How a two-room karaoke experiment at MOJO Harrogate became a format worth replicating across all six of the brand's late-night rock and roll cocktail bars — and what it changed about how guests spend a night at MOJO.
When MOJO introduced two private karaoke rooms at its Harrogate venue, the team knew the concept fit the brand. What they didn't expect was just how popular it would become. The rooms quickly established themselves as a strong part of the MOJO experience, and today all six MOJO locations offer karaoke.
For a brand built around music, cocktails, games and big nights out, karaoke has become another reason for guests to choose MOJO, stay longer and come back.
"We knew our guests would love it, but we didn't know how popular it would actually be."
About MOJO
MOJO is a late-night rock and roll cocktail bar with locations in Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Harrogate, Sheffield and Newcastle. The venues combine cocktails and music with a wide range of social games and activities.
At MOJO Harrogate alone, guests can play interactive darts, shooting games, mini golf, basketball, table tennis, pool, beer pong, foosball and shuffleboard before heading into one of its private karaoke rooms. The idea is to give guests more than somewhere to simply stop for a drink.
Each MOJO has its own personality, but the overall experience is deliberately high energy, social and centered around participation. That made karaoke a natural addition.
From listening to the music to becoming part of it
Music has always been at the heart of MOJO. While the venues don't host live music, everything from the décor to the atmosphere is influenced by rock and roll and music culture. The team wanted to take that connection one step further — instead of guests only listening to music during their night out, why not give them the chance to perform it themselves?
"We thought instead of guests just listening to it and enjoying it, why not get involved and actually partake and sing?"
At Harrogate, MOJO created two themed private karaoke rooms: Nashville, inspired by Tennessee's music scene, and Sunset Strip, inspired by Los Angeles. The rooms can work for everything from a solo singer or couple to groups of around 20 people, making them adaptable to a wide range of nights out.
A successful test that expanded across the company
Harrogate was the first MOJO venue to introduce private karaoke rooms. There was naturally some risk involved — every room dedicated to an activity is space that could have been used for something else, so the experience needed to justify the footprint. The response quickly removed those concerns.
"When you are using that space and dedicating it to this, it can be a risk, but we were pleasantly overwhelmed with how popular it was and still is."
Rather than remaining an experiment at a single venue, karaoke became something MOJO wanted to replicate. The business gradually added rooms to other sites until karaoke was available across all six MOJO locations.
For a multi-site operator, this was also where the simplicity of the concept became important. Once the first setup was established, rolling it out elsewhere was straightforward.
"The setup was exactly the same. We tried to go with the same theme of the rooms as well, so it pretty much felt like a copy and paste."
That gave MOJO a karaoke experience that could remain recognizable across the brand while still fitting naturally into each venue.
Why MOJO chose Singa
Before selecting its karaoke system, the MOJO team visited other venues offering karaoke and experienced Singa as customers. They liked both the guest experience and the way the platform worked operationally. When it came time to build their own rooms, Singa was therefore an easy fit.
Setting up the backend was straightforward from the beginning.
"From my side of things, setting up the back end, it was really simple. It was so easy."
That simplicity became even more valuable when MOJO began replicating karaoke across additional locations. The same setup could be rolled out without introducing unnecessary complexity for individual venue teams.
Making MOJO an entire night out
For MOJO, one of the biggest benefits of karaoke is that it helps turn the venue from somewhere guests visit for a drink into somewhere they can spend their entire night.
A group might arrive for cocktails, play games and then move into a private karaoke room, all without having to leave the venue to find the next part of their night. The team says that has had a significant impact on dwell time.
"It gives people a reason to choose MOJO for the entire night, so it increases dwell time quite significantly."
Karaoke therefore fits into the larger MOJO model alongside darts, mini golf, shuffleboard and the other activities available throughout the venue. Rather than competing with drinks and hospitality, the activity gives guests another reason to stay and continue enjoying them.
