Drink Water. Express Your Feelings. Sing Karaoke.

Drink Water. Get Vaccinated. Express Your Feelings. Sing Karaoke.

Adam Wainwright: Hello, and welcome back to "The Greatest Song Ever Sung Poorly," the podcast that takes karaoke exactly seriously as it should be taken. am your nothing but positive energy karaoke host Adam Wainwright.

Ed Cunard: And I'm, you're often depressed and often miserable co-host Ed Cunard.

Adam Wainwright: This is why we make such a good yin yang, Ed, because we bring balance to each other. I really believe that. Can you buy that, that we bring balance to each other?

Ed Cunard: can buy that. You and I together as a unit are stronger than we are separately as individuals.

Adam Wainwright: This is 100% true. You can hear it in the podcast. You can see it in real life when the real real life stuff occurs. And I think this is a great kind of segway into what our top of our main segments gonna be. Today we're talking about the therapeutic of karaoke. We have a very informative, great guest.

I learned so much. But first off, we need to get something out of the way. We, Ed and I, not licensed for anything. We're not even licensed karaoke singers. None of this that you're going to hear on this podcast from us is advice provided by professionals. If you're struggling, please, please reach out to a professional.

We're going to have some resources in the information of our episode description that if you need help, click on the link and it's going to give you some resources to get the help that you need. So now that we have that out of the way, I don't think we should waste any time. Ed. I'm so excited.

I want to go right to the Karaoke Trivia Bullpen. Can we do that?

Ed Cunard: I think we can do that. What, what, what is the "Karaoke Trivia Bullpen," Adam?

Adam Wainwright: Oh, it's the only acceptable distraction at the bar when people aren't singing at screens and here's what's going to happen. So today it's a health and wellness trivia challenge. And I have decided because positive vibes can do a lot for your mental, your physical health can really change the energy of a room that you're in.

We're going to do five questions that are focused on happiness.

Ed Cunard: Okay.

Adam Wainwright: Happiness, that's getting our focus. It's going to be happy. And here's what you're going to get. You're going to get five trivia questions based on the episode's topic with varying degrees of difficulty. Each question is worth approximately one point I varied a little this week to see how, but each question is approximately worth one point.

And you know what? I'm not going to give you a hint this time, because you're going to have a tiered question at the end, which I think is going to count as that. Or do you want the hint Ed?

Ed Cunard: Let's roll with it. How you have it.

Adam Wainwright: Great. Now even if you get all the questions wrong, you can still win by answering the impossible question, which is the one at the very end. I'm super excited to share this one with you too. Cause this one's batshit crazy. But remember, even if you save your hint, there's no going to be hints for the impossible bonus.

So I've structured this a little bit differently with the points and the reason I'm going to reserve a hint is because the way it's structured, the max possible points of which are normally five, but the max possible points of the way I designed this, you can earn up to six points out of five on my trivia challenge.

Okay.

Ed, are you ready for this?

Ed Cunard: I'm as ready as I will ever be.

Adam Wainwright: Great. But because you keep making these awesome audio stingers, I made one for this too. So just take a second and listen.

Trivia Media: Relax, a deep breath and come with me this journey to find inner peace.

Let the rain and the pirates

to our karaoke.

Ed Cunard: I think you missed your calling. I think this is, this is what you need to be doing for, for a living for money.

Adam Wainwright: If anybody wants to offer me money to do that, I'm more than happy to do that, I hope you found your karaoke happy place, Ed. Cause I'm about to take you to a different place. Hopefully it's a happy place, but a chance where you can earn some more points. Ed, are you ready to go?

Ed Cunard: Absolutely. Let's go?

Adam Wainwright: Okay, great. Question number one: the Beatles had a unique take on happiness and propose that it was a warm gun that you shoot on which album did "Happiness is a Warm Gun" first appear, and what side of the vinyl could you find it?

Ed Cunard: Is it the white album?

Adam Wainwright: it is the Beatles or the white album. Both were acceptable answers.

Ed Cunard: B.

Adam Wainwright: It would be the A side. It was, it was a to album set. So there were sides, ABC and D. It was the last track of side one, but you know what? You got the, you got the album title. That's 0.5 points today.

Okay.

Ed Cunard: So

Adam Wainwright: we're going to get, half a point for that. I feel like this needs to happen. Cause I built in some half points. And I'll explain that to your question. We get to it, but question number two: 2014 and 2015 were "happy" years for Pharrell Williams. After three songs he performed on were nominated for Grammys. Two of them took home an award. One was left out in the cold. Happy was one of them snagging, the best pop solo performance, and best music video awards in 2015. Name the song he performed on in 2014, that won record of the year and best pop duo performance.

You only get one guess. If you name the other song, he was nominated on that didn't win, you only get a half a point. You get the full point for naming the winning song.

Ed Cunard: "Drop It Like It's Hot."

Adam Wainwright: That was well before 2014, take another guess, take another guess. I'm going to be generous. Take another guess.

Ed Cunard: I don't have one.

Adam Wainwright: The song that didn't win was "Blurred Lines" with Robin Thicke. The one that won is "Get Lucky" with Daft Punk.

Ed Cunard: Oh,

Adam Wainwright: Okay. Question number three: this happy track has the unique distinction of knocking"Sweet Child of Mine" from the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1988 and also being named as the worst song of all time by Village Voice critic, Michael Musto. Blender would later say difficult to think of a song, more likely to plunge you into a suicidal despondency than this." Name the song and its artist.

Ed Cunard: "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Bobby McFerrin.

Adam Wainwright: Great, Ed. Nailed it. Got it in one. I just love the contrast there. Okay. You're doing good here. 1.5 points. That's solid. Okay. Question number four: In Kid Cudi's 2009 debut studio album, "Man on the Moon: The End of Day", man finds himself in the pursuit of happiness during one of the notable tracks off the album. In 2020, Kid Cudi would partner with this Detroit born hip hop artist that many would consider the antithesis of happiness, a release, a driving four minutes, 24 second hip hop single. point 5 points, the artist Cudi paired with. For the full point, name the artist and the name of the single they released together.

