The year 2023 was full of crazy events in pop culture from the iconic Taylor Swift Eras Tour to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Ski Trial and many more, covering them all was a challenge. So here are my top five 2023 pop culture moments.

Spain wins the women’s World Cup for the first time

On August 20, 2023, Spain’s Women’s Soccer Team made history with a 1-0 win over England, and the girls secured their first-ever World Cup win. The team also broke the 16-year streak of Europe not having a  FIFA Women’s World Cup Title. When the final whistle blew, the Spanish players piled on top of each other in joy and danced on the field until presented with their well-deserved trophy. It was a tough battle between the two teams but in the end, Spain’s incredible defense carried them across the battlefield to victory.

Barbie vs Oppenheimer

  Barbie vs Oppenheimer was a debate that took over the internet in June and July. Both movies premiered on July 21, 2023. The Barbie movie made over 155 million dollars in the U.S. on opening day; that’s almost twice the amount that Oppenheimer made and is the highest-grossing box office movie in 2023. That’s not to say Oppenheimer wasn’t successful; it certainly was making 82 million dollars on opening day. A major reason for the difference was how each movie marketed itself. Barbie was everywhere with ads on almost every social media platform, and they stayed active on social media. Oppenheimer did less marketing compared to Barbie having a few ads here and there, but who won Barbie vs Oppenheimer is up to you.

The Ocean Gate Incident

On June 18, 2023, a submersible named the Titan with five passengers, owned by the company OceanGate,  imploded on a journey to see the Titanic. The Titan lost contact with the mother ship one hour and 45 minutes after launch. The main reason it gained so much attention from the media was from all the memes made about the loss of contact and the general idea of the submersible. It was most popular on the sites TikTok and Twitter. Four days after the Titan went missing, debris from the submersible was found and it was confirmed to the world that there were no survivors. After that, even more memes and videos were made about the incident. 

 Jared Leto Scales the Empire State Building

Jared Leto has done some questionable things in his lifetime from starting a cult to starring in Mobius. This year he really topped it off by climbing the Empire State Building to promote his band’s tour in 2024. On November 9, 2023, Jared Leto climbed from floor 86 to the 104th floor. As an avid rock climber, Jared Leto decided that his method of getting up the building was to scale it on the outside of the building. Thousands of Americans got on the internet to watch this man climb the building. Overall, it was anticlimactic but for some reason, the internet went crazy.

 Met Gala cockroach

The 2023 Met Gala had lots of special guests including Daniel Riccardo, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, and many more. But the star of the runway was a cockroach. It was an iconic moment for a being like a cockroach to go under the spotlight of such a prestigious event. After the event, Philip Lewis tweeted, “She is an icon, She is a legend. She is the moment.” It was later revealed that the cockroach had been unfortunately stepped on.

Overall, 2023 has been an exciting year for most people and an interesting one across the internet. These were only some of the things that happened this year in the media. If I missed any of your favorite moments of 2023 let me know.

Charlotte Supik, Staff Writer

Junior Charlotte is a staff writer for the 2023-2024 Colonel Newsmagazine. She enjoys spending time at the barn when possible. When she is not at the barn she can be seen with her best friends blasting music way too loud or enjoying a long novel.