Is It Really Illegal to Sing Off-Key in Public in North Carolina? Here's What State Law Says

Adele - Hello singing badly in publicPhoto byTown Talks

It's unlikely such a law has ever existed, and no record of such a law can be found today. The closest thing to such a law is North Carolina General Statute 160A-184 which states;

"A city may by ordinance regulate, restrict, or prohibit the production or emission of noises or amplified speech, music, or other sounds that tend to annoy, disturb, or frighten its citizens. (1971, c. 698, s. 1; 1973, c. 426, s. 25.)"

This however, only gives a city the right to make a law regulating the emission of annoying/disturbing/frightening sounds.

The likely origin of this rumor (so called "law") however, pre-dates the statue described above. In 1873, there was a case (State vs. Linkhaw) where a man was disturbing a church service with his singing. The details however, reveal that the problem was not primarily that he was accused of "singing out of tune" but rather that he was disturbing the church service by singing even when the congregation was not.

Although initially he was declared guilty for said disturbance, upon appeal, the courts deemed;

It would seem that the defendant is a proper subject for the discipline of his church, but not for the discipline of the Courts.