Samvel Piano – Live Piano Karaoke Live piano karaoke host – 3,000+ songs played live, weddings & corporate events

A space of roughly 3 m x 2 m for the keyboard, a screen stand and one speaker, plus a nearby power socket (one 16 A socket is enough). One parking space close to the load-in door helps a lot, as I bring the full setup by car.

Directions to the venue and the easiest way to load in the gear; the size of the room and expected number of guests; whether there is a screen or TV I can plug into for the lyrics (optional, I bring my own); and whether the venue has a sound limiter or a curfew.

Yes, I am fully self-contained: PA system, two wired Shure microphones for the singers, mixing desk and a lyrics screen facing the singers. No lighting rig, but the setup is compact and fits most bars, restaurants and private venues.

Yes. Before the karaoke starts and during breaks I can play background music, and I can also do a short piano blind test to warm the room up. For corporate evenings, a DJ-style dance set after the karaoke can be arranged on request.

Hard to pick one. The Lille Street Food Festival was a highlight: hundreds of people singing along outdoors with a drink in hand. I also loved playing the Braderie de Lille weekend at the Moxy hotel, and the hotel evenings at Mama Shelter and Novotel Paris Montparnasse, where guests who had never met ended up singing duets together.

Private parties and corporate evenings, because that is where the piano makes the biggest difference: people who swear they will never sing end up at the mic by the second hour. Birthdays with 30 to 80 guests are my favourite format, but I am just as happy in a bar on a Friday night.

I trained as a classical pianist at the Royal Conservatory of Mons (Belgium), then started playing in bars around Lille. In 2015 I had the idea of mixing the two: a karaoke where the band is a single pianist. Ten years and several hundred nights later, the Karaoké Live has become my main activity, alongside silent-film cine-concerts where I accompany classic movies live on the piano.

Jean-Jacques Goldman for the songwriting, Queen for the piano energy, and Chilly Gonzales for showing that a piano can be a party instrument. Greatest song of all time, at least on a karaoke night: Bohemian Rhapsody. Everybody knows every word and nobody can sing it, which is exactly the point.

I arrive about 45 minutes before the start to set up and sound-check, and packing down takes around 30 minutes. The karaoke itself runs for 2 to 5 hours depending on the package, in one continuous block with short breaks if you need them (speeches, cake, etc.). For private parties I usually start right after the aperitif, at the time you choose.

Yes, as long as there is a roof or shelter over the keyboard and screen, and a power socket nearby. I have played outdoor terraces and festivals (Lille Street Food Festival, hotel terraces during the Braderie de Lille). Rain is the only thing the gear does not like.

Your guests choose: they pick their song from the online catalogue on their phone and the requests come straight to me. You can send me a wish list before the event, and I can add songs that are not in the catalogue yet if you let me know a couple of weeks ahead. Nothing is pre-scripted: the evening follows the room.

"Warm", "generous" and "he got everyone singing" come up a lot. Clients often say the guests who were the most reluctant at the start were the ones hogging the mic by the end. Hotels and companies book me again because it works just as well with 30 colleagues as with 200 guests.