Ed Cunard: Is it Eminem?

Adam Wainwright: It was Eminem. Yes. Do you know the name of the song?.

The name of the song was "The Adventures of Moon Man & Slim Shady." Question number five is what I'm calling a tiered question. This is all going to deal with the same category. Okay. And I'll give it, I'm going to give you the clue. This is going to be your hint.

Okay. So before you choose your difficulty, you're going to find out the general category where this is going to fall. You're going to choose between easy, medium hard and like super hard. The easy's worth 0.5 points. The medium's worth one point, hard is worth 1.5 points. But if you miss you lose 0.5 points and the like super hard is worth two points. But if you miss, you will lose a point from your current score.

Ed Cunard: I'm going to go with medium. Cause I feel like that is the smart play.

Adam Wainwright: Do you want to know what it's about first? I'm going to give you the category.

Ed Cunard: Oh, okay.

Adam Wainwright: This question is going to deal with Bob Marley.

Ed Cunard: I'm going to go with the medium.

Adam Wainwright: Okay, great. The medium is: in 1977, Bob Marley told the world that "every

little thing was going to be all right" in the song "Three Little Birds," the fourth track on side two of this Bob Marley album.

Ed Cunard: I've got a name the album?.

Adam Wainwright: You have to name the album. Yes.

Ed Cunard: I know this is wrong because the only thing that's coming up in my head is that "Legend" compilation. So I know that's not the answer.

Adam Wainwright: That is not the answer. Now, the album's name was Exodus. The easy question was going to be name the song. The hard question was going to ask you what Bob Marley tracks were in "I Am Legend" on the soundtrack and the like super hard question was going to ask you who covered the song "Three Little Birds" for Hyundai commercials in 2018?

Ed Cunard: Wow.

Adam Wainwright: Yes. I thought it was an interesting structure. We tried, so, okay. You're sitting at two points right now going into the impossible question. So the impossible question, so you can get all five points here. If you can answer this. Autonomous sensory Meridian response, ASMR, is a genre of content designed to induce relaxation and subjective euphoria, typically characterized through a tingling sensation that starts near the scalp. ASR provides a passive sense of brain massage. The phenomenon initially gain traction in 2010. And it has snowballed into a trend that is now safeguarded by its own corner of the internet, where it is lapped up by fans of the sedative technique worldwide. The most popular ASM artists on YouTube is S a S slash a S M R of January 30th, 2021 named the exact amount of followers. SAS ASMR has on YouTube.

Ed Cunard: 1.7 million.

Adam Wainwright: You were in the millions, got the million, right? It was 9.3, 1 million followers ed,

Ed Cunard: Yeah. Not close at all.

Adam Wainwright: But we learned something there. I feel like we learned a little thing right there about SMR, and I feel like that was appropriate to share. And you did pretty good. I was, I didn't want to go easy on you. I was trying to find a balance. Um, and I didn't want to go easy on you because I knew, I know you have extensive knowledge with music in certain genres, so I couldn't go easy you and.

Ed Cunard: No, no, no, I, I absolutely appreciate how hard you went and you went deep in the paint.

Adam Wainwright: Okay, great. I was afraid it went too deep, but that You got two points. I only picked up three last time. So it's, you know, it's three, two after the first two challenges and we're going to roll in the next week, refreshed and ready to go. And now I've raised the bar a little bit and I'm very scared for what you're going to bring next week, we'll just put it that way. Very terrified point.

Ed Cunard: You shouldn't be too scared.

Adam Wainwright: I'm going to continue to be scared. All right, Ed, we've got the trivia challenge out of the way. We went to our karaoke happy place. We talked a little bit about happiness. What do you want to talk about, about the therapeutic aspects of karaoke?

Ed Cunard: Well, let's talk about the time that we didn't have karaoke, which is the majority of the last two years. How did that hit you?

Adam Wainwright: Like a ton of bricks, man. I don't know. It became a coping mechanism for me for time there, was a de-stressing tool for me. You know, when I started doing karaoke, I was working an intensive customer service job at a leadership role with it. I was working 60 hours a week. I didn't really know a whole people too.

So there was a lot of time spent in isolation initially.

And through karaoke, I found, part of like Maslow's hierarchy of needs is community, you know, and I found community and karaoke and it me that social aspect that was so missing in my life. And it also me, even after the social aspect was there and built in, it was still a way for me to destress from the day.

So after I dealt with what I was dealing with on a daily basis, dealing people, I could go and just, you know, unwind, I didn't need to, you know, drink. I just was there for the karaoke because it was cathartic to me to kind of get some stuff out. And sometimes that would dictate I sang that night, because you know, sometimes it was more of a mellow night and sometimes sing something angrier.

Ed Cunard: Yeah, absolutely. I do remember the night that I did karaoke after George Zimmerman acquitted. had to sing "Killing in the Name Of" by Rage Against the Machine. I needed to get that of my chest.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah, that's a fair choice for, particular situation. it you at, I through different stages, stages of grief, I guess it could almost be considered because for a little while was the death of a friend. So we, we had to kind of go through the stages of grief.

So how, how did you cope? Like how did it hit.

Ed Cunard: It hit me like a ton of bricks well. I'm somebody who needs to be around people like I'm realizing the older I get that I do also need quiet time to myself. But I feel like I need far less of that than your average person. So the fact that I was not out three nights a week, at least engaging in music, engaging with people, I, had a very rough patch throughout the pandemic.

It was not good for my mental health, especially because I do work with the public. I, I tend to be semi cagey about what I do for a living, but. Have people who work for me, who are, you know, directly in the line of for being at risk. I wasn't going to hole up at home. I was make sure that I was also out. I'm not going to ask somebody to do something that I won't do myself. And the frustration was that I was out, know, risking my health for work, but I. Able to take that same level of risk to not be miserable.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah, there was a weird balance that existed for a little while, especially for frontline workers where like I can imagine that's a, that's a tough question.

