A South African duo from Mbombela broke a Guinness World Record by singing karaoke songs for a total 35 consecutive hours.
Jacqueline Brits and Rhinus Lotz of Mbombela said they had initially planned to sing for a full 48 hours, but they decided to stop at 35 due to exhaustion from the marathon signing session.
“We have been performing for years and have built up a large repertoire. For the attempt we chose all the songs which were vocally less challenging, in order to save our voices.”
Brits hoped to raise R100 000 to rebuild the Dixie Farm church by the end of June 2021, but after the attempt they have already reached the R32 000 mark.
“So we might be building as soon as next month,” she said gleefully.
On the last day of her two-month stint at the Barberton Community Mobile Soup Kitchen, where she first met the people of Dixie Farm (a small community outside Barberton), the pastor of the local church approached her with a request to not stop the feeding project, as they were struggling with the effects of lockdown.
“It was laid upon me by God to rebuild the church, and the idea to enter a GWR attempt to raise money was thought up by Andrea Els of Barberton Adventures.”
The live Facebook feed was used as evidence for the attempt, to ensure that everything is legit. Some of the toughest moments for Brits and Lotz included the last hour of the 24-hour session. “
We were physically tired,” Brits explained. The last hour of the nine-hour session was also tough as their voices were tired.
“Of course the decision to stop was also very tough, we were aiming for 48 hours, but I think we did very well with 35.”
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In terms of sustenance and bodily needs, there was food on the stage in front of the duo.
“We had healthy food such as vegetables and fruit as well as enough water, rooibos tea with honey and lemon juice. In the 30-second breaks that we had, we’d had to run to the bathroom if we needed it. Luckily the facilities were close enough, but it did ensure a few laughs!” Brits said.
“We were overwhelmed by the support from both our audience and our sponsors and donations.
We would really like to say thank you to the following organisations and companies:
Swift Group will be doing the electrical and plumbing work. They will also be training two locals in those areas of expertise. Radio Laeveld went out of their way to support us, they even installed a satellite station. Barberton Mines, Barberton Adventures, Task Nissan, NTT Toyota, and Edmund Thorne are some of the local businesses that contributed.
We are grateful to the Wild Medlar for accommodation and use of their facilities and also Vlakvark for clothes,” concluded Brits.
