EKSU graduate restarts 150-hour singing marathon to break world record

Emmanuel Okikiola, a graduate of the Ekiti State University (EKSU), has restarted a new attempt to break the world record for the longest singing marathon by an individual. 

Okikiola spoke about his intention to sing for 150 hours during a chat with TheCable Lifestyle on Monday.

He said he had initially kickstarted the sing-a-thon on December 3 but stopped after 62 hours because “our stopwatch went off for over 30 minutes”.

The gospel singer, however, said he will be starting afresh on December 12, in Akure, Ondo state.

“I stopped it because there were some mistakes that occurred. The number one mistake was that our system went off,” he said.

“What was displaying our timer went off. It took us more than 30 minutes to fix it back. And that timer affected our stuff because the stopwatch ought to be accurate. That was one of the rules that was sent to me by the Guinness World Records (GWR).

“And there were some things like logistics that had not been put in place. So there was no proper arrangement for that. So that is why we decided to start all over again.”

The singer said he sent his request to GWR earlier in the year and got approval in November.

“I was aware someone had tried the 200-hour singing marathon. But we heard that he was unable to complete it due to some reasons. So, Guinness has to approve my own. If he had completed it, Guinness would have reviewed it. Guinness still recognises Waghmare as the record holder. I reached out to Guinness around March. And I was approved by November,” he added.

He said Toyin Adegbola, the actress, and Abel Praise, the gospel singer, are among the guests invited to the event to support him.

Okikiola seeks to break the world record set by India’s Sunil Waghmare 11 years ago.

Waghmare, who is from Nagpur, sang for 105 hours — from March 3 to 7, 2012.

With his quest, Okikiola joins the growing list of Nigerians who have attempted to set new world records since the beginning of 2023.

In July, Oluwatobi Kufeji began a 200-hour singing marathon to break the Guinness World Record (GWR). He, however, spoke about “sabotage of the quest”.

Joseph Ahonis, another Nigerian, also completed his 126-hour singing marathon while awaiting GWR’s approval.