With a whole year ahead, new trends and breakthroughs are bound to occur. Teens across the country use the social media app TikTok to list their predictions about pop culture and global events that will happen in the coming year. Other social media and news sources have noticed these predictions and taken their own spin on these theories to reach even more audiences. Some seniors at WCHS agree with these predictions and believe that they could be accurate.

1. Southwest Airlines will go out of business: 

At the end of 2022 during the December holiday season, several families traveled through Southwest Airlines. One specific issue with the airline was prevalent: passengers never received their luggage back after their flight was canceled. According to USA Today, Southwest first angered several customers by canceling their flights, but also checked in luggage when customers did not even board a flight. WCHS senior Kira Breslawec is one person who does not trust Southwest Airlines. 

“Observing friends go on winter vacations and hearing about lost luggage leaves a bad impression on my family. We will not be flying with Southwest again due to a high risk of dropping personal belongings.”

2. Rihanna will come back to Pop Music with an album: 

After Rihanna announced that she would be the main performance at the 2023 Halftime Superbowl, her fans believed that she was returning to the music industry. Since Rihanna focused her attention onto her makeup brand in 2016, Fenty Beauty, she has been unable to release an album. “MuchMusic,” a popular TikTok account, predicts that Rihanna will release new music because of the new Super Bowl teaser she released. Rihanna is seen to be “shushing” other voices, which MuchMusic believes is Rihanna’s way of telling her fanbase that she is back. WCHS senior Danielle Faerberg, longtime Rihanna fan, agrees with this prediction. 

“After Rihanna released her single ‘Lift Me Up’ for the new ‘Black Panther’ movie, I thought she might release more music,” Faerberg said. “I believe that the Super Bowl teaser confirms my beliefs and I am expecting a new album from Rihanna in a few months.”

3. “Top Gun: Maverick” will win an Oscar: 

When the sequel to the original “Top Gun” came out in May of 2022, the movie attracted audiences of all ages. The older generation wanted to see Tom Cruise back in action at an older age, while the teenage population were interested in new supporting characters played by Miles Teller and Jennifer Connelly. According to Bulwark, “Top Gun: Maverick”  has a good chance at winning an Oscar for Best Picture because it is a popular blockbuster and contains one of the last classic Hollywood movie stars. The sequel also had better quality and looked more realistic compared to the original movie, which increased ratings and viewership. Senior Rubani Singh is a fan of the new sequel. 

“I do see ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ winning an Oscar because of the amount of positive feedback it has earned,” Singh said. “With Tom Cruise in the movie, it filled much of the criteria that fans were looking for.”

4. Frank Ocean will perform for the last time at Coachella: 

Known for being both a songwriter and writer, Frank Ocean is coming out of retirement to perform at the annual Coachella festival at Indio, California. Fans of his albums “Blonde,” “channel ORANGE” and “In My Room” rushed to buy tickets once the announcement was made. However, some longtime fans expect that this will be his final performance or appearance after a long successful career. Several of Ocean’s younger fans posted TikToks about wanting to go to Coachella during the summer, causing the demand for tickets to increase. Senior Sky Sporidis has supported Frank Ocean for several years. 

“Although this may be Ocean’s final show, I will continue to listen to his music and be a supporting fan,” Sporidis said. “Although saving up for a trip to California might be expensive, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity I hope not to miss.”

As the year progresses, teens on TikTok will be interested to observe if their predictions come true. The wide variety of topics makes WCHS with different backgrounds and hobbies come together and find common interests.