Coming up with a year-ender wrap-up for 2025 is no easy task. The year produced an overwhelming number of men and women in showbiz who barely had to lift a finger to become controversial — or, conversely, to be considered among the most accomplished. Some people simply have “it,” an innate quality that makes them compelling no matter the circumstance.

We begin with the longest-surviving, despite enduring multiple autoimmune ailments that have sidelined her from accepting projects: the country’s all-time “Multimedia Queen,” Kris Aquino.

She also happens to be the only person we’ve heard of who managed to gain a boyfriend while being bedridden most of the time. These relationships were short-lived, and naming those inconstant men would be pointless.

Lea Salonga remains our most valuable performer on the international stage, particularly in narrative theater. According to Google’s AI, in 2025 Salonga appeared in three major productions and logged over 30 international solo shows across North America and Asia.

Her busy year included participation in a foreign animated global hit, KPop Demon Hunters, where she provided the singing voice for Celine. She starred as the Witch in the Philippine production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods, which ran in August at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Manila. In December 2025, she joined the cast of Les Misérables: The World Tour Spectacular for its Manila engagement, playing Madame Thénardier. She also guested on an episode of Finding Your Roots in January 2025 and was selected to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as part of the Class of 2025–2026.

Salonga’s international solo tour, Stage, Screen & Everything In Between, included 32 shows in North America, four shows in Asia (Singapore and Bangkok), and eight shows in Europe that began in 2024 and continued into 2025. In total, she performed in over 30 international solo shows during the year.

For the past few years, live theater companies have been more productive than film studios. Audiences flocked to shows like the Philippine Educational Theater Association’s (PETA) Walang Aray, even with a general admission ticket priced at P800 — almost twice the cost of a movie ticket. Not all Filipino fans are eager to watch movie stars on screen; many prefer to see actors perform live, in flesh and blood, onstage.

PETA made history this year by casting a trans woman in a female lead role in Walang Aray, a reimagining of the zarzuela written by Severino Reyes during the American period in the Philippines. That actor is Lance Reblando.

In movies and television, the onscreen loveteam of Kim Chiu and Paulo Avelino is hands down the pair to watch, even without proof that their partnership extends offscreen. Their projects — Linlang, What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim and The Alibi — kept viewers hooked without the expectation of public displays of affection. Meanwhile, the young loveteams formed from the Pinoy Big Brother collaboration between ABS-CBN and GMA7 generated plenty of noise and social media buzz but have yet to amass enough substantial projects to be taken seriously.