Frenchman wins global guitar miming contest

LONDON - A French national pipped 41 other contestants in an international competition on miming to play a guitar.

Sylvain Quimene, who performed under the name of Gunther Love, won the first prize at the 15th Air Guitar World Championship held in Oulu in northern Finland, Sky News reported.

Forty-one contestants from Japan, Malaysia, Britain, Canada, Germany, Slovakia, Russia, Mexico and Brazil flew in for the event in the remote town near the Arctic Circle. Each finalist had to perform twice - once with their own choice of song and the second time with a performance of Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady”.

According to the judges, musical talent was not necessary nor was the ability to play an actual guitar. The winner was chosen for his or her ability to move around the stage playing the air guitar as realistically as possible.

“This is something anyone can do, maybe you can be on stage some day, anyone can be on stage. Maybe that could be the reason why people like this so much,” said veteran jury member and musician Juha Torvinen.

Quimene won a handmade electric guitar.