Is it a ‘best-of-end-of-year’ list you are after? You’ve come to the right place

Is it a bumper end of year list you are after? You’ve come to the right place. Louise Bruton wraps up her best (and worst) bands, tracks, festivals, videos, gigs, movies and much more from the last year.

Best Band

1. The Blaze
2. Young Fathers
3. Saint Sister
4. Little Mix
5. Villagers
6. The Internet
7. Off Bloom
8. The 1975
9. The Rhythm Method
10. Bad Bones

Best Solo Act

1. Ariana Grande
2. Janelle Monáe
3. Lily Allen
4. Troye Sivan
5. Robyn
6. Kacey Musgraves
7. Britney Spears
8. Blood Orange
9. Nakhane
10. Cardi B

Best Track
1. Thank U, Next – Ariana Grande
2. Make Me Feel – Janelle Monáe
3. Missing U – Robyn
4. My! My! My! – Troye Sivan
5. High Horse – Kacey Musgraves
6. Out of Your League – Blood Orange
7. Family Man – Lily Allen
8. Places – The Blaze
9. You Never Call (James Vincent McMorrow Remix) – Saint Sister
10. Boys – Lizzo

Best Album
1. Dirty Computer – Janelle Monáe
2. Sweetener – Ariana Grande
3. Bloom – Troye Sivan
4. No Shame – Lily Allen
5. Honey – Robyn
6. Shape of Silence – Saint Sister
7. Negro Swan – Blood Orange
8. Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves
9. The Art of Pretending To Swim – Villagers
10. You Will Not Die – Nakhane

Best Video
1. Pynk – Janelle Monae
2. Thank U, Next – Ariana Grande
3. This Is America – Childish Gambino
4. Apeshit – The Carters
5. Make Me Feel – Janelle Monáe
6. Dance to This – Troye Sivan feat. Ariana Grande
7. Party for One – Carly Rae Jepsen
8. I Love It – Kanye West & Lil Pump (feat. Adele Givens)
9. Fast Slow Disco – St. Vincent
10. Bye Bye – Mattiel

Best Festival
1. Another Love Story
2. Body & Soul
3. It Takes A Village
4. All Together Now
5. Galway International Arts Festival
6. Other Voices
7. Electric Picnic
8. Drop Everything
9. Longitude
10. Dublin Fringe Festival

Best Gig
1. Kacey Musgraves – The Olympia, November 6th
2. Lily Allen – The Olympia, December 11th
3. Britney Spears – 3Arena, August 20th
4. Kendrick Lamar – 3Arena , February 7th
5. Kylie Minogue – 3Arena, December 3rd
6. Sigrid – The Olympia, November 5th
7. Solange – Longitude, July 15th
8. Taylor Swift – Croke Park, June 15th
9. Young Fathers – It Takes A Village, April 14th
10. Nils Frahm – All Together Now, August 5th

Best Actors in TV and Film
1. Lady Gaga in A Star is Born
2. Olivia Coleman in The Favourite
3. Sandra Oh in Killing Eve
4. Rachel Weisz in The Favourite
5. Lupita Nyong’o in Black Panther
6. The children in The Haunting of Hill House
7. Michelle Williams in I Feel Pretty (terrible movie but she did very well here)
8. Emily Blunt in A Quiet Place
9. Brian Gleeson in The Bisexual
10. Noah Centineo in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

Best Movie
1. A Star is Born
2. The Favourite
3. Tully
4. A Quiet Place
5. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
6. Coco
7. Rosie
8. Black Panther
9.  The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid
10. Incredibles 2

Shout out to the worst movie I saw this year, Slaughterhouse Rulez.

Best (and worst) TV Experiences
1. Attending the Love Island final in the Omniplex Cinema in Rathmines.

2. Bingeing on The Haunting of Hill House, living for each episode and tipping into vaults of the TV modules I studied in college, only to be sorely disappointed by the final episode

3. Bingeing on the first season of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and sharing the loveliness, only to realise that I am too cynical for the increased loveliness of season two. 

4. Watching and falling in love with The Bisexual and cursing creators Desiree Akhavan and Rowan Riley for being so talented.

5. Being pleasantly surprised by the glow up of season two of Glow. Far superior to the first.

6. Discovering Great News and rushing through the first two seasons before finding out that it was cancelled. I should have dragged it out.

7. The DRAMA of police officer Kat Chapman dying in Home and Away, as Ash summons an army of River Boys to avenge her death.

8. Discovering Fleabag and accidentally devouring the first season in one sitting. I have control issues.

9. Unsettling my hangovers even more by watching Saturday night’s recording of Killing Eve on Sundays.

10. The incredible cast and the warped and dark humour in The End of the F***ing World.