1999

Before the turn of the millennium, competitive air guitar was an almost exclusively Finnish affair. Rather than partying like it was 1999, Johanna Ala-Siurua chose to rock like it was 1977 to AC/DC's epic call to arms, "Let There Be Rock." A fine choice for airing out of the 20th century, "Let There Be Rock" finds the brothers Young supplying a consistent barrage of heavy riffage, regularly pierced by an outburst of soloing. Bon Scott's modified recounting of Genesis turned out to be a fairly prescient choice on Ala-Siurua's part, for in the next decade the Guitar Gods would look down upon Finland's rough shod competition and deem that it was good.

2000

In 2000, Markus "Black Raven" Vainionpää became the last Finn to take the Air Guitar title, and so it's appropriate that he did so to a soundtrack provided by his countrymen. While Norway is internationally infamous for murderous, church burning black metal bands like Mayhem, Finland is home to heavy music of a more redemptive sort. Finnish Christian metal band Deuteronomium's crucifixion ballad "Crosshope" propelled Black Raven to air guitar glory over a snarling cacophony of crunching black metal and growled praise-isms. Despite Deuteronomium's Old Testament name, the victory of Black Raven signaled a new era for air guitar.

2001

A big year for more than just Space Odysseys, 2001 marked the end of Finland's uncontested reign as air guitar world champions. Using the most infectiously simple sports stadium anthem to come out of Britain since Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Pt. 2," Zac "Mr. Magnet" Monro grabbed the glory to the fist pumping chorus of Blur's "Song 2." Forever a bane to Brit-pop aficionados tired of explaining that Blur did more than just that "wooo-hooo" song, the unadulterated enthusiasm of Blur's biggest stateside hit is impossible to deny. But where as Blur turned out to be a one hit wonder abroad, Mr. Magnet was able to make lightning strike twice on the air guitar circuit.

2002

Back again for more, Mr. Magnet matched his casual Friday meets Pavement concert attire with an equally stripped down and sloppy song choice. The White Stripes' "Fell In Love With A Girl" might sound like an odd pick for air guitar, but the jangly bounce of Jack White's rough and tumble pop sensibilities provided plenty of opportunities for Pete Townsend style wind milling. Mixing round house kicks with a too cool for school strut, Magnet's routine was dirty and raw, just what the audience must have been craving after several rounds of humorless super solo pantomimes. After all, air guitar is about energy not flawless imitation.

2003

It was only a matter of time before the Americans showed up, crass, loud, and as abrasive as ever. With all the subtlety of a Michael Bay action sequence, David "C-Diddy" Jung shattered Britain's reign and scored a title for the good ole' U.S. of A. Dressed like a Sanrio sponsored samurai warrior (complete with Hello Kitty breast plate) C. Diddy shredded to Extreme's "Come Play With Me," bringing the competition back to its heavy metal core. Not only a fantastically fun song, "Come Play With Me" had already been given a seal of approval by air guitar icons Wyld Stallyns, who used it on the soundtrack for their bio-pic Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

2004

Picking the best Van Halen song for air guitar is like picking the best Stephen King book to read on an airplane, there's just to many to choose from! But Eddie Van was bound to win an air guitar championship in absentia eventually, so it was little surprise when Kiwi Tarquin "The Tarkness" Keys got technical on the solo to rule them all, "Eruption." Both "Hot For Teacher" and "You Really Got Me" would have been better choice for juicing the crowd, but The Tarkness decided to squeeze as may notes as humanly possible into his routine instead. Looking like Joey Ramone's flower powered bastard child, The Tarkness kneeled on the edge of the stage and looked proud of himself, panting and pointing until he collapsed into air guitar exhaustion.

2005

Though Daft Punk was the obvious inspiration for Michael "Destroyer" Heffels' stiff, robotic routine, credit needs to be given to Philly soul rock outfit Breakwater for the original riff. Their 1980 track "Release The Beast" was sampled by French duo Daft Punk for "Robot Rock," which in turn motivated the Dutch Destroyer to paint himself like the Tinman and do the herky-jerky. His make up made him look like Ziggy Stardust cast in carbonite, but his mullet was throwing a party in the back that was one hundred percent rock and roll. After witnessing Destroyer's routine the judges had to agree with Daft Punk that robots do indeed rock.

2006

As cute and cuddly as the tiger on his sweatshirt, Ochi "Dainoji" Yosuke proved that non-whites could air guitar too. Japan's first champion broke down the racial barrier to Jet's "Are You Going To Be My Girl?" Jet has had a tendency to glide along on the currents previously set by Australia's other hard rock act (see 1999 entry) but the song's hard strumming appeal met with Dainoji's disarmingly dorky aesthetic and proved to be a powerful combination.

2007

Same sweatshirt, different day. Dainoji didn't do much different as defending world champion, but swapping out Jet for the Offspring's "Come Out and Play" was probably a wise choice. Back before Dexter Holland was extremely obnoxious for a white guy, the Offspring were the best selling independent label band in America. Smash, the record breaking album, contained several catchy, mildly snotty punk hits but "Come Out and Play" certainly holds the most appeal for an air guitarist eager to resonate with the judges' pop punk nostalgia.

2008

Though he had competed in the world finals before, it wasn't until 2008 that Craig "Hot Lixx Hulahan" Billmeier brought home the gold. Easily the cleverest air guitar nom de plume in existence, Hot Lixx first burst on the scene in 2006 with his flamenco meets Metallica M*A*S*H up. Not satisfied with 6th place, Hot Lixx brought it hard in 2008 to the Toadies "Plane Crash." Buoyed upwards by the soaring vocals of the chorus, the song lent itself well to Hot Lixx's incessant fret stroking and climatic guitar toss.

2009

Air guitar's most recent champion might have changed the game for good. Sylvain "Günther Love" Quimene's acrobatics upped the athletic ante for what will be demanded of future competitors. The triple threat of a gold spandex wearing, sleaze-stache sporting, back flipping Frenchman could only be matched by the flawlessly assembled three part medley he assembled. Splitting the difference between "Bulls on Parade" and Wolfmother's "Woman," Gunther Love nailed the first round with a routine choreographed down to the plug licking, pedal stomping details.

Image from Benimoto on Flickr.