Karaoke for groups of almost any size
The karaoke audience at MOJO is deliberately broad. The team sees hen parties, corporate events, couples, groups of friends and even solo singers using the rooms.
That flexibility makes karaoke valuable across different occasions. A large corporate event might treat it as one activity within a bigger night out. A couple might spontaneously book a room during an evening together. A hen party might make karaoke one of the main events of the night.
"It can be anywhere from hen parties to a large corporate party. It could be couples. It could be a group of three. It could be someone that just wants to come in alone and sing."
The rooms are designed to work regardless of whether someone arrives with two people or a large group.
Weekends stay busy from early evening until late
How guests use the rooms changes throughout the week. Weekends generate considerably more footfall at MOJO Harrogate and tend to bring more advance bookings. Karaoke can be in constant use from early evening through late at night.
Weekdays are more spontaneous — there are fewer advance bookings, but walk-ins can take available rooms on a first-come, first-served basis.
That combination allows MOJO to capture both guests who specifically plan karaoke as part of their night and people who decide to sing once they are already inside the venue.
An experience guests remember
MOJO sees experiential entertainment as an important part of encouraging repeat visits. Guests may visit several bars during a night out, but distinctive shared experiences are much easier to remember. Karaoke provides exactly that.
"They might forget where they went for a few drinks, but they remember the nights they ended up sharing in a private room with the best experience they've had."
That memorability gives guests a reason to return and recreate the experience with another group. The team has seen particularly strong engagement among hospitality industry workers, alongside guests who simply arrive looking for something different to do.
The private-room format also provides something that can be difficult to find in a busy bar: a space belonging to the group, while still remaining part of the atmosphere of the wider venue — a pattern we've seen play out at The Lucky Goat and Molly Mc's too.
Increasing food and beverage opportunities
The impact of karaoke also extends beyond room bookings. Larger groups frequently order rounds for everyone while using the room, including shots and drinks such as Jägerbombs. Instead of karaoke feeling disconnected from MOJO's core food and beverage business, it becomes another part of the same occasion.
"It becomes part of the core sense of the night out rather than just a separate activity."
That distinction matters. The aim isn't simply to sell a karaoke session — it's to make the session part of a longer experience where guests move between activities, drinks and different areas of the venue. The result is another opportunity for guests to stay longer and spend more during the same visit.
Keeping karaoke simple for staff and guests
A karaoke system only adds value if it can operate without creating unnecessary work for venue teams. For MOJO, one of the strengths of Singa has been how little intervention the system requires during service. Guests can navigate the song selection easily, while employees can manage the system without complicated training or regular troubleshooting.
"The song selection's extensive. The system's really simplistic to use, both the user side and the staff side."
That helps ensure karaoke doesn't interrupt normal bar operations. For a venue that can be extremely busy on weekends, particularly while operating numerous games and activities at the same time, keeping the technology straightforward is important.
"It doesn't ever interrupt service setting it up. It doesn't interrupt service having to come and sort out a problem, just because it's so simple to work your way around."
From two rooms to six locations
The clearest measure of MOJO's confidence in karaoke is what happened after the initial launch. Two rooms at Harrogate became a format worth reproducing throughout the company. Today, karaoke sits alongside cocktails, music and competitive socialising as part of the wider MOJO experience.
The formula is simple: give guests more to do, give them reasons to stay and create moments they want to experience again. As the MOJO team puts it:
"Singa has helped us bring karaoke into the MOJO experience in a way that feels easy, fun, and completely natural for our venues. It gives us another reason to stay longer, spend more and come back for the next big night out."
For a concept built around memorable nights out, karaoke has become far more than an additional activity. It has become part of what makes a night at MOJO, MOJO.
Want to add scalable private-room karaoke to your venues? Learn more about Singa Business and see how Singa helps bars, entertainment venues and multi-site operators build professional karaoke experiences — or read our Singa Pro overview for a walkthrough of the system MOJO uses.
