From record-breaking sellout concerts to a Grammy win for Hawaii, 2017 will be remembered as a great year in local entertainment.

Here’s my look back at the year’s stage, screen, art and music highlights.

>> Jo Koy: Filipino-American comedianKoy, originally scheduled for a single appearance at Blaisdell Concert Hall, made Hawaii entertainment history in November when he sold out 11 shows — a first for a solo act. Koy, who first performed here in 2001, has a large following in Hawaii, and his recent Toyota commercial, Netflix comedy special and frequent YouTube posts helped stoke “Koy-mania.”

>> Keauhou: Nicholas Keali‘i Lum, Zachary Alaka‘i Lum and Jonah Kahanuola Solatorio swept the 2017 Na Hoku Hanohano Awards when the trio’s self-titled debut album won all nine categories it was up for, including Album of the Year and Group of the Year. It was the first time in the history of the Hoku Awards that any recording artist had captured nine categories, let alone for a debut album.

>> Kalani Pe‘a: His debut album, “E Walea,” won a Grammy for Best Regional Roots Music Album in February, marking the first win for a Hawaii-resident artist since the Hawaiian music category was eliminated in 2011. “E Walea” also won a Hoku for contemporary album in May, the first time a Hawaii-resident recording artist has won a Grammy and a Hoku for the same project.

>> Beach Boys founder: Brian Wilson added Honolulu to his expanded “Pet Sounds 50th Anniversary Tour: The Final Performances,” playing a one-nighter in the Blaisdell Concert Hall in June. He was joined by a second founding member, rhythm guitarist Al Jardine, for a show that included all the songs on the groundbreaking “Pet Sounds” album and all the Beach Boys’ hits as well. Wilson described the tour as his last “on this scale.”

>> Journey: Honolulu’s biggest arena rock event was Journey’s three-night sellout run in February. Founding member Neal Schon showed the guys weren’t running on autopilot when he gave the hit-packed second show an “only in Hawaii” moment by introducing Journey’s ballad “Lights” with a dedication to the late concert promoter and radio personality Tom Moffatt.

Other noteworthy Blaisdell Arena concerts by island favorites:

>> UB40: The old-time policy of “Smoke it if you got it” was in full effect as UB40 featuring Ali, Astro and Mickey entertained an enthusiastic crowd of international reggae fans in January with a show that surpassed previous “career-best” performances here. The set list stretched from the band’s earliest hits to songs from the trio’s current album.

>> Michael Bolton: The singer revealed himself a master of self-deprecating humor and soulful power ballads during his Valentine’s Day show.

>> Carlos Santana: He made good on his promise that the show would be like the sun reflected in a mirror at high noon when he and his namesake band rocked the arena in April. The concert included a showstopping, powerhouse drum solo by Cindy Blackman Santana.

The highly topical subjects of race, sex, economic class and gender identity were imaginatively addressed on local stages in ways that touched the soul and challenged convention in 2017’s most memorable productions:

>> Curtis Duncan and Wendy Pearson: The duo starred as childhood friends divided by issues of sex, gender roles, dark skin vs. “high yella,” social class, body type and “good hair” in The Actors’ Group’s brutally realistic production of “Yellowman,” which opened in January.

>> Kent Overshown and Lindsay Roberts as Coalhouse and Sarah, respectively, brought Broadway-caliber talent to Diamond Head Theatre’s glorious fall production of “Ragtime,” a musical about American perspectives on race, class and economic opportunity in the early 20th century that is chillingly relevant today.

>> Jeff Brackett: He gave a winning performance as an Elvis impersonator forced to become a female impersonator in November’s “The Legend of Georgia McBride” at Manoa Valley Theatre. Many plays about gay, lesbian or transgender people tell the audience what to think and to feel. “Georgia” contained a statement about the lives of gay men that advanced the story rather than stopping it for a lecture.

>> Alisa Boland and Ari Dalber: For fans of classic theater, the titular performances of Boland and Dalbert made the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival production of “Romeo and Juliet” the most emotionally intense local staging of the tragedy in at least 30 years.

>> Frederica von Stade: Opera fans experienced mezzo-soprano von Stade, described by Honolulu Star-Advertiser writer Steven Mark as “one of the great opera performers of the last 40 years, singing the role of a lifetime,” in the chamber opera “Three Decembers,” presented in March by Hawaii Opera Theatre. Soprano Rachele Gilmore earned a long ovation for her uber-virtuoso performance in HOT’s “Tales of Hoffman,” presented in April. Kate Aldrich “embodied the role of Carmen vocally, physically and sensually” in HOT’s October production of “Carmen.”

>> Isabella Ellaheh Hughes and the Honolulu Biennial Foundation: Honolulu joined the ranks of New York, Shanghai, Sydney and a select few other cultural capitals when Isabella Ellaheh Hughes and the Honolulu Biennial Foundation presented the inaugural Honolulu Biennial 2017. The two-month event, which kicked off in March, featured the work of more than 30 artists at nine sites and focused on art from the Pacific, Asia and the Americas, drawing international recognition and attention. An exhibit of work by acclaimed multimedia artist Yayoi Kusama drew record crowds.

>> Art exhibit: Art fans also embraced “Abstract Expressionism: Looking East from the Far West” curated by Theresa Papanikolas at the Honolulu Museum of Art. It was the first museum exhibition to bring artists of the New York School together with Asian-American artists, many of them from or connected to Hawaii, who studied and worked in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. Viewers were invited to examine the ways in which Asian traditions such as calligraphy and Zen Buddhism influenced the evolution of abstract expressionism in the United States. (The exhibit, which opened in September, continues through Jan. 21; honolulumuseum.org.)

>> Stacey Hayashi: “Go For Broke: An Origin Story,” Hayashi’s long-anticipated feature film, had its world premiere in November as the closing-night film of the Hawaii International Film Festival. The moving film, with music by Jake Shimabukuro, is noteworthy for spotlighting local heroes who fought widespread racial discrimination in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack so they could serve their country as the 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team. A number of Nisei veterans attended a private preview screening in October.

>> John Landovsky: He retired after 34 years as founder/director of Hawaii State Ballet. Looking back, Landovsky said that his full-length, three-show production of “Giselle,” presented in 1993 with his three most advanced dancers each performing opposite guest dancer Bryan Skates, was the show of which he was most proud.

>> Henry Akina: He retired after 20 years as artistic director of Hawaii Opera Theatre, having increased appreciation of opera in Hawaii by ramping up year-round programs, expanding education and balancing the repertoire between classics and new works. He directed 20 operas between 1996 and 2017.

>> Gone too soon: Hawaii mourned the deaths of ukulele master and filmmaker Eddie Kamae (January); ukulele jazz pioneer Lyle Ritz, who adopted Hawaii as his home (March); multitalented Hawaiian singer/musician Martin Pahinui (May); famed Hawaiian falsetto singer and keyboardist Mahi Beamer (July 14); irrepressible Hawaiian entertainer Roland Cazimero (July 16); Alvin Fejarang, original drummer for Kalapana (August); television’s Gomer Pyle and showroom star Jim Nabors, a longtime Hawaii resident (November); contemporary Christian recording artist Randy Hongo (Dec. 16); and magician/actor Fred Ball, aka Professor Fun (December).