Ed Cunard: Obviously we've talked about on this podcast, it's not necessarily the wisest thing to do to go be in a bar full people. I was fairly lucky for a while. And then I, uh, I caught COVID myself at karaoke bar, which was not fun. I mean, I'm vaccinated. I took care of myself that way, but I got little less cautious and I paid the price for it.

Adam Wainwright: It's weird balance that we live in right now. Cause like, You know, when we're talking about mental health, I think it's as important as your physical health. The recommendation was when we were all quarantine, initially you should still outside and taking walks because that was good for your physical health.

Just the sunshine is good for your physical health. The act of walking is good for your physical health, but. We talked about mental health, but nobody offered solutions for mental health. Like there wasn't like, well, what do I do now? This part of my life doesn't exist. Or I can't see this person that I saw on a regular basis anymore that would lift my spirits.

 We didn't really talk about that. So. And just such a, such a weird conflicting time and a tough thing to navigate when making these decisions. If I was around my regular group friends and I was in the same scene, I'm sure I would have been there with you every weekend. I would have been there. You know, I'm vaccinated too. I'm boosted, but I would have been there cause this is what I do for my mental health. Karaoke is one of the things that I do. So I would've been right there with you and I'm still hoping for the day that we can eventually move past this. We're the middle of a very long road.

Ed Cunard: We, definitely are. And Adam, I don't know if you remember, but a year ago or so I made an appearance on Nicole Perkins' "This is Good for You" podcast, where we talked about how karaoke actually can be good for you.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah. I don't remember, a ton of the details. Can you kinda just go over and share with our audience?

Ed Cunard: Our guest today, angel Shamsa will get into that as well, but there's a lot of benefits to just even the physical thing of singing. If you are somebody who is comfortable singing, singing can lower your stress response, it can increase your pain threshold. Some studies say that it may improve snoring, but anyone who has slept next to me knows that is not true in my case. Improves lung function. Helps you develop a sense of belonging and connection. There's a reason that we sing together In groups.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah. Karaoke is just, it's the perfect environment for all these things to come together and improve your physical health. I think Ed and I is sometimes, and by sometimes, I mean like 90% of the times all the positive physical health gains that we get from going to karaoke, we're also drinking enough that they get negated. So in a way we're just continuing maintain balances the way I look at it, you know, for having the positive gains, the negative gains come down and we level out right?

Ed Cunard: I definitely drank some empty calories being out with you at random bars.

Adam Wainwright: We drink the empty calories, and then we burn them off. Ed. We burn them off. It's tricky, but we do it. There's a balance you know, I think we're getting back to it a little bit and it's. Take care of your mental, physical health, y'all.

What are some of your favorite songs about wellness that I think I touched on some happy ones. Do you have anything that like when you're having a rough day and karaoke bar or something that instantly gets those endorphins moving and makes you feel better?

Ed Cunard: I'm one of the people who, if I'm sad, I want to sing through it with sad songs. So for me, I mean, things like "In the Wee Small Hours" by Frank Sinatra, that's a great one for me to handle breakup. If I'm sad about a death, something that reminds me of the person who has died will help me get through it versus trying to through and do something happy when that's not where I am physically, mentally, emotionally at that point. What about you?

Adam Wainwright: I'm the same way. I'm not a big believer in powering through emotions, unless the situation absolutely dictates it like a life or death you're not powering through what you're feeling and focused on the moment, somebody who's going to die. Which, you know, I've been in those situations like, so I get it. But if it's not that situation, those aren't the stakes and your own mental health, I'm not a big through guy. I'm embracing what you're feeling, understanding it and, you know, expressing it. When you go to karaoke And you're sad or you're going through something, yeah I'm all about expressing that through sad music or whatever, whatever you need to get through, it just don't deny anything, you know?

Ed Cunard: You can absolutely see the difference between the person who was singing "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette because they love the song, and the person singing"You Oughta Know" by Alana's Morissette cause they just went through a real shitty breakup. you can see it. Yeah.

Adam Wainwright: it. I always feel I feel it in the rooms when something means to something a little bit more to somebody, a song, whether it's a happy or sad reason, whatever, it may be. You can always tell when somebody just likes a song and for some there's a different kind of connection with the message.

And it may not always be that way, but a lot about what somebody is going through because over the course of any night that you through a few sit through enough karaoke tracks and an evening, a lot of them are like, this is a cool song. I like singing this song.

That's what a lot of people are going, but there's always going to be one or two people, one or two, every single karaoke night. Feel the difference in their performance.

And I love that. I do. I love it. I love hearing the difference when people are singing, as I love hearing people so deeply rooted and connected to what they're doing at that point, because that makes me feel better. Just because I know they're finding a way to express themselves that is so unbelievably difficult sometimes when you're dealing with tragedy or even overwhelming happiness, being able to express yourself so difficult. So to see someone else be able to do that, my spirits. I don't know, there's a magic, there's a magic to that. Like I know there's scientific reasons these things happen, but I'm not a fucking scientist to me. That's magic. That's magic in a room. You can't convince me otherwise.

Ed Cunard: And I would never try to.

Adam Wainwright: I would like to see you try to Ed, I would just love you to one day, show up with a science and go, " actually, Adam, what you are dealing with, right there is a triggered response by your medulla oblongata" or something like that. Just, just lay science on, destroy a child. My, my childhood whimsy.

Ed Cunard: Shout out to "The Waterboy" for teaching us the parts of the brain.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah, that was the only reason I know that word. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure from the same movie that also taught us the phrase "water sucks. really, really sucks."

Ed Cunard: My favorite water related phrase is Frank Sinatra saying that he doesn't drink water because fish fuck in it.

Adam Wainwright: That's very, good reason. I'm sure Frank Sinatra had other reasons for not drinking water regardless.

