They are the most fervent musicians no one has ever heard.
Performers at this year’s Air Guitar World Championships in Finland on Friday tuned up at the Olympics of air guitar for the 27th time, featuring dedicated competitors like “Shred Lasso” and “Guitarantula.”
This year’s challenge began on Wednesday with Airientation in Oulu, nearly 540km north of Helsinki, and was headlined by a class open to veterans and new guitarists alike. The Dark Horses Qualifications followed on Thursday, culminating with the World Championships Final on Friday night with the crowning of Canada’s Zachary “Ichabod Fame” Knowles as the 2024 Air Guitar World Champion.
Photo: EPA-EFE
It was a tough competition with last year’s World Champion Nanami “Seven Seas” Nagura of Japan and 2022 winner Kirill “Guitarantula” Blumenkrants of France in second and third place respectively.
Among the Dark Horses was Taiwan’s Dave “Iron Age” Chen, who qualified for the final, but finished outside the top 10.
Contestants were judged on the performance of two songs in two separate rounds, each lasting 60 seconds. While passion is a must, a real pick or even a fingerpicking style is optional. Props and costumes are allowed — but backup bands and real instruments are forbidden.
Photo: EPA-EFE
This year’s audience favorite was Mathilde “Clitoriff” Dollat from France with an intense show made all the more dramatic by the heavy rain that drenched the performer and audience alike.
Nagura’s title last year was her third, making her the winningest air guitarist in a competition that dates back to 1996.
The jury must consider a contestant’s “originality, ability to be taken over by the music, stage presence, technical merit, artistic impression and airness” in deciding to award points, the competition’s online rulebook showed.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The contestant with the highest total cumulative score wins.
In addition to international camaraderie, the tournament also promotes inclusivity.
“Air guitar playing is not instrumental sports or arts, nor does it require any special venues or skills, so it is accessible to all,” the championships’ Web site says. “Air guitar can be grasped regardless of gender, age, ethnic background, sexual orientation and social status. Air guitar playing is equal.”
Do not fret — regardless of the winner, no one’s air guitar gently weeps here. The contest organizers aim to promote world peace with their slogan, “Make Air, Not War.”
“According to the ideology of the competition, wars would end, climate change stop and all bad things disappear, if all the people in the world played the Air Guitar,” the Web site says. “This is why the whole universe is invited to play the Air Guitar for world peace at the end of the competition.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
SPIRITUAL COUPLE: Martha Louise has said she can talk with angels, while her husband, Durek Verrett, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits Social media influencers, reality stars and TV personalities were among the guests as the Norwegian king’s eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, married a self-professed US shaman on Saturday in a wedding ceremony following three days of festivities. The 52-year-old Martha Louise and Durek Verrett, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, tied the knot in the picturesque small town of Geiranger, one of Norway’s major tourist attractions located on a fjord with stunning views. Following festivities that started on Thursday, the actual wedding ceremony took place in a large white tent set up on a lush lawn. Guests
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
RSS