Arts & Culture

Best and Worst of 2015: Entertainment highlights of the year – Music, Films and Television

Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr

From that blue/black/white/gold dress that might have broken marriages and families over its ambiguous colour, to a certain Saint born to the West and his wife, 2015 has left us ROFLing, face palming and appreciating. In this new series at DU Beat, we bring to you the best and worst of news from the Entertainment world, both from Bollywood and abroad.

1. Music

  • We grooved into 2015 with the Uptown Funk earworm and we’re leaving the year behind wondering why our hotline isn’t blinging anymore. Mid year, Charlie Puth left us teary eyed with See You Again, as Ellie Goulding crooned Love Me Like You Do.
  • Zayn Malik broke a number of hearts when he quit One Direction earlier this year. Rumours of the boy band breaking up have led to a second round of heartbreaks.
Zayn Malik left the boyband One Direction | Source: people.com
  • Sales of Adele‘s third album, 25, soared through the roof, breaking several records, having sold more copies within the first week than any other album. Hello monopolised the position at the top of the charts for four weeks.
Adele in ‘Hello’ music video | Image source: slate.com
  • Well, we’ll soon be saying hello from the other side as, Justin Bieber‘s new album, Purpose, has turned most people into ‘beliebers.’ Deftones frontman, Chino Moreno, coined the term when he admitted to being a fan of the singer. With 17 of the album’s tracks making it to Billboard’s Hot 100 List in a week, Bieber has broken a 51 year record of 14 tracks previously held by The Beatles.
  • You used to call me on my cellphone, late night when you need my love. It’s all right if you are still trying to imitate those moves and failing miserably. No one can do it like Drake can. Except Obama, maybe. The YouTube Channel Barack’s Dubs has been leaving the world in splits with their parody videos of POTUS singing Hotline Bling and matching Drake’s moves.  
Obama
Image source: mercurynewsdaily.com

2. Movies

  • Most people spent the year waiting for the force to awaken. And when it did, Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke several box office records. The advanced tickets to the highly anticipated return to that galaxy far far away crossed $6.5 million. The movie is expected to break every box office record as ticket sales may cross the billion mark.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens | Image Source: theforceawakensblog.com
Star Wars: The Force Awakens | Image Source: theforceawakensblog.com
  • While Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes the cake for 2015, The Peanuts Movie, The Martian, Jurassic World and Furious 7 demand honourable mentions.
  • Indian cinema grew up a little with Angry Indian Goddesses and the furore it created. Similarly, Margarita With a Straw generated all the right kind of buzz. Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo became the highest grossing Bollywood movies for the year, with Baahubali and Dilwale crossing the 100 crore mark as well.
Kalki Koechlin in ‘Margarita With a Straw’ | Source: miaminewtimes.com
  • This year, India also saw its first Broadway-style Disney musical, Beauty and the Beast, being staged.

3. Television

  • At the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards this year, two records were broken: the first by Game of Thrones which won a whopping 12 awards: the most ever won by a single show in a year. The second record was set by Viola Davis of How to Get Away with Murder fame, who became the first black woman to win an Emmy Award for best leading actress. Don Draper will be missed as Mad Men came to a close this year with Season 7.
Viola Davis became the first black woman to win an Emmy Award in a leading actress category | Source: wordpress.com
  • The year ends with a bang, but not so much for poor Steve Harvey. The American TV host and comedian has been the butt of jokes and memes on the internet ever since he announced the wrong winner at the Miss.Universe pageant, creating quite some embarrassment for all concerned. What’s more the internet had him wishing us a Happy Easter instead of a Merry Christmas on the 25th!

Abhinaya Harigovind
[email protected]

[email protected] ; 'A self-confessed workaholic, I run on endless cups of coffee, last-minute panic, and the smell of fresh print on paper. Student of History at St.Stephen's College, but home and heart lie in Bangalore. Like Holden says, "I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot."'

Comments are closed.