Ed Cunard: But you should drink water because it is healthy.

Adam Wainwright: Please drink water, get vaccinated, express your feelings. Those are the three things I want you to take from what we just talked about. I think it's a good summary of the three things that I want people to remember from what what we just talked about.

Ed Cunard: Drink water, get vaccinated, express your feelings,

Adam Wainwright: Yeah. Sing karaoke..

Ed Cunard: Obviously.

Adam Wainwright: You even talking karaoke brings me joy. And that that's healthy. Like even just when we get together, I'd this feels good. And there's something to be said about that.

Ed Cunard: Absolutely. Without this podcast, without this engagement with you 500, some miles away now, this would have been a much lonelier time for me. And I imagine for you as well.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah. It would have been a much lonelier time. Had a rough start to this entire quarantine. thing. We all have our own core story. Isn't stuff like that. So we don't need to know details, I just moved to New York was finally close to the person that I love the most in this world. And then all of a sudden, I wasn't for two months and I couldn't see her.

So, friends helped me through those. The podcast helped me through

There, there was just lot of things that went into, you know, getting me to the other side of this and this is no small reason for that happening.

Ed Cunard: and hopefully provided you some comfort too if you're missing karaoke and are experiencing it somehow through listening to us two, chuckleheads talk about it every other week.

Adam Wainwright: God, I hope so. I'm going to peel back the curtain just a little bit and we won't peel it back too far, but we're going to peel back just a little bit.

Ed and I've talked about that we just love doing this podcast, however many people may listen. don't care. This is great for what we do. We just genuinely love talking to each other and with genuine love talking about the karaoke. If I knew for a fact that us talking about karaoke has helped somebody through a rough time help them kind of bridge the gap and help with their mental health in some minuscule way.

Even, during this time. I mean, that would just mean the world to me and make everything, all the work that we put in just completely worth it. I hope so. I love that sentiment. I really do.

Ed Cunard: Yeah, feel free to reach out to us. If that's the case, either on Twitter at sung poorly, or us email sungpoorly@gmail.com.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah, send an email. If you don't feel like comfortable with us talking about it, we will never discuss it. Just let us know. If you just want to express whatever you want to express, you say, we don't mention this on air, like we're great with that too, but I think we've kind of hit our topic pretty well, or at least from what we can contribute to it as non-professionals in the field.

Ed Cunard: Absolutely.

Adam Wainwright: I think we should talk to a professional now. I think we talk to a professional.

Ed Cunard: And what else should we do?

Adam Wainwright: Oh, cue guitar so we can talk to this professional so cue it. Let's go.

Interview: Angel Shamsa, holistic health coach

Ed Cunard: While singing karaoke is a great way to release some feelings and center yourself, it's one, some might call an off-label use. Our guest today is a holistic Sharman and health coach who focuses on mental health and self love advocacy. And since she's here, that means she loves karaoke too, and we love that. Angel Shamsa, welcome to "The Greatest Song Ever Sung Poorly!"

Angel Shamsa: Thank you! I'm so happy to be here. So excited to have this conversation.

Adam Wainwright: We're so excited to have you Angel. I'm endlessly curious about all the things we're going to talk about today. And I know you are the expert in the field. A karaoke loving expert, holistic shaman health coach, and this is going to be just the best conversation ever. And I am so excited you're here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here.

Angel Shamsa: Yeah. Ooooooh. I love the energy. Yes. I'm here for it.

Adam Wainwright: Yes, that's what we want to bring. We want to bring that positive energy. So here lead us right into it. I'm notorious for wanting a good origin story. So... tell me how you got started with karaoke.

Angel Shamsa: I would have to say, I actually like really grew up on those really cheapy karaoke machines that they're like toys essentially. And they've gotten really impressive. I'm actually highly impressed with them. I had like my own little... It was its own little traveling speaker and own little cute little microphone.

And then at one point there was this, I don't know if you guys ever knew about this item, it was real new with the microphone that connected to your TV. And then it would project the words onto your TV. And then it would actually project itself, I think, through the microphone and through to your TV, it was really awesome at the time.

And I would just, I would sing karaoke by myself for hours. Alone, like just having a blast. And then just as I get older, you start going to bars and then I'm like, "oh shoot, like there's karaoke in bars." Like, I didn't know that was a thing. So then I had friends who like specifically loved karaoke, so it'd be like, oh, "you want to go?"

And I'm like, "yeah!" I have to say it was really scary for me to like do it in front of people. Cause I'd never done karaoke in front of anyone except my family members. And so I would just kind of watch the first few times. And mentally, I was like, you know what, screw it. I'm going to do it. I love people's confidence.

Like even if you're not that great of a singer, man, if you come through with some confidence, got to love it. I got to sing karaoke with my mom once, which is really cool. And then like, I dunno, it just, just brings people together, you know?

Adam Wainwright: What song did you sing with your mom?

Angel Shamsa: "Lean on Me."

Adam Wainwright: Awwww,

Angel Shamsa: It was pretty perfect. The movie "Lean on Me" actually was about the high school that she went to in Jersey. So it was like, it's always been kind of like a song that we just always had going in the house for one reason or the other.

Ed Cunard: Who was more nervous about doing it? You or her?

Angel Shamsa: I don't know. I think probably me. My mom looked like she had "shit, I've been doing this my whole life" and then she had some liquid courage on top of that. I was like, okay, mom, carrying a tune in a bucket. Yes. I love it.

Ed Cunard: We love to see it. Can you tell us a little bit about what a holistic health coach and shaman does?

Angel Shamsa: Yeah, absolutely. So just the holistic health coach part is somebody who can help clients with their ability to kind of look at their life through a lens of mind, body, soul, and understanding that healing and transformation does not come from isolating one thing or another. You think you're just losing weight, but there's so many other things that are happening with your mind, body, and soul that can stop you from losing that weight. Even when you think you're just going in for one thing and it's like, no, I could point out a few different other 10 to 20 things that you probably should be looking at as well alongside whatever it is that we're trying to target.

