Anyone can play the air guitar, it does not require much skill. The Air Guitar World Championships is an annual event in Oulu, Finland, this year on Aug 25-28. Participants from all around the world came to compete to see who could play the best air guitar. 

“Air guitar playing is not an instrumental sports or arts,” the article said.

In 1996, a musician named Jukka Takalo thought of having an Air Guitar World Championship, and the first championship was part of the Oulu Music Video Festival later that year. 

Since then, the competition gained more popularity and attention for its interesting way of playing the guitar. The competition is open to everyone, regardless of where you come from.

“Air guitar can be grasped regardless of gender, age, ethnic background, sexual orientation, and social status,” the officials of the air guitar championships said.

Since 1996, this competition has hoped to promote world peace. The organizers believe that the competition will end climate change and eliminate  all the bad things happening in our world today. 

“We aim to promote world peace through air guitar,” the article said. “According to the ideology of the competition, climate change will stop, and all bad things will vanish when all the people in the world play the air guitar.”

Also, the competition brought many fans from different countries closer together. Previous champions hailed  from the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia.

This year’s finals were held in Oulu Rotuaari Square in Finland. There were 18 finalists this year, including national champions, who each took turns strumming their invisible instruments to rock or heavy metal songs. Then, they divided contestants into two rounds, and only eight competitors made the cut for the final round. 

The final eight contestants were scored based on their stage presence and technical merit by judges who were famous guitarists from all around the world. One of the judges was Juha Torvinen, who is a famous Finnish guitarist from the band Eppu Normaali. 

For the first time, the audience got to vote for who they thought played the air guitar the best. They voted for a French man named Frederic Reau, who placed sixth overall after the judges scored.

Then, the judges tallied  each of the contestants’ scores to determine the overall winner of the championships.

Second place was Aapo Rautio from Finland, and third place was Kirill Bluemenkrats from France.

They crowned Japanese woman named Nanami Nagura the world champion. Nagura has won the title of Air Guitar World Champion for the third time and has made history as the most successful competitor. She strummed to the song Phantom Lord by Metallica while dancing with her air guitar across the stage. Her performance amazed the judges with the use of strobe lights and bright colors.

Nagura received a custom-made guitar called Flying Finn, designed by Matti and Saara Nevalainen, as a prize. 

“I’m really happy to be on that stage again with my favorite air guitar family,” Nagura said.