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Year in review: Top 10 videos of 2011

The year 2011 has witnessed numerous dramatic global-scale events, what with the Japanese tsunami and earthquake, the deaths of several key international dictators and more.

Pint-sized Singapore has also had quite an exciting year, with its watershed general and presidential elections, national day entertainment and more recently, challenges in transportation.

Yahoo! Singapore puts together the biggest moments of this year, both locally and globally, and bring you our top five videos from around the world, and the top five made-in-Singapore ones:

Top 5 videos from around the world

5. Rebecca Black's "Friday"

Yes, hate it or love it (and well, we hate it), it was an international hit -- even though none of us can figure out how or why. With an amazingly bad singing voice, even with autotune (and by the way, here's what she sounds like without), the 14-year-old scored some 167 million hits on her video ever since putting it up in February. She later re-uploaded it to her own channel in September -- that video now has 12.5 million hits. Still not too shabby, and she now also has her own website as well. Amazed? So are we.

4. Prince William and Kate Middleton kiss after their wedding

Indeed, the world's most watched wedding has made our list -- and why not, with the beautiful Middleton sisters highlighting the event? A record 72 million viewers caught the live coverage of the Wedding on the YouTube Royal Channel from around the world, and that isn't counting the 36.7 million television viewers in the UK alone. (Secretly, the real star to us in the whole proceedings is the little angry flower girl standing in front of the Duchess of Cambridge, though -- did you spot her the first time you watched the wedding?)

3. The dog who watched over its injured friend

A tear-inducing story for sure, that of a dog which refused to leave its friend, another dog that was injured in the 11 March Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster. If you haven't seen this before, prepare some tissue. The brave dog fends off a shocked local reporter and his cameraman from approaching or harming its wounded companion, whom the two humans later discover is alive. We are thankful to note that the heroic dog and its friend were rescued and received veterinary care later on, too.

2. "Yue Yue", the two-year-old Chinese victim of the brutal hit-and-run

One of the most horrifying videos of 2011 for sure -- the shocking three-minute video of "Yue Yue", the two-year-old victim of what is possibly the most brutal hit-and-run incidents the world has seen in years. After being run over by a van twice, and then again by a passing truck, the bleeding toddler lay critically injured on the narrow street, and was ignored by more than a dozen passers-by, many of whom later claimed they did not notice her there. Yue Yue later died after receiving intensive care for brain damage in hospital, triggering shock and inward reflection into the mentality of the world's most populated country.

1. Tsunami washes away entire town in Japan

And this is undoubtedly our top story of the year -- the Japanese tsunami, which is also part of the reason why two of our top five videos spawned from its worst disaster since Hiroshima and Nagasaki almost 60 years ago. If you haven't already seen this, brace yourself -- we couldn't believe our eyes when we first watched this ourselves either. The video was taken from the vantage point off the top of a hill, and bears powerful testament to the ability of the massive wave to completely sweep away established concrete buildings, schools, vehicles and homes, as if they were all built on sand. But don't take it from us -- watch it for yourself.

Top 5 Made-in-Singapore videos of 2011

5. Debut of Pornsak Sukhumvit, The Noose's latest correspondent

After enjoying four seasons of success in Singapore (unprecedented for local English-language productions in recent years, unfortunately), hit parody series The Noose will make its highly-anticipated return close to the end of this year on national broadcaster Channel 5 -- this time, with a new Thai correspondent named Pornsak Sukhumvit (who is now added to comedy actor Chua Enlai's belt of personas which include B. B. See, Jacques Ooi and Wan Mo Peh). Chua's Thai impresses us thoroughly, too -- even though we don't understand it, we're buying it.

4. Yam Ah Mee rockets to stardom

Before 7 May this year, few Singaporeans would have been able to recognise the name and face of the People's Association chief executive director Yam Ah Mee. He has nonetheless emerged from the shadows (of the Elections Department) to assume the now-famous and all-important role of Returning Officer, a.k.a. result-announcer, during the nation's two landmark general and presidential elections in early May and late August.

We were initially unimpressed by his pronunciation of certain names (e.g. "Silver Lim"), but alongside the adoring electorate, eventually warmed to his monotonous voice and hyper-neutral deadpan expression that sounded exactly the same, all 27 times -- if you include the one time he appeared to announce the results of the presidential election. Club mixes have since emerged, and we hear his famous legal clause has also become a ringtone. We hardly imagine someone like him to have gained celebrity status over a year -- something we take this opportunity to celebrate, of course.

3. Tin Pei Ling, Singapore's youngest Member of Parliament

We admit it -- most of us started off on the wrong foot with Marine Parade GRC member of parliament (MP) Tin Pei Ling, who at 27 is the youngest-ever People's Action Party candidate to be fielded in this year's general election. We couldn't help it, though, with her initial interviews at her unveiling that revealed either a lack of preparedness on her part or what we hope isn't a lack of maturity in thinking, having famously said that her biggest regret in life is not having taken her parents to Universal Studios Singapore yet, and undoubtedly, her frustrated foot-stamping fit after suddenly finding herself at a loss of, ahem, "what to say".

We must qualify ourselves, however, as we believe she has not disappointed the residents of Macpherson -- the ward she is in charge of -- and so far seems to have said and done reasonable things after her appointment to the position. We, too, are willing to give her a chance.

2. Singapore's gangster-of-the-moment, Aaron Tan

18-year-old Aaron Tan made a belated appearance on the Internet space this year, indeed, having uploaded his now-(in)famous video early last week. Yet, his angst-filled, Hokkien-swear-word-laced 10-minute rant against a 14-year-old boy who stole his 16-year-old girlfriend has made waves across Singapore's cyberspace and beyond, indeed, even to the U.S. Since then, more than 20 videos have been uploaded to YouTube in response to his "death-threatening" monologue, ranging from parodies to dance mixes, and it appears our "brother" Tan will not exit the minds of Singaporeans -- or indeed, internet users around the world -- anytime soon.

1) The National Day Parade Fun Pack Song

This took first place in our list, firstly, for how terrible it sounds and, secondly, as a testament to the power of online media -- for it was through a single clip on YouTube (that was later taken down, where another user then re-uploaded it) that hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans were able to discover and condemn it within a matter of days -- even pushing National Day Parade (NDP) organisers to pull the offending two-and-a-half minute song from its lineup.

Certainly, one of the key takeaways from this incident for this year's NDP organisers is it isn't a good idea to rewrite lyrics of popular songs, particularly when you haven't obtained the rights to do so (Actually, we suspect this wasn't even the point on most Singaporeans' minds). After rigorous attempts to stop the question from being asked when the star passed through our shores, Lady Gaga was eventually quite polite about it, claiming she liked it -- but we are pretty sure she was among the very few who felt that way.