 That's the holistic health coaching side. Just helping people with their health, wealth and happiness goals is kind of my spiel. And then with the shamanistic side or shamanic side, that is more of the connection between the earthly realms and then the heavenly realms. And... even the deep, dark realms too. And being able to be a bridge between those realms and through my work specifically, I do cleansings on people's chakras. And through that I'm able to get information on even people's physical ailments. I can be like, you're having a lot of sore throats lately and they're like, yeah, actually.

And I'm like, oh, your throat chakras like, feel a little crazy. Like, yeah, we got to do some work on that. Are you having a lot of digestive issues or like stomach pains or like, yeah. I'm like, oh, your solar plexus. So kind of taking in my thoughts and ideas about health and holistic health and healing, and then kind of sandwiching them with the spiritual side of understanding that we're all energy, energy can create and not destroyed.

So where does that energy go? And what do we do with that energy? And especially if you're a sensitive person like empathic and things like that. That's kind of a community I've found myself really immersed in and realized there's such a need cause we're all very sensitive beings in general, but that the kind of people who are a little bit more perceptive of everything and energy and feelings and all those things, like it can become a really tough life.

 That's why people end up so depressed and anxiety written and they're like, I don't even know why I'm sad. And it's like, it's probably not even your sadness to be honest, but we're never taught in our society or through media how to deal with these energies that are floating around us constantly, but you can't see, but they're existing and they're influencing you and your feelings and your life and your happiness and your health.

 My own holistic health coach journey led me into the spiritual side because when I was healing my own stuff, because I was depressed, anxiety ridden, having panic attacks had super huge amounts of self-hate. I tried killing myself twice. I've had a lot of tumultuousness with myself and my life. And then to go through this healing journey and see it from a bigger picture and seeing it in a different light, different perspective, like, oh, that all that suffering was for a reason. And I can actually go through each terrible thing I've been through and say why It's happened the way it's happened and where it led me to and how beautiful life is now because I've went through that stuff.

 I kind of go around making a joke, but not really a joke. Like I would love to just heal the world because I, I feel like I, I do have this view of like, yes, I understand how deep, dark and hopeless it can feel. I felt that too, but also I've been to the other side now and I can say like, If you feel like you're hopeless, like there is hope and there's so much to live for. Let's figure out what you need to be living for so that you can value yourself and your health and your wealth and your happiness.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah, that's amazing. That really is. And it's, it's something that I think as you described it, you know, you feel, you start to understand that these things are in the world and trying to articulate them is incredibly difficult. And I think you did a fantastic job of articulating them.

And I sincerely appreciate that. And I'm sure our listeners will sincerely appreciate that. So a question that comes to mind is how does what you do work in tandem with standard practices in Western medicine and therapy.

Angel Shamsa: Yeah. So I definitely see a place with Western medicine and therapy. Absolutely. I'm very intuitive in the way that I work. There have been moments where I've had to advise people like this isn't spiritual, this is physical, and you should have this checked out. Because of my own research on the side, as well as everything that I was taught to be a holistic health coach, I've been able to marry the two and be able to be like, yeah, this is kind of out of my spec or this is within my spec. And especially therapy. I am a huge advocate for therapy. Though, people can use coaches as therapists, and that works for some people. There are deep dark parts of certain subjects that I'm not fully aware or equipped with. And I would never want to cheat someone else's healing journey by trying to fake that and say that I can replace all of these things because I can't.

And so it's all about kind of using that, that synergy between all healing modalities There are so many ways you could go about healing, the specific thing, and that's kind of yours to also explore. I'm not here to really necessarily heal you. I'm here to help you heal you. I'm here to lead conversations, lead you to those light bulb moments that, you know, even when you feel super confused and go to talk with a friend, and then all of a sudden you're solving your own problem by the end of the conversation, just because they asked some really important questions that you haven't even been asking yourself, like that can be so pivotal for a lot of people. But it's all about that ebb and flow and understanding that I am only one person and there will be times where somebody has to get something else through someone else. And that's all right.

Ed Cunard: That makes absolute perfect sense. And I mean, Adam and I are who we are. So of course. we're going to take this back to singing. How does singing connect with holistic health practices? What does, what does that do for you?

Angel Shamsa: Absolutely. So singing has been scientifically proven to be able to give us doses of serotonin and dopamine and all the feel good feelings that we love to receive on a daily basis, whether through giving affection or intimacy or however else you express those types of happy feelings and your joys. So singing is one of those. Also, I'm a huge advocate for like frequency and singing is a beautiful way to literally raise your vibration, raise your frequency. Singing and dancing and those arts-- art in general of any kind is very healing and transformative to the soul in a lot of ways. Even just energy wise, there are moments where I feel fatigued just because I have been dealing with a lot of people or doing a lot of energy work and I will literally just stop and sing.

And all of a sudden, I feel like I just took a eight hour nap. Like I feel great. It's just really acknowledging that it's energy and really also acknowledging, like what kind of energy are you putting into your mind, body and soul? Is it stuff that's kind of keeping you down? Is it stuff that's kind of allowing you to release something to heal through it?

Or is it a wall that you kind of keep playing over and over again and keep wallowing in? Because there's a difference. I have used sad music to really heal and transform a lot of different stories and perspectives of things that have happened to me, very traumatic and been able to turn it into something beautiful.

I also have been known to listen to like sadder songs and then see like this beautiful, like, wow. Like I don't, you hear this person healing through these lyrics and this other person. Um, it sounded really just sad to me, to be honest and like, but that's, I guess the beautiful thing about art in general is it's so subjective.

 It's all about a person's own experiences and how that influences their lens that they're seeing through. So, Yeah, just using it in an ebb and flow kind of way, asking yourself, what do you need in that moment? Also, it's been known to create a lot of community.

