Afua Asantewaa has announced that her second attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the longest singing marathon by an individual has been disqualified. She shared the news on social media on Thursday evening, May 8, 2025, along with a screenshot of the official response from Guinness.
“It’s been a challenging yet rewarding journey, and an incredible experience. Having had the opportunity to explore my potential on the esteemed Guinness World Records platform on two occasions has led to discovery, growth, development, success, and life-altering events that have shaped my being,” she expressed in her statement regarding the update from Guinness World Records. She titled her post, “UPDATE ON GUINNESS WORLD RECORD LONGEST SINGING MARATHON INDIVIDUAL – SECOND ATTEMPT #2.0 Record attempt was unsuccessful.”
In her message, Afua extended heartfelt thanks on behalf of her dedicated team to everyone who has supported her journey, offering encouragement, constructive feedback, and inspiration along the way.
In her social media post, she included excerpts from the response she received from Guinness, which stated: “Application disqualified – Our expert Record Managers have reviewed the evidence you provided and unfortunately this claim is not valid due to the guidelines (rules) not being met. As stated in the guidelines: ‘Rest breaks are the only point where the claimant may stop performing the activity during the attempt.'”
The response further clarified, “You are allowed 5 minutes of rest for every continuously completed hour of activity. Activity and Rest sequence 19 shows you took a 15-minute break at 23:25 when you only had 5 minutes of rest time to use. The record attempt was therefore failed at this point. You also took 105 minutes at sequence 21 when you only had 10 minutes of accrued rest time. We can only approve a record when all of the rules have been followed, as that is how we ensure fairness across all record attempts. We congratulate you on your efforts and hope you can understand our reasoning for the rejection.”
Afua Asantewaa’s second singing marathon attempt commenced on December 21, 2024, at Heroes’ Park of the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi. This attempt followed her initial effort in December 2023, where she aimed to surpass the existing record of 105 hours held by Sunil Waghmare of India. During her latest attempt, she managed to sing continuously for an impressive 121 hours and 39 minutes.
