AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
World peace through shredding air?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RASCOE: That's the ethos of this month's Air Guitar World Championships, held in Oulu, Finland. According to the organizers, wars will end, climate change will stop and all bad things will vanish when all the people in the world play the air guitar.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PRESENTER: The winner...
UNIDENTIFIED PRESENTERS: Is The Angus.
RASCOE: The Angus is hometown hero Aapo Rautio. He beat out Japan's Yuta Sudo, aka Sudo-chan, following an air-off tiebreaker in which each performed to "Sweet Child Of Mine" by Guns N' Roses.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RASCOE: This is Rautio's first world championship, and the first time since 2000 the winner has come from the competition's host country. This year's prize for being the world's best air guitarist? It's a real guitar, which is strange because Rautio actually plays drums in a band called The Southgates. Competitors closed out the event on stage together. They hoisted the champ up to Neil Young's "Keep On Rockin' In The Free World."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROCKIN' IN THE FREE WORLD")
NEIL YOUNG: (Singing) Keep on rocking in the free world.
RASCOE: The competition remains in Oulu and will take place this weekend next year if you want to, as the organizers say, make air, not war.
(SOUNDBITE OF NEIL YOUNG SONG, "ROCKIN' IN THE FREE WORLD") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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