all-out with friends." Peter Sengers said to the newspaper. "Those booths are also equipped with the latest technical gadgets: you order a drink on a phone and select your favorite numbers on an iPad. Amsterdam is still missing such an advanced karaoke bar."

The friends launched a crowdfunding campaign to help make such a bar in Amsterdam a reality. "We need to find a suitable property, build a bar in it and six private karaoke booth. Our goal is to raise at least 175 thousand euros. If we can, we hope to be able to open by the end of this year."

So far the campaign raised over 60 thousand euros, which means Duke of Tokyo is about a third of the way towards its goal.