Canadian Wins 2024 Air Guitar World Championship
On August 23, performers tuned up for the final of the 27th Air Guitar World Championships in Finland.
This year, Nanami "Seven Seas" Nagura of Japan, who won last year's title, was hoping for another win against national champions from the United States, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Finland and France. Nagura has won three times previously, giving her the most wins in a competition that dates back to 1996.
However, in a hard-fought competition she was denied a fourth victory by Canada's Zachary "Ichabod Fame" Knowles, who became the 2024 Air Guitar World Champion. Nagura took second place and the 2022 winner Kirill "Guitarantula" Blumenkrants of France came third.
Air guitar championship contestants are judged on their performance of two songs in two separate rounds, each taking 60 seconds. Contestants can use a real pick or a finger-picking style if they want to, but while passion is a must, backup bands and real instruments are not allowed.
The championship judges give points from 4.0 to 6.0 to each contestant for each of the following qualities: "originality, ability to be taken over by the music, stage presence, technical merit, artistic impression" and a special quality in the performance which is called "airness."
The organizers say the purpose of the contest is to promote world peace and their slogan is "MAKE AIR, NOT WAR." They also say they believe that "wars would end, climate change stop and all bad things disappear, if all the people in the world played the Air Guitar."
And that, they say, is why "the whole universe is invited to play the Air Guitar for world peace at the end of the competition."
So why not pick up your air guitar and play!?
