I’m a 21st-century woman – I understand that people can find emotional fulfillment in all different kinds of relationships, even with themselves. Luckily, I’ve already found that satisfaction, because I once sang a duet with a boy – and frankly, that has set me up for years.
As a child, all I ever wanted was to burst into song accompanied by a strapping young beau, just like what I saw in all my favorite musicals – The Sound of Music, Thoroughly Modern Millie – those movies taught me what love is. While there is something to be said for marriage, children, and growing old together, none of that stuff bonds you together the way spontaneous harmonizing can.
That’s why when I did karaoke with a boy, let’s call him Peter, at my softball league’s karaoke night last week – I knew that was it. Peter said, “Who wants to do a duet?” and it was so romantic, I got chills. It was like he picked me. And he proposed… singing “Summer Lovin’” from Grease. While I actually detest the trite musical number, I quickly pushed those feelings aside and cried, “Yes! Yes! A million times, yes!” Because, exactly like marriage, no duet with a boy on a Tuesday night in Murray Hill is going to be perfect.
Sure it wasn’t “Take Me or Leave Me” from Rent or “I’ll Cover You” from Rent or “Light My Candle” from Rent, but I sang with a boy and he almost looked in my eyes at one part. That’s all the emotional connection I could ever ask for. Who needs a lifetime of marriage when I can just replay this 3 minute 28 second memory until I die?
Some people may think, if you get married then your husband could sing duets with you, maybe even at your wedding. But trust me, he won’t. Or worse, he won’t want to sing “Do You Love Me?” from Fiddler on the Roof.
Besides, marriage is hard work. Duets are better than relationships because it is easier to tell someone how you feel via song. Like “You’re The Top” from Anything Goes. That song alone is more emotional connection than I’ve felt in any long-term romantic relationship. Even if most of the lyrics are nonsense. “You’re the top / You’re an Arrow collar / You’re the top / You’re a Coolidge dollar.” What does that even mean? Whatever it is, it’s holier than wedding vows.
I’ve found my own sort of true love in the moment Peter and I sang. Did we do a corresponding dance number? No, but that’s okay. Being a modern woman is about compromise. Plenty of great duets didn’t have dancing. Like “Til There Was You” from The Music Man.
I don’t need wedlock to be fulfilled, I already sang a duet with a boy.
