Singapore—Web search engine Yahoo released its most searched items in Singapore throughout 2019 on Wednesday, December 18.

Yahoo’s year-in-review is based on the searches that are made on its different platforms every day for the past year.

Some of the most-searched topics include former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is currently under trial for corruption related to the 1MDB scandal, in which S$6 billion was allegedly siphoned from the sovereign wealth fund.

Also high on the list was the “Orchard Towers murder,” specifically Natalie Siow, the 23-year-old lone woman in the group of seven who were accused of murdering Satheesh Noel Gobidass, age 31, on July 2.

The tragic death of actor and National Serviceman, Aloysius Pang, at the age of 28, from injuries sustained while he was undergoing army reserve training in New Zealand in January of this year also figured high among Yahoo’s most-searched list. His girlfriend, actress Jayley Woo, similarly ranked high among Yahoo searchers this year.

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NUS student Monica Baey also ranked high on the list for Singapore on Yahoo’s platforms this year. Ms Baey’s Instagram’s post that aired her dissatisfaction with how the university handled the case of the student who had filmed her in the shower sparked a national conversation and caused universities to take a long hard look at their policies regarding sexual misconduct.

As for world events, many Singaporeans searched for the ongoing trade tensions between the US and China, the two biggest economies in the world, as well as how this affected companies such as Huawei after a ban was imposed on it by the US.

The massive protests in Hong Kong and the general elections in Indonesia also sparked Singaporeans’ curiosity, as evidenced by searches on these topics.

Other topics

When it comes to travel, the top three holiday destinations searched by Singaporeans were Bangkok, Tokyo, and London.

For food, Singaporeans looked for such varied items as dim sum, Hainanese chicken rice, the Singapore sling, bubble tea, fish bee hoon and bak kut teh.

In sports, football reigned as the most-searched item, particularly updates about various football leagues such as the English Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, and the Asian AFC Champions League, as well as individual teams like Manchester United and Liverpool.

The country’s F1 Grand Prix was included in the top searches for sport as well.

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The most searched celebrities, aside from Aloy Pang and Jayley Woo, were Dasmond Koh, Mr Pang’s manager; singer JJ Lin, actor Dennis Chew, when the brown face fiasco blew up, as well as Ian Fang and Carrie Wong, whose racy texts to each other, as well as their comments about fellow actor Lawrence Wong were leaked to the public.

To read the full report of Yahoo’s Year in Review for Singapore, click here. -/TISG

Read related: Aloysius Pang: Why the young man from MacPherson Lane was more important than all the foreign talents you can open your gates to

Aloysius Pang: Why the young man from MacPherson Lane was more important than all the foreign talents you can open your gates to