Results from the 2005 International Air Guitar Competition

Press release
Source: www.omvf.net/2005/

Air Guitars roared in Oulu, Finland, for the tenth time already at Club Teatria - the world peace ideology of the air guitar will be spread for the next year by Michael "Destroyer" Heffels from Holland. Heffels won the title of World Champion in the festivities of Oulu Music Video Festival that became an exciting spectacle on 26 August.

In the final, the five competitors who made it through the qualification round on Thursday met the reigning World Champion Miri Park as well as national champions from Australia, Austria, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, United States, Germany, France, Japan and United Arab Emirates.

After an optional round, ten best air guitarists played a compulsory round with the compulsory songs from the previous ten years as organisers' selections in honour of the 10th Anniversary.

Heffels conquered the hearts of both the jury and the audience with his air guitar skills. Besides worldwide fame and glory the Heffels received a Finnish handmade Flying Finn guitar as well as a VOX BM Special amplifier designed and donated by Queen guitarist Brian May.

The official results and points of the Air Guitar World Championships:

1. Michael "Destroyer" Heffels (Holland) 34.3
2. Giesela "Gizzy Guitar" Visser (New Zealand) 34.1
3. Gyuri "Pelvis Fenderbender" Vergouw (Holland) 32.6
4. Takeshi Kongochi (Japan) 31.9
5. Heidi " Funky Chicken" Leitner (Austria) 31.8
6. Darrin "Jimmy Dangles" Smith (Australia) 31.7
7. Miri "Sonyk-Rok" Park (The United States) 31.4
8. Dan "Björn Turoque" Crane (The United States) 30.8.
9. Eero "Oulun oma poika" Ojala (Finland) 29.9
10. Andre Ulriksen (Norway) 29.8
11. Fatima "The Rockness Monster" Hoang (The United States) 14.5
12. Katharina "Leni Krawitzkowsky" Tomaschek (Germany) 14.4
13. Antoine "Monkey Boy" Lebrun (France) 14.2
14. Theun "Tremelo Theun" de Jong (Holland) 14.0
15. Chaitanya "The Wickerlady" Vembar (United Arab Emirates) 14.0
16. Elina "Tarot Woman" Niiranen (Finland) 13.8.

The jury was chaired for the tenth time already by Finnish guitar legend Juha Torvinen. Other judges evaluating the punishers of invisible guitar alongside Torvinen were Amanda Griffiths, who is making her Ph.D. at Salford University on Air Guitar playing, as well as Kotiteollisuus group frontman Jouni Hynynen and two organisers of national competitions.

According to tradition, the Air Guitarists at Teatria invited the whole world to play the Air Guitar together to the rhythm of Rocking in the Free World after the competition. The ideology of the Air Guitar World Championships is that all the bad things in the world would disappear if all people played the air guitar.

The other acts at Teatria's Friday night were Eläkeläiset, Poets of the Fall, and Magyar Posse. The night was hosted by MTV Nordic VJ Axl Smith. The event
gathered an audience of ca. 1,500 people.

For more information on the international air guitar competitions, visit www.omvf.net/2005/.