Dominican Woman Arrested For Karaoke Rendition Of National Anthem

I haven't done karaoke since I was a kid, but that hasn't stopped me from obsessing over my song choice if I should ever find myself in a position where my life depends on belting out a tune, the lyrics of which I'm reading off a TV.

Which is strange, I know, but karaoke song choice can get you in some hot water as a woman in the Dominican Republic recently found out.

According to The New York Post, late last month, a woman named Amarilis Brito Rodríguez was accused of disrespecting the country's national anthem when she performed it at a place called "Mofongo & Variedades Eddy."

Enter To Win The Ultimate "Money-Can't-Buy" Experience At The NCAA Men's Hoops National Championship Game

She was arrested at her home days after her performance, with police saying that she had run afoul of Article 37 of Law 210-19 regarding national symbols in the Dominican Republic, which includes "acts of outrage against our National Anthem."

I mean, if that's the law, that's the law, even if I'd argue there could be bigger problems afoot for the DR's finest to focus on.

I'm just hung up on the terrible karaoke choice.

Choose your karaoke songs carefully, something one woman in the Dominican Republic an now attest to. (Getty Images)

Look, I love our National Anthem, but if someone got on stage and sang that, it'd be my cue to hit the bathroom or grab another beer.

People are looking for a good time. They want to hear some drunk guy slur his way through "Baby Got Back" while his embarrassed wife tries to melt into her seat, not some stoic, proud anthem.

Perhaps this is why Rodriguez performed an "urban-style" rendition that she wrote over twenty years ago.

Hold up. 

Now I'm upset.

READ: WILLIAM SHATNER ANNOUNCED A HEAVY METAL ALBUM WITH ZAKK WYLDE — NO, SERIOUSLY

The point of karaoke is that you sing songs that other people know. It's not the time for deep cuts, especially not deep cuts from your own catalog.

Imagine if someone went up there and was like, "Hey, I'm going to do a song by my college ska band. We were called, 'Chugga Chugga & The Choo-Choos' and this song is called 'Keg Stand."

Not only would you walk out of that bar, but you'd also never go back to it ever again.

So, in summation, no national anthems and no deep cuts from your back catalog.

This is why my go-to karaoke songs (again, if my life depends on it) are "Bad Blood" by Neal Sedaka (RIP) and "Hunger Strike" by Temple of the Dog.

I know the latter is a duet, but my party trick is that I do the Eddie Vedder and the Chris Cornell parts.