The list of Top 10 Singapore Headlines of the year is led by swim superstar Joseph Schooling and his clinching of Singapore’s first Olympic gold medal. Making the list are moments of political significance, such as the changes to the Elected Presidency, as well as the resignation of MP David Ong. The city-state also witnessed its first Zika outbreak, the first bank robbery in 12 years and the world’s first Michelin-starred hawkers stalls.
Viral stories included the Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen (PPAP) song in No. 1 place, Singapore Airlines’ photo fail with Joseph Schooling, which comes in at second, and incoming US first lady Melania Trump’s alleged plagiarism of current US first lady Michelle Obama’s rally speech.
Sports dominated the list of Most Popular Searches of 2016, with Euro 2016 and Rio 2016 Summer Olympics taking the spotlight. Also making the list were politicians such as Malaysian Prime Minster Najib Razak, who continued to battle scandal in relation to a state-run fund, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong following his fainting spell during the National Day Rally. Gal Gadot, aka star of the upcoming Wonder Woman movie, also made the list of top searches, and is the only celebrity in the list.
Brexit tops the list of Top 10 Business News Headlines as it created shockwaves across international markets with the UK voting to leave the European Union. Locally, concerns were focused on retrenchment in Singapore, which made headlines several times this year. The worldwide trend of the rise of automation also made the top three, with Singapore becoming the world’s first country to run trials of on-demand driverless taxis.
Lists in the YIR include:
Top 10 Singapore Headlines of 2016
- Joseph Schooling and Singapore’s first Olympic gold medal
- Elected Presidency changes
- Singapore’s slowing economy
- Singapore’s Zika outbreak
- PM Lee Hsien Loong’s fainting spell and Minister Heng Swee Keat’s stroke
- MP David Ong’s resignation and the Bukit Batok by-election
- Former President SR Nathan’s death
- Standard Chartered bank robbery
- Death of two SMRT employees at work
- First Michelin-starred hawker
1. Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen song
2. Singapore Airlines photo fail with Joseph Schooling
3. Melania Trump’s speech similarities with Michelle Obama’s
4. Iguana being chased by snakes
5. Mannequin challenge
6. Olympic Games’ most unassuming medal winner
7. Shiny legs optical illusion
8. Killer clown craze
9. US President-elect Donald Trump’s granddaughter Arabella Kushner recites Chinese poetry
10. High-rise SPCA kitten rescue
Top 10 Singapore Searches of 2016
- Euro 2016 (football)
- Rio 2016 (Olympics)
- Najib Razak
- Lee Hsien Loong
- UEFA Champions League (football)
- Lee Chong Wei (badminton player)
- All England Badminton
- Europe’s migrant crisis
- Gal Gadot
- Singapore Open (golf)
- Brexit
- Retrenchments in Singapore
- Rise of automation
- Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fiasco
- Singapore bond defaults
- Banks caught up in 1MDB scandal
- Panama Papers
- Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat’s health scare
- SMRT’s privatisation
- Chicken rice recipe’s $2 million price tag
*Results are not a representation of a popularity contest or voting; trends are determined by experts on the Yahoo editorial team. To develop the Yahoo Year in Review, editors analyse users' interest patterns on what they searched for, read, recommended and shared. It takes into account a number of factors including absolute volume and growth from previous periods to see which themes and trends bubble to the surface. Individuals and their preferences always remain anonymous. In addition, editors also exercise their editorial judgment to decide which topics had the greatest significance and public resonance in the year.
