Live performances/events

1) Bon Jovi “Because We Can: The Tour” @ Stadium Merdeka

20 years after first setting fire to the Malaysian stage, the quintessential rock band returned to our charred music landscape to electrify over 20,000 still-worshipful fans.

2) International Indian Film Awards (IIFA) 2015 @ Putra Indoor Stadium.

A twirling awards show on steroids, this three-day extravaganza blazed with a constellation of Bollywood stars, including Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra and Anil Kapoor.

3) Russell Peters “Almost Famous World Tour” @ Stadium Malawati.

Telling us once again how to “be the man, do the right thing!”, Peters sent Malaysian fans tumbling out of their chairs and LOLing in the aisles.

4) Malaysia Cyber Games 2015 @ Stadium Negara.

5) Saturday Night Fever: The Musical @ Istana Budaya.

6) Rainforest World Music Festival @ Sarawak Cultural Village

7) Retrofest Asia 2015 @ Surf Beach, Sunway Lagoon.

8) Big Bang 2015 World Tour @ Putra Indoor Stadium.

9) The Script Live In Kuala Lumpur @ Stadium Malawati.

10) Backstreet’s Back In Malaysia @ Stadium Negara.

Foreign holiday destinations & approximate Malaysian visitor numbers

1) Bangkok – 1.3 million. Herds of Malaysians stampeded into Krungthep this year – and the rest of Thailand as a whole (inundated Phuket and Krabi are also on this list), making us the 2nd largest source of tourists for the smothered country.

2) Singapore – 1.1 million. We splurged approximately RM2.6 billion (eerily familiar figure!) all over the island last year.

3) Bali – 300,000. We’ve trampled over other nationalities to become the 3rd largest source of tourists to Bali, after Australia and China.

4) Hong Kong

5) Phuket

6) Melbourne (non-Asian sore thumb!)

7) Krabi

8) Seoul

9) Tokyo

10) Taipei

Source: www.hotels.com and respective National Tourism Authority websites

Viral videos

1) Upin & Ipin: Gong Xi Fa Cai special (10.5 million views)

2) Mudah.my: Chinese New Year short film (3.1 million views)

3) Petronas: National & Malaysia Day 2015 short film (3.08 million views)

4) BoBoiBoy: Season 3, Episode 16

5) Ultraman Neos vs Nozera & Sazora clip

6) Malaysia Airlines: ‘Home’ short film

7) Frozen’s Let It Go: ‘In Real Life’ live action clip

8) Cover of Humood Al Khudher’s ‘Kun Anta’ by Wani

9) Polis Evo – Official movie trailer

10) ‘Dubsmash Melayu’ music video compilation

Source: www.youtube.com

Cinema blockbusters & domestic box office takes

1) Fast and Furious 7 – RM66.9 million. Directed by Malaysian-born James Wan (represent!), F&F7 went epic, and scored the biggest opening in Malaysian cinema history.

2) Avengers: Age of Ultron – RM53.7 million. Greedily held the number 1 spot for 3 consecutive weeks.

3) Jurassic World – RM49 million. A phenomenal haul for the latest installment of a creaking, 22 year-old franchise.

4) Marvel’s Ant Man – RM28.5 million

5) Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation – RM25.1 million

6) Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials – RM23 million

7) Spectre – RM22.5 million

8) Polis Evo – RM17.3 million (Not too shabby for a local production!)

9) Inside Out – RM8.1 million

9) The Martian – RM8.1 million

Source: www.cinema.com.my

Google searches

People:

1) Lee Kuan Yew. The ‘father of Singapore’ was the ‘mother’ of all searches by neighbouring Malaysians. Though his death this year was a far-from-inconsequential event, his premiere position in this list is a head-scratcher.

2) Paul Walker. Creepily, the second most-searched person is also no longer among us. Over two years after Walker’s death, Malaysian fans still can’t let go.

3) Najib Razak. We seem to be searching for info on our PM as vigorously as he is searching for ways to account for a small amount of missing funds.

4) Mia Ahmad

5) Kevin Morais

6) Farah Ann Abdul Hadi

7) Diana Danielle

8) Caitlyn Jenner

9) Alexandra Daddario

10) John Cena

General:

1) HRMIS (Human Resource Management Information System) 2.0

2) BRIM 2015

3) How-Old.net (Face-morphing app/website)

4) Maharaja Lawak Mega (Reality series)