Dirty Dancing was this year's most popular event, beating Robbie Williams and George Michael in online searches for tickets, according to Google.

The search engine today revealed which tickets had been searched for most this year.

The list contains three West End shows - Dirty Dancing, Spamalot and the Sound Of Music - and experts say it shows the re-emergence of West End musicals.

Since the start of the year there have been 20 new musicals in the West End, and a recent survey reported that 42 per cent of theatre-goers said there was no such thing as too many.

Dirty Dancing has just extended its run by six months and, with £11 million in advance sales, is the fastest selling show in West End history.

The Sound Of Music, with Lesley Garrett and Connie Fisher - winner of reality TV programme How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? - has also broken box office records by taking £1.1million in the first eight hours of tickets going on sale. Only George Michael, The Killers, The Kooks and the Arctic Monkeys were able to rival the shows in Google's results, and artists such as Robbie Williams, Madonna and Kylie failed to make the top 10.

Experts say online buyers are no longer just internet savvy children, but that older users are increasingly using Google as well.

Tom Dunmore of gadget magazine Stuff said: " People who perhaps would not buy anything else online will now buy tickets, and I think the fact West End shows did so well are a reflection of this."

Tom Cruise's wedding was the most searched for, while Britney Spears' divorce was also popular .

"It's always rewarding to look at what caught people's imagination in the UK," a Google spokesman said.

Sell-out seats - Google's most searched for tickets

Dirty Dancing
George Michael
The Killers
The Kooks
Sound Of Music
Arctic Monkeys
Spamalot
Radiohead
Pink
Tenacious D