The emerging 10 contenders for TIME magazine's Person of the Year range from officials to activists to tech giants, with one headline-making pop star.
The 10 finalists for the honor include: Syrian president Bashar Assad; Amazon founder Jeff Bezos; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; performer Miley Cyrus; Pope Francis; President Barack Obama; Iran president Hassan Rouhani; Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services; NSA leaker Edward Snowden and gay rights activist Edith Windsor.
The group was announced Monday morning on the TODAY show, TIME.com reported. The Person of the Year will be named on Wednesday.
Obama, who won Person of the Year in 2008 and 2012, was the only name on last year's list to also be on this year's, according to TIME.
Fellow American president Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only person in the history of the award to win the TIME title three times.
The tradition began in 1927, when the award was known as "Man of the Year." The honor is given to the person chosen by TIME's editors as the one who had the most influence on the news this year, "for good or bad."
Nancy Gibbs, the magazine's managing editor, explained why Cyrus was chosen.
"Power is not just political. It can be cultural, it can be spiritual," she was quoted as saying by TODAY. "At a time when you're living with an explosion of exhibitionism since we all now carry cameras with us at all times, she is a symbol of the way we live."
TIME also featured an online poll, where readers chose Egypt's General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi as the Person of the Year for 2013.
After a total of 1,928,130 votes cast worldwide, the general who felled a democratically chosen government beat out Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Cyrus for Person of the Year.
According to TIME, Sisi's votes "were driven by massive support from his native Egypt: the country accounted for the largest number of votes on the TIME.com poll."
TODAY is also hosting an online poll where viewers can choose among the top 10 finalists.
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