The weird finalists for TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year 2014

TIME magazine today unveiled its finalists for 2014 Person of the Year and it’s a motley crew including singers, presidents and protesters.

LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 05: Singer Taylor Swift performs onstage during KIIS FM's Jingle Ball 2014 powered by LINE at Staples Center on December 5, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)

TIME magazine today unveiled its finalists for 2014 TIME Magazine Person of the Year.

The award, which will be announced in the US overnight, is supposed to recognise a person, group, idea or object that “for better or for worse ... has done the most to influence the events of the year”.

Tim Cook from Apple is recognised for his technology brilliance but also for being the first openly gay Fortune 500 CEO.

According to the TIME Magazine website, this year’s shortlist includes:

The Ferguson protesters, who took to the streets in August following the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer, and again in November when a grand jury declined to indict the officer in the killing.

The Ebola caregivers, who are still fighting the biggest Ebola outbreak in history, that has so far taken the lives of nearly 7,000 people in West Africa.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who has remained in the headlines throughout this year, from his country’s stewardship of the Winter Olympics in Sochi to its annexation of Crimea, and its role in the ongoing civil strife in eastern Ukraine.

Is Putin’s influence felt as much in America as in Australia? Time will tell.

Taylor Swift, one of the world’s top-selling pop artists, who this year shook up the music industry by pulling her music from streaming service Spotify, which she believes should compensate artists more.

Jack Ma, an English teacher turned founder and CEO of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant which debuted a $25 billion IPO.

Tim Cook, who introduced Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple Watch, and Apple Pay this year, and whose decision to come out made him the first openly gay Fortune 500 CEO.

Masoud Barzani, the acting president of the Iraqi Kurdish Region since 2005, who has deftly threaded the region’s push for independence with the ongoing fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria.

Roger Goodell, the National Football League commissioner whose leadership has been under great scrutiny this year as the league dealt with public incidents of domestic abuse by players such as Ray Rice, among other controversies.

Kurdish Regional Government President Masoud Barzani is a controversial inclusion.

It’s an interesting list that has sparked fierce debate among commentators. Online snarks have questioned the validity of pop icon Taylor Swift’s nod while others have asked how Barzani made the cut.

“My guess is that Barzani isn’t listed here because TIME has much interest in him specifically,” writes Joshua Keating for political website Slate. “Rather, the magazine wants to somehow recognise the ISIS situation — one of the year’s biggest news stories — without having to declare ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi a candidate for person of the year. This is a cop out.”

Last year saw Pope Francis crowned the winner while the year before the title went to Barack Obama.

Who do you think will win? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

The Ferguson protesters are news.com.au’s pick for title.

Originally published as The weird finalists for TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year 2014