Students, faculty, staff and people from the Charleston community can sing and bowl their hearts out at University Board’s first Karaoke Bowling Tuesday night.

Sienna Mark, a junior health administration major and the special events coordinator for UB, said she is expecting a little over 100 people to attend Karaoke Bowling.

She said UB is paying for the first 100 people who show up to bowl for free and everyone else pays $1 per game.

Free pizza will also be available for everyone and the University Food Court will still be open, so people can purchase soft drinks and other food from there and bring it to the bowling alley if they want, Mark said.

Lauren King, sophomore public relations major and the spotlight coordinator for UB, said people who want to sing karaoke have a wide variety of genres and artists to pick from.

“If you want to sing gospel songs, you can sing gospel. If you want to sing rock songs, you can sing rock songs. Pretty much you get to choose what you want to sing,” she said.

Guests can also plug in their phones to the karaoke machine if they have specific songs they want to play, she said.

With it being midterms week, King said Karaoke Bowling is a great opportunity for students to relax and unwind from the stress of studying for tests.

While finding the courage to get up on stage and sing in front of strangers can be nerve wracking at first, King said the experience is a lot of fun.

Instead of focusing on everyone else in the crowd, she said it helps to just let everything all out on the stage.

“If you’re a little bit nervous (to sing karaoke), I feel like it kind of comes with the territory. Even I still get nervous, but I think (people should) just kind of take a deep breath, go up (to the stage) and just be (themselves), have fun and leave it all on the stage,” King said. “As long as you’re having fun and you’re enjoying it, you should go.”

King emphasized that Karaoke Bowling is a totally safe place for people who love singing to try out karaoke, and she is very excited to entertain and hear others.

In fact, King said she is looking forward to getting on the stage to sing a few songs herself.

“I think I’m going to sing Ariana Grande’s ‘God is a Woman,’” she said. “I think I want to do some TV karaoke things (like) Hannah Montana’s ‘The Best of Both Worlds’ and maybe some High School Musical—a kickback to Disney.”

Karaoke Bowling will last from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the Bowling Lanes, which is located on the bottom floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Logan Raschke can be reached at 581-2812 or at lrraschke@eiu.edu.