Trending This Week on YouTube: The Clouds Part When Beyoncé Sings and Emma Watson Speaks

September 26, 2014

Here at YouTube Trends HQ, we live every day like it’s a live taping of The Streamys. This week on the Spotlight channel, we spent a lot of time in quiet contemplation of the strangeness of humans with these daredevil stunts, extreme selfies, and unexpected world records (raw onion-eating, parallel parking, and so on).

And here’s what else lit up our eye/brain system:



Beyoncé - “Young Forever/Halo”

Recently, being a fan of the greatest couple in the history of humanity has felt like a rollercoaster ride through a tunnel of mysteries. (Not easy, OK?) But watching this resplendent concert footage makes it all worth it. Was it the imagery of a stadium lit up by warm glow of a million iPhones? The home movie of baby Blue Ivy toddling around in a little Bumbo chair? The celestial opening chords of “Halo”? We don’t know, but we needed a box of Kleenex after watching this. Beyoncé: we can feel your halo, girl.



HeForShe - Emma Watson HeForShe Speech at the United Nations

The last time we thought about Emma Watson, we were probably shouting “‘ermione Granger!” in our best (worst) Cockney drawl. Now 24 years old and the U.N. Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, she gave a stunning, stirring speech this week to launch a new gender campaign called #HeForShe. Her honest treatise on feminism also dropped some seriously useful nuggets of wisdom: “In my nervousness for this speech and in my moments of doubt I've told myself firmly: if not me, who? If not now, when? If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you, I hope those words might be helpful.” Dare we suggest that the humble starlet has a magic touch?



Unbox Therapy - iPhone 6 Bend Test

With iPhone 6 fever at an epic high over the past month, it’s perhaps not surprising the biggest hoss on the range this week was this Unbox Therapy video in which, as advertised, a guy bends an iPhone with his bare hands. If you read the title, you got the gist, but that didn’t stop this clip from getting a whopping 35 million hits (making it the biggest hit of the month). Boi-oi-oi-oing!



KLM - Lost & Found Service

Dutch Airlines KLM racked up almost 5 million views this week on a video that profiles a beagle named Sherlock who trots around the airport finding (and returning?) lost property to unsuspecting travelers. While we were sure this was a gripping piece of cinema verité, it turned out to be a marketing stunt (that little hound is nothing more than an actor). While we're still confused by the brand strategy that sold this through, we can agree that cuteness in all forms is worth celebrating.

-- Claire Stapleton

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