UK man sings Christmas carols for 42 hours in world record attempt

UK cafe owner Dave Purchase organised the carols event to support local businesses and bring the community together. Photo / Facebook

A United Kingdom man has spent nearly two sleepless days singing Christmas carols non-stop in a bid to break a Guinness World Record.

Dave Purchase, the owner of a toasted sandwich cafe in Gloucester, closed his shop last week to make the attempt, according to SWNS.

He sang for 42 hours, though exhaustion and fatigue set in about the 32-hour mark.

“I felt as I couldn’t carry on because I was hallucinating with the lack of sleep. I was falling to sleep singing the songs,” he said.

“I thought ‘I don’t know whether I can carry on for another 10 hours’ but strangely enough when the crowd started to come into the venue the adrenaline took over.”

Purchase said he was surprised that his voice remained largely intact during the vocal marathon.

“Apart from the lower register of my voice which had gone, and the falsetto part which was slightly gone, the middle range of my vocal was fine,” he told SWNS.

“It is a world record and this is what they are about. You literally push yourself to the actual limit to actually achieve that record.”

Under Guinness World Record rules, Purchase was required to sing continuously, with only a 20-second pause permitted between songs and a 5-minute break allowed each hour.

Purchase selected 38 of his favourite festive bangers and performed them 18 times each, totalling 684 songs.

The record-breaking setlist included such numbers as Jingle Bells, Wham’s Last Christmas, and Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You.

Purchase was joined by guest performers throughout the event, including a children’s choir and a dementia choir.

Members of the public also attended, some dressed as iconic Christmas characters and carollers such as The Wombles and Mariah Carey.

Purchase told the BBC before the event that he had been practising since January.

“Anybody who passed my flat probably thought there was some nutcase in there,” he said.

Purchase, who has prior musical experience in theatre and on cruise ships, said he wanted to stage a “nutty event” to support local businesses and bring the community together, SWNS reported.

“People were part of something, they made friends when we did the event because they met people they’d never met before – it was a great interaction between people."

Purchase has now lodged evidence of his attempt to Guinness and is awaiting official verification.