People like singing together, creating music together. A lot of. Ancient traditions and tribes and things like that. They would have song circles, drum circles, and it's all to connect with the divine sometimes. Music is a beautiful way to connect to the divine and to the extra energies around us that are existing and coexisting with us on a daily basis.

Either a kind of hurting or helping us and the way that we can call in the ones that help us, they love music. So I think that's also can be really powerful and like the spiritual shamanic side. So yeah, singing. Definitely can bring a lot of health, wealth, and happiness.

Adam Wainwright: And that's all we want is health, wealth and happiness. That's what anybody wants. Right. That's what we're looking for. That's what we're on a journey for that's 100%. Okay. So now, okay. We've we've covered the singing. Okay. It can lead to health, wealth, happiness. Yes. Great. Are there different benefits between singing in private and singing in public?

Cause you mentioned that sometimes if you're feeling down, sometimes you'll just take a minute, just sing out loud and you know, it changes the entire energy around you and you can kind of move forward with your day. But I imagine that if you're out in public singing karaoke, there might be different benefits associated than just singing in the room to yourself. So can you talk me through what some of those different benefits would be.

Angel Shamsa: Yeah, absolutely. I would definitely say in general, singing in public boosts your confidence. It is kind of like this barrier of that, you know, that nervousness that's kind of exciting, but it's not really consequential. Whatever ends up happening when you sing karaoke, it's not going to be the end of the world.

And that kind of beautiful childlike play aspect of karaoke is I think a really important part as well, because even as adults, we need to play, we need to connect to that childlike version of ourselves that's like, "wow, this is just fun. Just because it's fun and I'm here." It's pure and innocent and it's joyful.

I think when you are in a public space, especially when you are in a setting where a lot of people love karaoke. I went to this pizza place and they're really known for their karaoke in my town. And it's so wonderful.

Adam Wainwright: I'm just thinking that I really need a karaoke pizza place in my life. And that's something I desperately just want. So sorry for the tangent, but you said karaoke pizza place and like lights started flashing all around me and it was a beautiful thing.

Ed Cunard: I will say there's one that's like that in Florida as well. That I've been to.

Angel Shamsa: Oh man, like I've never seen, I've been, I felt like I had been to quite a few karaoke nights at that point. And I thought that karaoke is, yeah, it's pretty big thing but at this place it's one minute, completely empty. No one's there. And then all of a sudden there are people are rushing through for karaoke and this lady has been running it there for so many years, so everyone also knows her and it's like local and he's like, you know, my song. And it was like the coolest experience, honestly, uh, personally. Even to be there with all that energy of people who just genuinely love getting on stage and singing karaoke, whether they are good at it or not was just like it's magic. It's total magic.

Ed Cunard: Now as somebody who grew up in New York, though, how was their pizza?

Angel Shamsa: Good pizza. Yeah. It's not the same, but I have to put like New York pizza in a totally different category.

Ed Cunard: Right. That, that, that, that is manna from the heavens.

Angel Shamsa: Right. I agree. I agree. So it's like apples and oranges. I don't try and compare.

Adam Wainwright: Now that we're talking about New York pizza, let me talk. I just moved to Queens officially back in December. Okay. My fiance has lived here forever... New York pizza is one thing, but I found like THE spot to go to where we have 18 pizza places, probably within a quarter mile radius of us.

But the one that's right across the street is the ideal New York slice. It seriously, has you asking you walk by all these other ones? You're like, yeah, I should try it, but why would I do that? I've already had the best New York has to offer.

Angel Shamsa: Right. Right,

Adam Wainwright: Now they add karaoke and I'm never leaving.

Angel Shamsa: right,

Ed Cunard: You'll never go home again.

Angel Shamsa: If anyone's looking for something to stand out on that block, karaoke is where it's at. It's a, it's an ingenious combo, to be honest.

Ed Cunard: So Angel, let me ask you about the songs themselves. Is there a particular song that helped you deal with something in your life? And did you sing it at karaoke somewhere later and feel some kind of connection with that moment?

Angel Shamsa: So I wouldn't say that I have had, I've actually haven't sung the song at karaoke, but I definitely have a song that I sing specifically to make me feel better. I call it like my medicine song. It's called "I Am," by Satsang, and it's literally, it just feels like it's the epitome of what I'm living in this lifetime. I'm trying to be balanced. I'm trying to be spiritual. I'm trying to be happy and healthy and wealthy, right? And, you know, sometimes I get knocked down. Like, I'm human. Sometimes I make mistakes, I'm human. And it's really like forgiving yourself through those mistakes and forgiving yourself through the human parts of yourself and remembering that you're divine.

 I haven't had a public moment with it, but I definitely had plenty of private, sacred moments. I guess that's why I also want to bring it back to that. I talked about more public, but there's so many benefits of having music that you can sing to yourself. That's soothing. It's like your own lullaby to yourself.

So when you need to be soothed or put to bed, like sing it to yourself. I'm a huge advocate for self-love and putting your self and your self care first because you can't properly function out in the world or help anyone in a very productive way if you're not taking care of yourself. I think those private sacred moments are just as important as those public moments, because yeah, you may not be super pumped and hyped and in your confidence, but maybe it's healing deep parts of yourself that need to be healed.

Maybe it's refocusing and reprogramming repatterning events and stories in your mind that need to be repatterned. So, it can be really powerful at any time. And I would say that... definitely always having moments, you know, especially when you're like singing in your life and your guts out, and then you're crying, oh, I'm doing this.

Cause I love to be in the shower. So I'm like washing my hair, crying and singing and it's great. Shower singing is like, just as amazing as karaoke singing, I think. Cause then you can just let the water take away your emotions as you're singing them out too. It's like this ultimate release and cleanse.

Ed Cunard: And the acoustics are great.

Adam Wainwright: Oh, they always are. Every time. It's every bathroom in America. It's amazing.

Angel Shamsa: I'm Mariah in my bathroom. I sound amazing. It's when you leave the bathroom and you're like, oh, that's how I sound. I have to reassess some things.

