Russia's Air Guitar Hero Strums to First Place in World Championship

Kirill Blumenkrantz has became the first Russian to win the air guitar world championships; the finals were held in Finland on Friday.

Performing under the stage name 'Your Daddy,' Blumenkrantz took the prize after gaining 17.8 points from the competition jury in the decisive 'Air Off' round, beating his closest rival American Matt Burns, aka 'Airistotle,' by 0.3 points.  

Another American, Michael Lovely, performing as 'Operation Rock-a-Pussy,' can take heart in that he was awarded third place in the competition; this year's winner Kirill also took third place in the 2013 competition.

The air guitar world championship opened with an opening show, 'We Will Dub You,' an extravaganza of "hard core lip sync and miming."

"Only the hairbrushes and sweat are real — the rest is champion-level faking!" promised the organizers. 

A record-breaking number of 30 air guitarists competed in the competition's Qualifying Round for Dark Horses. They had traveled to Oulu from as far away as Australia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, the United States, and Taiwan, and fierce competition was provided by 38 "international airtistes." 

As a reward for his successful simulation, Kirill will now be able to put his air guitar skills to test on the real thing, after winning a hand-made Flying Finn electric guitar, custom-made for the Air Guitar World Champion. 

The video of Kirill Blumenkrantz' winning performance.

The first air guitar world championship was held in Oulu in 1996, and was won by Finn Oikku Ylinen, aka 'Air River,' who received a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar as his prize.