The new Air Guitar World Champion comes from Japan

Girl power: A record number of female contestants participated at the final on August 24, 2018, in Oulu, Finland, altogether six out of 15. And a girl won the title of Air Guitar World Champion 2018, Nanami “Seven Seas” Nagura from Japan (on the shoulders of the event’s second host, Justin “Nordic Thunder” Howard. Photo: Juuso Haarala).

She took over the stage with her energetic and surprising Cinderella-themed performance, mesmerized the honored judges and made it to the first place of Air Guitar World Championships 2018. Seven Seas made it to the finals as a Japan’s national champion, traveled all the way from Tokyo, to rock the stage in front of the audience of thousands at Rotuaari square.

Matt “The Airistotle” Burns from The USA scored the second, and the third place was taken over by Dana Schiemann ”Dana-Saurus Rex” from Canada.

Results:

Top 8

1. Nanami Nagura ”Seven Seas” JP [35,8]

2. Matt Burns ”The Airistotle” USA [35,1]

3. Dana Schiemann ”Dana-Saurus Rex” CAN [34,2]

4. Andrew Finn ”Flyin Finn” USA [34,2]

5. Kate Rose “KitKat” USA [33,4]

5. Sven Smith ”Sven Spandex” UK [33,4]

7. Jason Farnan ”Lt Facemelter” USA [32,6]

7. Alex Roberts ”Jinja Assassin” AUS [32,6]

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9. Vincent Roussel ”Lord Scrat” FRA

10. Patrick Culek ”Ehrwolf” GER

11. Rachel Sinclair ”Agnes Young” USA

12. Toshio Kado ”Shariten Kd” JPN

13. Brittany Diaz ”Georgia Lunch” USA

13. Daniel Oldemeier ”Moredrive” GER

15. Lyrae (Lily) Freriechs ”Lily Rocknroll” AUS

The World Champion was awarded an electric guitar, a Flying Finn, impeccably handcrafted by honored guitar crafter Matti Nevalainen and his daughter Saara Nevalainen. The winner gets also a spot in next year’s championships’ World Final and a year of honor as The Air Guitar World Champion. The Final was competed through a bit of rain, but the drops did not bother the audience and totally not the competitors. The winner was announced with the thunder roaring in the background.

The judges evaluate contestants in three categories; choreography, the accuracy of their performance and “Airness” of the competitor. All in all, 15 skilled and fierce finalists climbed to the stage on the World Finals. Each contestant plays for one minute along the song of their choice, and after that, they play a common song of organiser’s choice, which remained as a secret until the beginning of the World Final. This year the song was Hellacopters – Hopeless case of a kid in denial.

The honoured Final Jury included Samu Forsblom, the City of Oulu’s Director of Culture, singer Suvi Aalto, Mika Lammassaari, guitarist from the bands Mors Subita and Wolfheart, Asta Salomaa, a musician and festival producer and the last but not totally the least, Juha Torvinen, honorary air guitar jury member since the beginning of Air time.

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