Adam Wainwright: Exactly. I sound like Adele at anytime I sing in my bathroom. So there's that? Yeah. And I'll never sound like Adele out in the real world. I'll try. Just won't happen.

Angel Shamsa: Right. So, Hey, if anyone's feeling a little uncomfortable with singing out loud in their living room, go to your bathroom, even just turn the shower on and just stand in your bathroom. And it's, it's just the same

Adam Wainwright: Perfect. Perfect acoustics. Perfect. Every, every time it doesn't matter. I don't need to know anything about you. You sound wonderful. I'm just letting you know whoever's to this that they're singing in their shower to this. You sound wonderful right now. Thank you for singing.

Angel Shamsa: Yes. That's what I want. That's the energy I'm always trying to give. Sometimes I think it's so sad that people kind of shut themselves down just because they don't think like, "oh, I don't sing perfect, so I shouldn't sing at all." And I'm like, what? No, we all, like, that's also something really beautiful about singing and holistic health is, like, for the most part, most people have voices that they can talk with. And why not use that to sing with, even if you miss notes, even if you don't sound like Adele it's okay. It's still beautiful. You're still making music.

Adam Wainwright: You will get no argument on this end and we totally agree with putting all that positivity out in the world. Singing in your shower, singing at karaoke, take care of yourself. But right now we're going to make a little bit of a transition. Angel, you've been insightful and wonderful and caring and informative and I've loved our conversation, but now it's time for us to switch gears just a little bit, and we're going to pull you into our world and we're going to hit you with our best shot.

Okay. So what, so what we're going to do is we're going to be five "rapid fire"... I love making air quotes over the podcast that nobody can actually see. It happens every time though. And listeners, I'm making air quotes anytime you hear me say rapid fire.

Angel Shamsa: I literally have done the same. I'm like I'm air quoting right now, but it's important that you know

Adam Wainwright: Yes exactly. Ed, how can you verbally give me how you would do air quotes on that? So I can learn from you.

Angel Shamsa: Well, I've tried air quotes... wait, are you asking me?

Adam Wainwright: I'm asking you, I want you and Ed to tell me how to do air quotes verbally.

Angel Shamsa: Oh, I have just been like air quotes, say what? I got an air quote, end quote, air quote, or air. Just another air quote, depending on how I'm feeling.

Adam Wainwright: Okay. Bookend them. Got it.

Angel Shamsa: Yeah, exactly.

Ed Cunard: I'm just going to italicize my voice. So, Angel, we're about to play our "quick fire" game.

Adam Wainwright: Ooh, [CTRL+I], that was good. Now that we've established our quickfire game and italicized the quickfire, we're going to give you five questions, just answering them to the best of your ability. No answer is a bad answer. Don't think about it too much. The first thing that pops in your head is normally going to be the best thing that you can uh, give us.

So are you ready to rock and roll and play our game?

Angel Shamsa: Yeah. It's like a Rorschach test, but a game. Cool. That's like the pictures, right? And then they're like, sell me the first thing on your mind. And then I'm like, I don't know, playground.

Ed Cunard: It's two bears high-fiving every time.

Adam Wainwright: It's always a duck. It's not a rabbit. Angel, what is the best thing you have ever seen a karaoke?

Angel Shamsa: Somebody gets so into Brittany Spears, like they dropped to their knees and saying Brittany Spears. And I was like, that's dedication. That was impressive. Yeah. Belting it out. I think they sang it better than Brittany Spears.

Ed Cunard: Wow.

Angel Shamsa: That was impressive. And I'm like, they come here a lot. You can tell.

Ed Cunard: So conversely, what's the worst thing you've seen at karaoke.

Angel Shamsa: I would say just an empty karaoke room.

Adam Wainwright: Oh, that's a great answer.

Ed Cunard: That's a great answer.

Angel Shamsa: Yeah. That's literally the first thing that to my mind.

Adam Wainwright: That's an amazing answer. So what is the one song you would love to sing at karaoke, but you've never been able to find?

Angel Shamsa: I have to say the ones that I've chosen, I've always been able to find, but I'd be curious to try that "I Am" song. And now next time I go to karaoke, I'm going to ask for it because it's like a smaller artist. So that would be an interesting one to see if they even have it. Thanks for the idea.

Ed Cunard: That's what we're here for. So say you're in a brand new place while traveling and you only have the chance to sing one song. What song do you pick to make your mark?

Angel Shamsa: I love "Simple Man," the Shinedown version. So I'd probably asked for that because I'm a simple man. So I like to remind people that they should also be simple men. Or woman, you know, whatever you feel and identify with.

Adam Wainwright: Yeah, that's great. And now that we've put the positive things out into the world, let's get to the negative and balance it out just a little bit.

Angel Shamsa: I love balance.

Adam Wainwright: if you could magically strike one song from every karaoke playlist forever, which song would you choose?

Angel Shamsa: "Rock You Like a Hurricane." [ SINGS] "Here I am rock you..." like good song, but I'm so tired of hearing it. And I've, I feel like I've heard it. It's like, that's one of the go-tos at karaoke in my area or something. Like, is this on the top five list? I don't know what you guys are choosing this from, but... yeah, I would say that one, probably.

Adam Wainwright: That's a new one. That's great. I hadn't even thought about that song in forever.

Ed Cunard: I think in the past decade and a half, I've heard that song at karaoke maybe five times. So it might be an East Coast/West Coast thing.

Angel Shamsa: Maybe... It really could be, honestly. That's why I said I was like, maybe it's my, just my geographic location or what, but they love eighties rock where I'm at. And that just seems to be on the top list for a lot of people.

Adam Wainwright: That was definitely a new answer. Angel, and we appreciate the new and bringing the pain and welcoming "Hurricane" into the infamous list of songs to be struck from every karaoke playlist forever. But you did great! Those were such wonderful, insightful answers, and we really sincerely appreciate it.

