Trending This Week: Taylor Swift, Plus the Saddest, Sweetest Video We’ve Ever Seen

November 14, 2014

This week on the Spotlight channel, we bought whatever these fake commercials are selling and feted Movember’s finest moustaches.

And here’s what else bedecked our upper lip:



Taylor Swift - Blank Space

While a Swift hit is hardly @breakingnews here at YouTube, we’d be remiss not to mention the week’s single biggest kahuna. Bolstered by a surprise release and a tantalizing subject matter (Taylor’s mascara-streaked self-parodying as a crazy girlfriend), “Blank Space” set a new personal record for first-day view count, with over 4 million hits on Monday. Forget Kim K: from where we sit, it was Taylor Swift who broke the Internet this week.



Epic Rap Battles of History - Ghostbusters vs Mythbusters

At this point, ERB’s a bonafide institution. Back for their fourth season, their first video, a face-off between the ‘busters, proves their schtick’s still starp, the raps’re still smart, and they’re still bringing the views to the yard (over 6M in a couple days).



Obese2Beast - My Biggest Insecurity: Loose Skin

We recently wrote about YouTube’s body image empowerment videos, but we haven’t seen one like this. John David Glaude recently lost 160 pounds, and has a YouTube channel motivating others with tips, workouts, and Q&As. His latest video focuses on the loose skin left in the wake of extreme weight loss, but whether or not you can relate to this journey, his candid confrontation of the thing about himself he hates the most feels incredibly courageous. And with over 4 million views in three days, it clearly struck a chord.



K.C. Hohensee - Blackbird with Lennon

“Blackbird singing in the dead of night/Take these broken wings and learn to fly.” If there’s a more intimate, touching, tear-jerking "Blackbird" cover, we haven’t seen it. In this clip, which went viral this week, musician Chris Picco serenades his newborn son Lennon, who’d been delivered via emergency C-section after the sudden passing of Picco’s wife. The gentle tribute (shot just a day before little Lennon passed away) has drawn tears around the world.

-- Claire Stapleton

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