'My Way' sparks rumble in town's bar; 1 hurt

"My Way" - the song that had queerly incited violence and killings every time it is sang in videoke bars-sparked a ramble in a bar at barangay Sulok, Dalaguete town Wednesday night where a man who tried to sing the song was stabbed and wounded.

Twenty-three-year-old Sherwin Gatutua, a resident of barangay Tapol of the town, just came from a visit to the cemetery when he had a few drinks with some friends at a videoke bar in barangay Sulok.

When it was Gatutua's turn to sing, he chose to render Frank Sinatra's "My Way" but this infuriated 32-year-old Bara Quilaton, who was drinking alone at another table.

Before Gatutua could start singing, Quilaton stood up, grabbed the microphone from the former and causing a heated altercation between the two.

This prompted Gatutua's companion to confront Quilaton who in turn went to the bar's kitchen, and returned with a pointed iron bar, which he used in stabbing Gatutua's right body and shoulder.

Quilaton quickly fled while the victim was brought to the Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City.

The song "My Way" had already claimed notoriety of instigating violence and killings whenever sung in karaoke bars.

Three weeks ago, violence rocked a bar in Malabon City when two men went berserk because the bar attendant refused to play the song. They threw bottles of beers and dared to a fight the other customers, who in turn got angry and beat the two up to dreamland.

Last May, a man was stabbed dead inside a KTV bar in Quezon City, again because of singing "My Way."

"My Way" is a ditty, which the late singer Frank Sinatra had popularized as one of the most famous hits worldwide. Its original title was "Comme d'habitude", a song written in 1968 by Claude Francois, a French-Egyptian club performer, about his break-up with his wife France Gall.

Francois collaborated with Jacques Revaux and Gilles Thibault in composing the song, which they later teamed up with composer and singer Paul Anka for the English version.

While the song expressed the pain of a Francois' break-up with his wife, it also raised his sagging popularity in the entertainment circuit.

But the song's history had no hint whatsoever to explain why it seemed to carry a seeming curse of violence among those who dare sing it now. Sinatra might be wondering also. - Flor Z. Perolina