Rookies and Veterans Reach the Final
A total of 30 air guitarists competed today for the final spots in the Air Guitar World Championship finals in the Black Horses qualifying round. The intense qualifying competition was held in 45 Special in Oulu. Seven contestants made it to the final, both newcomers and veterans of Air Guitar World Championships..
Continuing Contestants (Name, Stage Name, Dark Horses points)
Apolline Andreys – Lady Attila, France, 18
Kiana Holmes – Kiki Pink, USA 17,7
Aapo Rautio – The Angus, Finland 17,7
Tyler Brailey – Air Guityler, New Zealand 17,6
Mathilde Dollat – Clitoriff, France, 17,5
Luke Sevcik – Slam Cabbage, USA/ peace flag, 17,5
Heidi Toivio – Pink Passion, Finland, 17,4
The continuing contestants will face and challenge the official National Champions:
- Dana “Danasaurus Rex” Schiemann, Canada
- Sven “Sven Spandex” Smith, Netherlands
- Lèon “Leonfire” Ostrowsky, Belgium
- Yuta “Sudo-chan” Sudo, Japan
- Veli-Pekka “Don Corni Leone” Ristaniemi, Finland
- Saladin “Six String Sal” Thomas, USA
- Patrick “Van Airhoven” Culek, Germany
- Justine “Medusa” Betems, France .
In addition, they will of course face defending world champion Zachary “Ichabod Fame” Knowles from Canada.
The difficult task of judging the black horse competition was handled this year by:
- Ville Muikkula, radio host from Radio Kaleva
- Johanna Latvamäki, a museum researcher at the Oulu Museum and Science Centre
- Salla Väinämö, administrative secretary and producer at the Student Theatre of Oulu
- Markus Lampela, a professional children’s musician from the Soiva Siili band
- Kyösti Salmijärvi, a professional children’s musician from the Soiva Siili band