Yes, There is A Karaoke World Record: And You’ll Never Guess Who Just Broke it !

 Let’s call it the ultimate trivia question. The kind that makes you a hit at a dinner party, that’s because almost anyone who is asked ‘what country holds the world record for the longest karaoke session,’ will instantly offer up “Japan” or some other Asian country as the answer and they would surely be wrong.  Well then, they might say, if not Asia then it must be the U.S. or Canada perhaps, but they would be wrong again. At this point, you should begin to take bets because the real answer is likely never to cross your challenger’s lips.

Long after your exasperated contestants cover the countries south of equator, the UK, crossing the channel to western Europe, then eastern Europe and beyond, and after you have expelled the visions of papal bishops huddled together belting out Elvis tunes into a microphone because some smart aleck insists that it’s Vatican City because ‘technically’ that is a sovereign country, you can finally say….”Finland.”

Yes Finland. (This is an intentional pause provided by KT for your brain to catch up with the unlikely notion that “Finland” is quite likely the karaoke capital of the world).

Beautiful Finland is actually the holder of two major karaoke world records. The current world record for longest karaoke session was set in July 2008 in the Finnish town of Kouvola, by the Kouvola karaoke club.  Participants sang continuous karaoke for over two weeks for Guinness World record officials in order to break a previous record by a karaoke club in China. In fact, the karaoke record battle between the Finns and China has been going on for some time. The Finns first broke China’s record of 145 straight hours of karaoke in 2007, but the Chinese fought back just a few weeks later and secured a world record with 214 hours. So, in 2008, the Finns decided to go for broke and planned to not only break the Chinese  record, but to do it by crooning for a daunting 600 hours. The Finns’ bid to up the ante worked this year. They secured the record, but did not reach 600 hours because of a technical error that ended their streak at 446 hours. Guinness Book rules required that no song be repeated within a two hour timeframe and this rule was inadvertently breached in the 446^th hour.

Despite the technical error, this was a valiant effort by the Finns and just a small example of this country’s unwavering affinity for karaoke. In 2006, the Finns broke yet another world record for the largest karaoke sing-a-along, when 80,000 crooners sang a popular Finnish heavy metal song “Hard Rock Hallelujah,” at a concert in Helsinki by the Finnish metal band “Lordi.”

Karaoke Capital

With 5.5 million citizens, Finland has the highest karaoke participation per capita than any other country in the world. In fact, these people love to sing so much it isn’t hard to believe that Finland is home to the annual Karaoke World Championships. Established in 2003, the KWC featured contestants from 30 countries, (including the U.S.) spans over several days, with over 10,000 attendees, and crowns a male and female international karaoke champion. Many of the Finnish pop stars got their start in Finnish karaoke clubs and the KWC 2005 champion went on to win the Finnish version of American idol. Yes, if there is a heaven for karaoke singers, it must be in Finland. 

Karaoke for the Common Man

The Finnish Affinity for karaoke doesn’t stop at celebrating the cream of the karaoke crop either. In yet another example of European telecommunication technological superiority, karaoke can be performed and shared on ordinary cell phones.  Using this capability the Finns have created a karaoke contest open to all. In “Jokamien Idol,” translated as “common-man” idol, the Finnish can record and upload song entries for others to vote on. The contests’ debut prompted more participation than its popular television version.

There is no obvious answer to the question of why the Finnish have embraced karaoke so passionately.  Perhaps they are no different than everyone else except that they are simply ahead of the curve in a worldwide movement to take karaoke beyond being a pastime and elevating it to a rewarding spectator sport that promotes self expression and camaraderie. Or maybe, they don’t have good cable, who knows.