But now, because you know, if you know the song "Hit Me with Your Best Shot", there always has to be a "fire away." So during our fire away at the very end of this game, you can ask ed and I, any question you would like karaoke or otherwise, and we solomnly swear we will answer, honestly. In the context of fire away, we will answer honestly. So go ahead. You got your shot: fire away.

Angel Shamsa: What's your guys's favorite song to sing in karaoke?

Ed Cunard: Adam's thinking and I mean… these have changed so often over the last 15 years that we've been doing this...

Adam Wainwright: They do. Okay. So there's songs I'm really, really good at. And there's things I've got to become known for when I go to karaoke. I think this answer is going to be different than like what my answer would be uh, to make my mark, because there are certain songs I have to make my mark, but the one I think I'm going to go with that I just really love singing. Like it just makes me feel good to like, be up there singing it is "Mack the Knife" by Bobby Darin.

Ed Cunard: Ooh.

Angel Shamsa: Ooh,

Adam Wainwright: I think that's it. Like, I just love the fact that it's, it's so fun. The energy it puts out into the room, you get the chance to like really project and sing a little bit. I get to use this beautiful baritone instrument of mine and just have a little bit of fun singing up there and yeah, I think that's going to be my answer.

Angel Shamsa: Nice.

Adam Wainwright: I feel good about that.

Angel Shamsa: You look like you do.

Ed Cunard: I'm also going to go with an answer that I've never said before for a question like this, and I don't do it at karaoke a lot because it's a long song and there's a big instrumental break in the middle. And I mean, I'm typically somebody who does crooner songs...

Angel Shamsa: oh, cool.

Ed Cunard: ... hip hop songs and like songs that are in a bass baritone also cause Adam and I are in the same singing range, but in terms of just sheer fun, "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath is an absolute fucking blast to sing. You can't do it if it's very busy cause again, there's like a two minute guitar break in the middle of it, but like when you lean back and you have to have that mic, like your full arm's length away because otherwise you are going to blow every speaker out because you're loud, that's just a good feeling.

Angel Shamsa: "I have to be cautious with this song." Nice. Add a little danger into your life. I like it. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing.

Adam Wainwright: That's what we're all about here on "The Greatest Song Ever Sung Poorly", it's a danger at kara-- no, it's not, it's not danger. It's having a good time. And man, we've had a really, really great time talking Angel. What I'm going to do is Ed and I are going to fully surrender control of the podcast and hand it to you, whatever you want to talk about for the next period of time, whether it be social media messages, anything you want to plug anything that's coming up. The floor is yours. Take over. The podcast is yours.

Angel Shamsa: Oh, cool. Okay. Well, I'm on most platforms as angeluniversal. I have my own podcast as well, where I just talk about different mind, body, soul, and spiritual topics. I also have a website angel universal. I have links to everything that I do there. I also have a shop where I sell crystals and incense and jewelry and smudge sticks. And I also am looking to do more spiritual cleansing. So if anyone's interested in getting a spiritual cleansing, getting a chakra cleansing and alignment, it's like a soul reading on a lot of levels too. So I kind of can see all the imprints of traumas or events or circumstances that are holding you back from your destiny, holding you back from your health, wealth, and happiness. I'm just trying to heal the world out here. So if y'all are ready to heal, find me angel universal.

Adam Wainwright: And all those details will be in the information section of this very podcast episode. So take a little bit extra to check all that stuff out as you're scrolling through the episode. Ed, I think we're about ready to wrap up the interview. Do you have any other parting thoughts, questions, words of wisdom that you'd like to ask?

Ed Cunard: Angel, I know you didn't do like a reading or a cleanse on us, but I honestly just somehow feel better after talking to you for this last little bit of time. Like, I genuinely feel that. I'm just very thankful. We've had a blast. Thank you so much.

Angel Shamsa: Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thanks for allowing me to speak about all the crazy cool things that I can do. And my love for karaoke. It brought up a lot of memories that I haven't really even thought about in a really long time. I didn't even think about my childhood karaoke love until I was sitting here and then I was like, oh yeah, I was obsessed for a long time. So thank you for letting me revisit that.

Adam Wainwright: Well, we are all about just having a crazy cool time here, and we really appreciate you taking the time to meet with us. Bring a little bit of that positive spirit and energy. And we really, really, really hope to see you singing at a screen sometime soon.

Angel Shamsa: Thanks. Hey, you never know. You guys kind of inspired me. I just have to get back on my karaoke game again.

Sign Off

Adam Wainwright: We'd like to thank each and every one of you for joining us today, we’re social guys. Yeah. So follow us on all the socials we're @sungpoorly on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and our webpage is sungpoorly.com and oh, make sure you follow subscribe, write a review on the podcast feed of your choice.

Ed Cunard: And while you're doing that, make sure you're checking out Ben Dumm, friend of the show who gave us our theme song “Gasoline.” Make sure you check out his latest project. The Ben Dumm 3 on Apple Music, Spotify, whatever music platform you like. You can now give us a five-star rating on Spotify, if you did not know.

Adam Wainwright: You can have five star ratings on Spotify. I'm interested.

Ed Cunard: me as well.

Adam Wainwright: I can't wait to give all my favorite podcasts. Five-star. You know what the first one is going to be, that I get five stars, then

Ed Cunard: Okay.

Adam Wainwright: The Greatest Song Ever Sung (Poorly). It's our podcast. Why wouldn't I give our podcast five stars said, how did you not guess that

Ed Cunard: That makes sense. We are pretty fantastic.

Adam Wainwright: we're pretty great. I think we're pretty great. So. The greatest thing of a sudden poorly five stars you should too, but more than Anthony should just tune in in two weeks a week, finally visit one place we've neglected so far and one place we've already explored with other guests.

That's right. We're going global again.

All right. That's it. That's all. There is no more. So until next time I'm Adam Wainwright.

Ed Cunard: I'm Ed Cunard.

Adam Wainwright: and remember that singing off still technically.