Prayers and pranks get Pinoys through the pandemic

YouTube releases lists of top videos in PHL

VIDEO sharing platform YouTube has announced the videos that got Filipinos through the long lockdowns, with singer Marcelito Pomoy’s rendition of “The Prayer” topping the year end charts followed by several prank videos, because if there’s something Filipinos love doing it’s marvelling at their countrymen’s talent in singing competitions and laughing at prank videos.

“Filipinos use YouTube to tell and listen to stories, providing some form of comfort in this extremely challenging year. It is inspiring to see how the creators continued to show wayfinding to support one another as a community and to keep their viewers engaged despite the odds,” Mervin Wenke, communications and public affairs head at Google Philippines, said in a statement.

Marcelito Pomoy’s “The Prayer” was uploaded by America’s Got Talent on Jan. 13 and is the top “trending video that entertained Filipinos in 2020.”

Mr. Pomoy, who won Pilipinas Got Talent in 2011 and is known for singing in both male and female voices, competed once again — this time internationally — in America’s Got Talent: The Champions. While he didn’t win the talent show (he finished fourth), the video of him singing “The Prayer,” popularized by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion, has more than 45 million views as of this writing.

Following Mr. Pomoy’s video is a prank done to YouTuber and actress Ivana Alawi by TV personality Raffy Tulfo on his show Idol in Action. The video was uploaded on May 12 with views currently sitting at 25 million views.

One of the top comments on the video, written in the vernacular, says: “This has been sitting on my feed for so long and who else just watched this video for the first time because you have nothing else to do? Who’s with me?”

The YouTube list is peppered with several prank videos like the Boyfriend Prank by Ms. Alawi at the fourth spot, a prank by YouTube couple Ja Mill at the seventh spot, and another prank by actor Jak Roberto celebrating his 500,000 subscribers at the ninth spot.

Ms. Alawi also topped the top creators list for this year.

While much of the list is fun and games, the year end trending videos had YouTube creators who recently died taking spots in the Top Ten, namely: Emman Nimedez and Lloyd Cadena. Mr. Nimedez’s May 17 video, titled “Kailangan Niyo Na Rin Malaman,” sits at the 6^th spot while the video by Mr. Cadena’s mother titled “Ask Mother Kween (Anong Mangyayare sa YouTube ni Lloyd)” sits at the 5^th spot.

Mr. Nimedez lost his battle with acute myeloid leukemia in August while Mr. Cadena succumbed to COVID-19 in September.

For the music videos that topped the YouTube trending charts, hip-hop is king in 2020 as local rappers and groups released their original tracks, taking six out of 10 spots on the list.

Topping the list is Flow G’s “Araw araw Love” which currently has 63 million views, followed by three K-pop songs: BlackPink’s “How You Like That” music video, their “Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)” music video, and BTS’s “Dynamite” music video.

“The heart of YouTube is its creators and we recognize their important role in providing not just relevant content but even hope to Filipinos in the time of what turned out to be a difficult 2020,” Mr. Wenke said in the statement. — ZBC