Samantha ChoongDec 31 is usually the last day where social media platforms are flooded with sentimental posts looking back on the year. Whether lamenting fashion missteps, break-ups, missed opportunities or that ever-expanding waistline, or gushing about the amazing holidays, romantic gestures, orgasmic culinary adventures, there won’t be a lack of Instagram photos with exceptionally long captions.
While we’d love to get sappy with the good times, UrbanWire brings you the top 8 trending moments of 2015. Whether they were good, bad or downright heart breaking; here’s 2K15 in trends.
Listed in no particular order
#PrayForParis
Even before today’s release by UK tabloid Mirror of news of an imminent 2016 slaughter of thousands in America and Europe, 2015 has been a year of heartbreak and tragedy due to the relentless effort of the terrorist organization ISIS. One attack that truly sent shockwaves throughout the world was the mass shooting and bombing in Paris on Nov 13 . Teams of gunmen and suicide bombers almost simultaneously opened fire in Paris, killing 130 people and injuring hundreds more. News of the attacks spread like wildfire and in the same night, monuments and landmarks around the world were bathed in tri-colored lights that resembled the French flag to honor the victims.
#BlackLivesMatter
One hashtag that constantly appeared throughout the year was for a movement “working to (re)build the Black liberation movement”. Though this was first created in 2012, the hashtag was one of the most tweeted in 2015, following police brutality cases involving African-Americans in the USA, like Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice and Sam Dubose. There’s now a glaring spotlight on police brutality in America: something that truly ought to be stopped.
#LoveWins
The Supreme Court of The United States (SCOTUS) legalized same-sex marriage in all 51 states of America, and Ireland became the first country to do the same by popular vote. #LoveWins was a celebratory moment for the LGBT+ community. The same day the law was passed by the SCOTUS, social media platforms Facebook and Twitter became a rainbow of pride and cheers. In a world where the fight for tolerance and equality grows each day, this is the progress that we need to see.
SG50
Even before 2015 began, there was so much talk about what was going to happen in our country’s Jubilee celebration that a Simi Sai also SG50 [Singlish for any crap can be linked to SG50] backlash movement started up. Retailers branded fishcakes (can you believe it?), fruit and various merchandise with the familiar logo, and many offered SG50 discounts to move stocks. And it wasn’t just low-end goods, how about a bespoke SG50 Ghost Series II Rolls-Royce, the only one the luxury car builder has ever made specially to celebrate a country’s anniversary? A new Ghost series II costs about $1.7 million if brought in by a parallel importer, and this isn’t even a specially designed one-of-a-kind one.
Still on the subject of money, celebrations for the 50th anniversary of our country’s independence are believed to have cost around $60 million, if you add the Youth Celebrate! opening of the National Stadium, the National Day parade, with its greater access to more people, new sites and facilities, 1.2 million goodie bags given to local households plus a government fund that subsidized about 400 celebratory activities proposed by regular citizens.
Feeling patriotic already? Check out this parody SG50 music/rap video.
Steve Harvey’s Miss Universe Flub
Most of the world might not even have known that the annual Miss Universe pageant was underway if not for host Steve Harvey’s big John Travolta-esque fail in the final. Nielsen estimates only 6.16 million tuned in to the “live” show and the Miss Universe YouTube channel clocked less than 8,000 views for the full show. Compare this with 26 million views on the same channel and another 30 million on other channels capturing Harvey’s misreading the results card, and wrongly announcing Miss Colombia as this year’s Miss Universe. After Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez had the crown and sash presented to her, Harvey stepped up to rectify his mistake. None can deny the awkwardness on the stage as 2014’s Miss Universe (also Miss Colombia) removed the crown from Gutierrez’s head to place it on Pia Wurtzbach, Miss Philippines. To compound his errors, in an apology tweet after the pageant, Harvey misspells the countries as ‘Columbia’ and ‘Philippians’. God, he must never have looked at their sashes…
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
After a decade’s absence from the silver screen, the beloved sci-fi series returns with The Force Awakens and has hit the box office jackpot! In 12 days at screens, it has picked up more than US$1 billion tickets sales across the world, breaking more than 30 box office records, according to Box Office Mojo.
New owners of the franchise have Disney-fied the story, introducing us to a super tough, independent new “princess”, Rey (Daisy Ridley), and her ally Finn (John Boyega). The return of Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) from the original trilogy brought immense joy to fans. And cash registers will no doubt be ringing on and on with merchandise bought for Christmas gifts, especially for the very intelligent interactive droid toy BB-8. In the unlikely chance you still haven’t seen the movie, you can read UrbanWire’s review here, which definitely has spoilers!
The Dress That Split the World
When a photo of a dress went viral in February, most of the Internet got into a mad argument over the color of the garment. Half insisted that it was blue and black, while the rest saw white and gold. Scientists have explained this ‘color-changing’ phenomenon using experiments, and you probably know by now, the dress is actually blue and black!
Adele’s back
Hello, it’s Adele. After a 4-year hiatus, can you hear her? “Hello”, the first (and so far, the only) single off the British songbird’s third studio album broke Vevo Record’s 24-hour record for most number of views, clocking 27.7 million (or 7.6 million more than Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood”). And thanks to journalists in Time, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, The Huffington Post and others, Dutch video editor Matthijs Vlot’s funnier YouTube version, where he edits a vast range of movie characters, including animated ones to seamlessly mouth her lyrics, has gone viral as well.
Hello, 2016! We at UrbanWire hope it will be everything you want it to be!
Take part in our Hello 2016 contest to win hampers worth a total of $414! [Contest opens on Jan 4]
Entries close on UrbanWire’s birthday on Jan 18.