Karaoke with a stranger is ordinarily a daunting prospect, but actor Archie Madekwe is fearless behind a microphone. On a scorching hot afternoon in July, Madekwe — all six feet and five inches of him — settles into the plush seats that wrap around the walls of a private room in Moyagi, a high-end 1920s Japan-inspired karaoke haven just off Regent Street in London. He grabs a yuzu margarita and allows me to choose an icebreaker: “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers. Any trepidation around singing in front of someone new dissipates the moment we turn to each other to belt those opening lines. “I’m coming out of my cage, and I’ve been doing just fine!” he gleefully chants.

The South London–born actor is a self-proclaimed “karaoke king”; he’s even dabbled in hitokara (singing solo) in Japan. Ne

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