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Claim: Guinness World Record holder for the longest singing marathon, Sunil Waghmare, visits Ghana to congratulate Afua Asantewaa Aduonum for breaking his record.
Verdict: False! The photos and videos used to make the claim are rather those of the Lebanese ambassador to Ghana, Maher Kheir.
Full Text
From Dec. 24 to 29, 2023, Ghanaian broadcaster Afua Asantewaa Aduonum took the challenge of attempting to break the Guinness World Record (GWR) for the longest singing marathon.
She clocked 126 hours and 52 minutes on the morning of Friday, Dec. 29, before dropping her microphone for the world record attempt that has captivated many Ghanaians.
During the six-day activity, many significant incidents occurred, including visits from famous Ghanaian celebrities and politicians.
However, claims that the current record holder, an Indian, Sunil Waghmare, travelled to Ghana on Thursday, Dec. 28, to congratulate Asantewaa on her feat have emerged.
Besides the many social media accounts that made the allegation, publications by this, this and this also emphasised it. Social media accounts of credible media houses in Ghana, including Metro TV, also posted the video.
While this did not sound impossible, there was room for doubt. So DUBAWA proceeded to fact-check it.
Verification
Sunil Waghmare secured his place in GWR by singing for 105 hours in Nagpur, India, from March 3 to 7, 2012, performing different popular Indian songs, but was he really in Ghana?
The video used to make the viral claim about Sunil’s presence showed a light-skinned man captured below.
The image, however, looks very different from the one shared by Guinness World Records of Sunil Waghmare during his 2012 record attempt.
Although that was 11 years ago, there isn’t a resemblance.
Using CrowdTangle, a content discovery and social monitoring platform, DUBAWA found a matching video taken from a different angle at Afua’s Sing-A-Thon event.
That video was higher quality than the one used to make the viral claim and appears to be the first online copy.
The footage was shared by the Facebook page of the Lebanon Embassy in Ghana and captioned “Lebanese Ambassador Maher Kheir supporting Afua Asantewaa O Aduonum on her Sing-A-Thon as she attempts to break the Guinness World record for the longest singing marathon by an individual. Go Afua! Go Ghana.”
Comparing the above image with the one shared by Guinness World Records confirms that the two individuals are different people.
Several Google searches for the image of Maher Kheir confirm that he is the one in the viral video and not Sunil Waghmare.
In a conversation with Abigail Awuni, the head of PR for the #afuaasantewaasingathon project, she confirmed the light-skinned man was indeed the Lebanese Ambassador to Ghana and not the record holder.
The embassy of Lebanon in Ghana has also issued an official statement to confirm that the ambassador was on the man captured in the video and now the record holder.
Conclusion
The person in the viral video cheering on Afua Asantewaa is not current Guinness World Record holder Sunil Waghmare instead, he is the Lebanese ambassador to Ghana, Maher Kheir.
