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Year Ender 2024: 11 Most Viral Moments of 2024 From Brat Summer To Celebrity Deaths, Diddy’s Legal Drama And More
Revisit the 11 most viral moments of 2024 that took the world by storm as this year comes to an end. From Taylor Swift to Gojo Satoru, we've got you covered.
Dearest gentle readers, your 2024 Pop Culture Wrapped is here.
This year has seen the whirlwind of pop culture from Taylor Swift's Eras tour spreading a wildfire of joy, and Lana Del Rey's alligator tour guide husband to One Direction singer Liam Payne's tragic death shaking the world. Celebrity dramas, ranging from Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ legal woes to the Kendrick vs Drake beef and Miley Cyrus' Grammy win to Bridgerton Season 3's ground-breaking success, have made headlines that fans will always remember. The year ends with a bang as Luigi Mangione taking down a CEO goes viral on the internet. In a nutshell, 2024 was brat. Here's a quick recap of the year with the 11 most viral moments of 2024.
Revisiting the 11 Most Viral Moments of 2024 that set the internet ablaze
1. The bath scene in Saltburn
TikTokers went gaga over the bathtub scene in Saltburn to the point of soy wax candles cheekily titled Jacob Elordi’s Bathwater going viral online. Fans praised Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi’s acting prowess as their clips amassed over 4 billion views on the social media platform.
2. A Brat Summer with Charli XCX
Unless you fell out of a coconut tree, you must not have missed the pop culture phenomenon that Charli XCX spawned with her Brat album. The 'brat summer' trend took over the lifestyles of fans as well as celebrities with viral memes and videos of people dancing to Charli's new music piling up on everyone's feed. Soon after, the 365 party-girl aesthetic battled the rather opposite 'very demure, very mindful' trend.
3. Taylor Swift's Eras Tour And New Beau Travis Kelce
2024 marked the end of Taylor Swift's iconic Eras tour after adorning the world with friendship bracelets. She also swept the Grammy awards for her 10th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. And what was definitely not torture was her PDA-filled romance with Travis Kelce, which kept the internet gushing for months as she appeared in football games to support her boyfriend.
4. End of Bennifer 2.0
August 2024 marked the culmination of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez's two years of marriage. JLo filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split. As per People, "She tried really hard to make things work and is heartbroken." However, the former couple have remained supportive of each other through the divorce, with each maintaining amicable relationships with each other's children from different marriages, putting their blended family above all else.
5. Justin Bieber welcomes his first baby
In a much happier viral pop culture moment, congratulatory messages flooded Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber's social media accounts as the couple announced the birth of their first child, Jack Blues Bieber, on August 23, 2024. The couple, who tied the knot in 2018, posted a cute snap of their baby boy’s foot on Instagram which left fans and famous friends teary-eyed with joy. Over the next few months, Justin and Hailey offered glimpses of their parenthood with adorable clips and pictures featuring baby Jack on social media.
6. Kendrick Lamar vs Drake's viral beef
Rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake's feud became such a huge pop cultural phenomenon that it has a Wikipedia page of its own. Needless to say who won the feud as Lamar's Not Like Us and Euphoria topped music charts and became a viral trend online with netizens dancing to the diss tracks for months. Drake dissed Lamar in Push Ups and Taylor Made Freestyle released in April to get hit back with K-Dot's Euphoria, where he attacked Drake’s parenting. Drake responded with Family Matters in May, where he attacked Lamar’s relationship with his fiancée, Whitney Alford. In the same month, Kendrick's fatal blow, "Tryna strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor," appeared in Not Like Us, which got the internet up on its feet. Kendrick is set to perform at the Super Bowl LIX half-time show in February 2025.
7. Gojo Satoru gets a memorial service
In September, Jujutsu Kaisen chapter 237 came as a huge blow to anime fans as the author Gege Akutami finally killed his most popular character Gojo Satoru after having him toy with death multiple times. However, much like their beloved character, fans were split in half. Some were coping with memes and some were so devasted by the loss that they held memorial services in different parts of the world from Japan to Chile. Needless to say, an influx of fan-made edits of the iconic character led countless others to weep on social media. One fan wrote, "Guys please stop talking about Gojo's death I'm not that strong and mentally stable" and millions more followed suit.
8. Sean Diddy Combs' legal drama: Did he do it?
Rap mogul P Diddy got arrested on Monday, 16 September, in a New York hotel on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. Soon after Pandora's box of sexual assault and drugging allegations against him opened. From CNN publishing CCTV footage of Diddy physically assaulting his former partner Cassie Ventura to multiple men and women accusing him of sexual assault, the disgraced rapper's case unfolded into a horror show. He is set for trial in May 2025. Meanwhile, 50 Cent announced a tell-all Netflix documentary on Diddy's deeds.
9. One Direction singer Liam Payne's tragic death
The news of Liam Payne's untimely death sent shockwaves to millions of 1D fans as the singer died on October 16th from falling off a third-floor balcony at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Payne's death has been attributed to substance abuse including pink cocaine and whiskey. The late singer was spending holidays with girlfriend Kate Cassidy after attending former bandmate Niall Horan's concert. Directioners who were once hoping for the band to reunite broke down as tributes from all over the world poured in. Meanwhile, prosecutors have connected five people with his drug-induced fatal fall.
10. Donald Trump defeats Kamala Harris in Presidential Election 2024
In November, America witnessed the comeback of Donald Trump as he became the President-elect after defeating Vice-president Kamala Harris. Many celebrities were outraged and devasted by the news including Cardi B who tweeted "We need a Hail Mary", talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who shed a tear live on air, and Ellen DeGeneres leaving the country to settle in England allegedly for the same reason, among others. Trump, who threatened to send his haters to jail, also became Time's Person of the Year.
11. Selena Gomez gets engaged to Benny Blanco
While the rest of Gen Z were 'looking for a man in finance', their childhood idol, Selena Gomez found her forever in record producer and chef Benny Blanco. The couple who dated for a year announced their engagement with a heart-warming social media comprising snaps of the dazzling diamond ring on Selena's finger. The year brought much joy to Gomez as she also earned Golden Globe nominations for her performance in Emilia Pérez.
These were some of the most viral moments of 2024 which has been quite the rollercoaster. From breakthrough performances such as Shogun, Sabrina Carpenter's Espresso, Chappell Roan setting boundaries, Paris Olympics controversies, and shocking comebacks to the rising powers of social media influencers, 2024 has certainly delivered all manner of moments that will go down in history in pop culture.
ALSO READ: From Tony Stark To Edward Cullen: Find Out If Your Favorite Characters Are Brat Or Demure
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