Google has revealed its statistics for the most-searched topics in the UK, with Oasis and ‘How to get tickets’ among the most popular.
The new figures were shared by the search engine, and revealed the famous faces, events and news-worthy moments that got people across the UK searching across the past 12 months.
Among sports events like the Euros and the Paris Olympics, and political events like the US Presidential election and UK general election, there were a handful of music-related events that made the list. These, unsurprisingly, included the massive announcement that Oasis would be making their highly-awaited return to the stage – confirming a string of huge stadium gigs in the UK and Ireland to take place next summer.
The news was soon followed by the announcement of dates in North America, South America, Australia, South Korea and Japan.
According to the Google figures, Oasis were the most searched-for artist of the year, and “How to get Oasis tickets” was the second most popular ‘How to’ search of the past 12 months – coming in just behind “How to vote in the UK” (via Sky News).
The latter comes as little surprise as the scramble for tickets to their UK and Ireland shows made countless headlines earlier this year. This stemmed from the huge demand from fans, which led to Ticketmaster crashing and people facing huge queues that left them waiting for hours, as well as the use of dynamic pricing, which was later brought into question by the UK government after the ordeal.
Another music-related search on the ‘How to’ list was “How to vote for the UK in Eurovision”.
Another artist named in the top searches for 2024 was soloist and former One Direction star Liam Payne, who died in October, aged 31, after falling from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was second in the list of the highest searches for 2024, just behind the Euros.
As for music-related searches, Sabrina Carpenter, One Direction and Dave Grohl placed behind Oasis, listed in second, third and fourth spots respectively. Others who made the list were RAYE – most likely for her record-breaking number of wins at this year’s BRITs and huge performances at Reading & Leeds – as well as Coldplay, who announced new album ‘Moon Music’ and headlined Glastonbury, and Linkin Park, who announced their comeback tour and new album ‘From Zero’.
The most searched-for musicians and artists in 2024 were:
1. Oasis
2. Sabrina Carpenter
3. One Direction
4. Dave Grohl
5. RAYE
6. Coldplay
7. Chappell Roan
8. Linkin Park
9. Justin Timberlake
10. Cyndi Lauper
As for films, the Top Five were rounded out by Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, It Ends With Us, Inside Out 2, Dune: Part Two, and Deadpool & Wolverine, while the Top Five searched-for shows in the UK were Baby Reindeer, Fool Me Once, The Gentlemen, One Day and Fallout.
As for news-worthy events that made the top ranking, teenage darts sensation Luke Littler made the list after he made history as the youngest player to reach the PDC World Championship final in January, as did Kate Middleton, The Princess Of Wales, after her cancer diagnosis, and Jay Slater, the British teenager who went missing in Tenerife and was later found dead.
Other popular searches included the Jake Paul Vs Mike Tyson fight, the date of the US presidential election and the ways to watch the Paris Olympics in the UK.
As for Oasis, the band have already ruled out a headline performance at Glastonbury 2025 and said they won’t be appearing at any other festivals next summer. Liam and Noel have also shot down rumours of a return to Knebworth in 2026 too.
The band did, however, announce that Cage The Elephant will be serving as opening support on their North American leg while former Verve frontman and soloist Richard Ashcroft and Cast will be joining the Mancunian icons on their UK and Ireland dates.
Elsewhere, Liam recently went back on his claims that the band are currently recording a new album, telling fans “It was a laugh”, and he also won a PETA Award after adopting a homeless dog and raising thousands for charity.
