Michael Shannon’s Karaoke Skills Are a Gift to Us All
In these bleak times, pleasant distractions have become a commodity; we’ll take all the joy we can get from wherever we can get it — like Michael Shannon singing his karaoke go-to song on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Listen, you hardly need additional incentive to watch this clip (it’s Michael Shannon singing karaoke), but you might be interested to know that Shannon’s favorite karaoke jam is about as weird and wonderful as you’d expect.
Last night, the Oscar-nominated star of Nocturnal Animals stopped by The Tonight Show, where Fallon asked him how he — Michael Shannon, beloved eccentric character actor — spends his downtime. His answers did not disappoint: It involves a little skee-ball (he’s perfected his pitch) and, if you’re lucky, some karaoke. Fortunately for the viewing public, Michael Shannon made winners of us all by treating Fallon and his audience to a brief performance of his go-to karaoke song: “Russians,” by Sting.
That’s probably no one’s go-to karaoke song — it’s a downer tune about hysteria during the Cold War and the need for people to come together based on their common humanity. It’s a pretty relevant karaoke pick, but it’s also like, the last song anyone would think to choose, except for Michael Shannon because of course.