Air Guitar World Championship to Miri "Sonyk-Rok" Park
 

28.08.2004 MIRI PARK SHOWS THAT WOMEN CAN REALLY ROCK!

Air Guitars roared for the ninth time in Kuusisaari, Oulu [Finland] - for the next
year the pacifism of the Air Guitar will be spread by Miri "Sonyk-Rok" Park.
Sonyk-Rok won the title of Air Guitar World Champion in the Oulu Music Video
Festival evening celebration, which became a true spectacle on August 27th.

The five competitors who made it through to the final from the qualifying
round on Thursday night fought the final battle with the reigning champ
David "C-Diddy" Jung and the national champions from Australia, Austria,
Belgium, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, United States, Finland, Ireland,
and Germany.

Sonyk-Rok's Air Guitar skills captivated the jury as well as the audience.
Besides worldwide fame and glory, her performance to Hot for Teacher by Van
Halen earned her a handmade Finnish Flying Finn guitar worth 2,500 euros and
a VOX BM Special amplifier designed, donated and signed by Queen guitarist
Brian May.

The competition was tighter than ever: Sonyk-Rok and Tarquin "The Tarkness"
Keys had equal points, and choosing the winner demanded altogether two
re-rounds.

The results of the Air Guitar World Championships:

1. Miri "Sonyk-Rok" Park, Unites States
2. Tarquin "The Tarkness" Keys, New Zealand
3. David C-Diddy "Jung, Unites States
4. Takeshi Kongouchi, Japan
5. Michael "The Destroyer" Heffels, The Netherlands
6. Mike "The Judge" Kaden, Austria
7. Svein "PuzzyFuzzbourne - The Prostitute of Rock" Kleivane, Norway
8. Troy "Rock 'n' Roll Troy" Carter, Australia
9. Victor Miranda "Viktower Málaga" Garcia, Spain
10. Garth "Chuck Mung" Donald, United States
11. Thomas "Smell Gibson" Murray, Ireland
12. Ingo "Ingroove" Schultz, Germany
13. Ron "Bucketbutt" Van den Branden, Belgium
14. Elina "Tarot Woman" Niiranen, Finland
15. Markku "Albert" Halme, Finland
16. Eero "Oulun oma poika" Ojala, Finland

This time the compulsory song selected by the organisers was Walk Idiot Walk
by The Hives.

The US champion and now also the holder of the World Champion Title
Sonyk-Rok was exhausted but happy: "The whole competition has been an
amazing experience and I did not expect to win. It will be thrilling to see
what the victory brings along. The main thing is that now I have shown that
women can really rock!"

According to tradition, the Air Guitarists in Kuusisaari invited the entire
world to join together after the competition in an Air Guitar rendition of
Neil Young's Rockin' in the Free World. According to the ideology of the Air
Guitar, all the bad things in the world will disappear, if everybody plays
the Air Guitar.

Here you can see Miri performing in Late Night with Conan O'Brien... and video coverage from the competition itself here... :BL:

- tg :WA:

that you, tg? :SR:

- js.

That was great! I love Bucketbutt. Ingroove playing with his feet and C-Diddy with the Hello Kitty on his chest. Funny shit.

:AP:

This was the biggest event in the history of Finland. Their closing ceremonies outdid anything Athens could come up with. This basically legitimizes an obscure country; Finland is now on the map thanks to this air guitar competion. :tu:

All true... but don't forget the other major international event, the World Sauna Championships! :BL: :W:

- tg :WA:

Last year's winner, Dikki Shrivelnen, was so dehydrated that he was mailed home to his family after the competition.

i first heard about organized air-guitar competitions in '79 when my radio station asked me to host one. my reaction was typical: i couldn't believe they were serious. they were. i said yes. the prize was a brand new fender stratocaster. people sure thought that was cool, while more than one jealous musician said "you're giving away a strat for that!?" yep, go figure. the event was held in a hartford nightclub and it was packed - on a wednesday. people were into this totally. lots of screaming. lots of crowd participation. it was all news to me. big success. well, we did give awy the prize (plus cash to 2nd and 3rd) and we gave it to a guy who turned in an extremely energetic performance, but you know it was still, well, air guitar - the stuff kids do in thier rooms while pretending to be rock gods because they can't actually play the real thing. never would i have guessed in a million years how big this would be 25 years later. it's amazing really. btw, that kid we gave the strat to only had it for a few minutes; it was stolen out of the club parking lot that very night. it looked pretty bad for all involved pr-wise so the station bought him a brand new one. i think at the time it was $1300.

- js.

i wonder if he ever learned to play it..