There's ALWAYS hope. I actually teach a choir in church and never give out auditions. I basically welcome EVERYBODY - whether somebody has musical sensitivity or none. What's important is the willingness to learn. I don't think somebody with no musical sensitivity is a failure. It's just something which the person was not exposed in. So then I encountered a girl who was melodically challenged. I didn't shock her with scales or vocalises right away. Neither did I ask her to sing alone! What I did was asked her to listen to others sing for 2 weeks. I exposed her to good music first. Then I asked her to follow what I sang. The rest is history. Since then, she has been the section leader of the choir.

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I was interested to read that some people think you must have perfect or absolute pitch in order to sing. I think it's quite the opposite. In my choir, I find the people with absolute pitch have the most trouble sight-reading and performing with the other singers. Why? Because my choir, like most, doesn't always stay perfectly in tune, and it doesn't always sing at 440. Generally, if the choir goes a few cents flat in performance it's not a problem, as long as all the singers go together. But when you've got some people with absolute pitch, this sort of fluctuation is extremely difficult for them, and they either try to stay "in tune" which jars horribly with the rest of the choir, or find themselves unable to sing much of anything at all.

I find this to be true as well. I sing in a women's choir (collegiate) and in rehersals I sit next to someone who has perfect pitch. She has a really really hard time reading. She has such a hard time reading that she is having trouble in her sight singing classes. Luckily for her the ear training portion is easy for her. I am the opposite. I can read but dictation kills me.

She also gets frustrated if there is ANY variation from the absolute pitch. She has a really beautiful voice but she has problems in ensemble singing because the perfect pitch is always in her head and the reality is that 30 people singing together might vary a tiny bit from that absolute pitch. It really gets in her way. I always wished I had perfect pitch but I can see how it is not always helpful. This woman wants to teach choir in school. I wonder how she will be able to tolerate the pitch variations that you get with a middle school choir.

The following link contains the secret to great singing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv=r48hRGTGyyw
-L

That is one hilarious video ... and has a good message, too - even if we need to sing from our 'hoo - hoo' ...

Nox. "Why do people sing when they're awful?". Thst may be the most important question asked in the last five thousand years!. I don't profess to know but I suppose it is because of human nature itself; we don't always hear ourselves as others do. That goes for things not musical as well.
I am of an age that attached importance to a singer using good diction first of all even in pop music. I am forced, by my wife, to watch 'American Idol" and you cannot imagine how painful that experience can be to one like me. I'm not a snob but I grew up listening to pop singers like Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra even up to some latter day singers, Striesand for one. They had excellent diction, stuck to the line of the music, never strained their voices. My preference in singing is serious music; opera, choral, but these singers I mentoned were just as good at their craft as those stars of the operatic world.
'American Idol" makes me tire after about five seconds; everyone sounds pretty much alike, I can't understand a word they say{sing), the most important thing seems to be a vocal style that wanders all over the place...in a word "awful" I understand that my view is not shared by all. On the whole I think pop music is made up mostly of fluff, which fluff is not noted for standing the test of time. That is the best way I know of how to define good music, how long is it likely to be around?
So, to reply to your question, who knows. I am reminded of an old line about the description of a gentleman. ? "A man who can play the accordion but who chooses not to"
An awful singer is one who can't sing and who chooses to do so.

Joining a choir does wonders. You can blend into the background and just pretend to sing when you don't feel so confident- that will help you just as much because you'll get used to the tune. The greatest thing is that you can work at your own pace, as there will always be people that will cover you.
Unless of course your in some big symphony choir.