import re


def clean_lyrics(lyrics: str) -> str:
    """Perform some simple operations to clean the lyrics."""
    lyrics = lyrics.strip()
    # remove unwanted characters
    lyrics = re.sub(r"[^\w\[\]()/ \"',\.:\-\n?!]+", "", lyrics)
    # reduce to one space only
    lyrics = re.sub(r" +", " ", lyrics)
    # reduce to max 2 new lines in a row
    lyrics = re.sub(r"\n{2,}", "\n\n", lyrics)
    # remove space before newline
    lyrics = re.sub(r" +?\n", "\n", lyrics)

    return lyrics