Listicle: 5 Trending Topics in the Philippines so far

There are only a couple of days until 2016 is officially half over. In a few days, we’ll be looking at a new president. A couple of months after that, we’ll see what the NBA is like without a legend. Let’s look back at the year that was in social media. Here are the 5 topics that trended in the Philippines for the first 6 months of 2016:

 

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE PRESIDENT. Duterte benefitted a lot from social media campaigns. Photo courtesy of Rody Duterte Official Facebook page.

1. #Du30. Definitely the hottest topic on social media. President-elect Rodrigo Duterte was the most talked-about candidate on social media ever since he said he will run for president. Social media also helped him win, with most of his online supporters doing the legwork during his campaign.

 

THE ELECTIONS WERE MORE INTERESTING THAN EVER. The 2016 Philippine Elections had its share of the limelight even before May 9. Photo courtesy of delfindakila via tumblr.

2. #Halalan2016, #PHVote, #Eleksyon2016. This year’s Philippine Elections trended, make no mistake about that. From #BBM2016 to #LabanLeni, it was already a heated topic even without #Du30.

 

MAMBA OUT. These words will echo throughout the annals of basketball history. Screengrab from Nike Basketball Youtube Channel.

3. #MambaDay. Filipinos love basketball. We love the NBA. We love the players, especially one Kobe Bryant. When it came time for the Black Mamba to retire, it was no surprise that #MambaDay trended on April 13, 2016, the day Bryant played his last professional game… and subsequently dropped 60 on the Utah Jazz.

 

4. #RunningManChallenge. Filipinos are inexplicably linked to anything that trends online, but this one took its sweet time before we picked up on it. The #RunningManChallenge came from the US, but with more Filipinos on Facebook compared to most countries, it was eventually picked up by our local athletes and celebs… and thus viral videos were born anew.

 

 UPGRADE DOES TRUMPETS. Teen boyband UPGRADE may not have started the #TrumpetsChallenged, but they did help make it viral.

5. #TrumpetsChallenge. Speaking of viral videos, the latest trend as of today is this thing called the #TrumpetsChallenge. It involves one gyrating to the beats of Trumpets, a song by Spanish DJs Sak Noel and Salvi. While the song wasn’t an international hit, it gained steam thanks to a video posted on Facebook by Filipino all-teen boyband UPGRADE.

 

Any other trending topics we missed? Leave a comment below to let us know!