You see this all the time at local band gigs and acoustic acts. Singers, singing with their eyes closed throughout their entire sets. I could never understand why. When I ask this question, why singers sing with their eyes closed, I can think of a few reasons that could be possible.
1) They have stage fright.
2) Their way of concentrating, trying to remember lyrics and stuff.
3) They feel emotion.
I disagree with closing your eyes while performing. I always thought it was important to have eye contact at the crowd at all times. Watch my live videos in youtube, and you would notice immediately that I never closed my eyes once. It’s called confidence people. If you don’t have the confidence performing, then there’s no need for you to be up there performing to begin with.
Eye contact at the crowd is important. It’ll let your audience know that you’re right there with them and it shows that you’re not afraid of being on stage. It makes you feel more alive. You want to show the audience that you love performing, by keeping your eyes open.
Yes, there are a few exceptions when performing on stage with your eyes closed. Sometimes it’s good to perform with your eyes closed only when you’re performing a powerful song that gives everyone goosebumps. When you’re playing a ripping guitar solo or singing an intense vocal melody with passion, those are a few good reasons to perform with your eyes closed, when you’re performing a mind blowing song.
You don’t want to perform with your eyes closed randomly or for no reason. When you tell people this stuff, they’ll claim it’s for “concentration”, when you know it’s a lie. I think they do it ’cause they are scared performing in front of people still, period. Like I said, it’s okay to sing or perform an instrument with your eyes closed during a mind blowing performance.
Don’t be a coward on stage. Practice at home in front of a mirror with your eyes open, that will help build your confidence up.
Kev
K'Brocking 
Whooooooft man, dig your head right back in. It’s actually thinking like this which has prevented me from going on stage – because I believed I had to give this kind of performance.
Music is not theatre. Good on you for wanting to see an exciting dramatic operatic performance but intimate internally constructed music doesn’t work that way.
How are you supposed to concentrate on the music or emotion in your main job, singing, while worrying about acting with confidence to the audience. Yes many artists do sing with their eyes open and are happy and confident. But many many others can only perform at their very best by loosing themselves in the music.
Are you interested in observing the art of music and watching it naturally being produced or are you interested in having an interaction / focus on you, the audience and being given a show – i.e. fake?
Your choice.
To dismiss people who look inside themselves to bring out music as basically amateur and incompetent is, I’m afraid indignant ignorance / misunderstanding.
Don’t take this personally though because I, and countless others I’m sure, have convinced themselves of what you’re talking about at one time or another.
This is some people’s process, your criticism is basically unhelpful. Also, I bet you’d be freaked out should some of these people actually start looking you in the eye. Their performance is in the real, natural production of vocals, not in some pre-meditated falsity invented to keep confused people happy.
I would just like to add that yes, singing whole sets with eyes shut would probably alienate the audience and I perhaps didn’t read your post thoroughly enough ;-/ but as far as I have seend, in most cases, when eyes are shut, it’s usually appropriate…. the reason I found your blog is because I was just practicing a song and realised I hadn’t really opened my eyes since I’d began – I opened them and immediately lost focus, didn’t mess up or anything but in the same way that blind people’s brains have more room for music, my brain had more room for music with my eyes closed i.e. better performance. I watched my take back and noticed as soon as I opened my eyes, the natural coolness, even ‘show’ part of the performance was disrupted and I, the audience this time, was not with myself the singer…
I love how some singers use, “So we don’t mess up..” as a defense for singing with their eyes closed all the time. I find that a crock of shit. There’s no reason at all whatsoever for singers to be singing with their eyes closed. I really do think it’s “stage fright” that they still have and they’re afraid to admit it. I used to have stage fright when I first started and I used to do the same thing… sing with my eyes closed. It does take a lot of work, practice and takes a lot of time to get used to singing with your eyes open. You should try it more. It’s not that hard.
Kev
As a singer, it’s easier for me to focus on my pitch and breathing if I’m not distracted by visuals. Less stimulus is better. It’s especially useful to close my eyes during vocally challenging songs, like Nina Simone’s “Feelin’ Good,” with a lot of intricacies over a wide range.
On the other hand, if I’m doing a folk song (some Dylan number where the lyrics are more important than the notes), I can look around at the audience and be really interactive.
But eventually you learn over time that you can’t keep an eye on your tip jar when you play a dive bar, or know how close you are to the microphone, without your eyes open. It’s a practical consideration.