UPDATE 29/01/17: Here’s the full wrap of the triple J Hottest 200 of 2016
UPDATE: The Hottest 200 countdown has begun. See the live updated list here.
UPDATE: The winner of triple j‘s Hottest 100 of 2016 has been announced.
ORIGINAL STORY: January 26 hath arriveth once again, and while the date leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouths of many, triple j‘s Hottest 100 is nonetheless here to soundtrack the backyard barbies and poolside piss-ups that are going down across the nation.
Sharing some sneaky stats prior to this year’s Hottest 100, triple j revealed it’s been a record-breaking year for Aussie musos, with more punters voting for homegrown artists than ever before.
We’ll be updating the list of this year’s Hottest 100 tracks in real time below, to help you keep track of the rankings as the day progresses, so stay tuned to find out whether experts’ hot predictions like Flume’s ‘Never Be Like You’, Amy Shark’s ‘Adore’ or Tash Sultana’s ‘Jungle’ claim top spot.
Frontrunners Flume and Amy Shark bigged each other up earlier this week, with their respective hits tipped to battle it out for first place.
This could very well be the last time we see the Hottest 100 counted down on Australia Day, with triple j currently considering shifting the countdown to a less offensive date, with a final decision to be made in the “second half of 2017”.
But for now, we’re stuck with it, so we might as well sit back, relax and enjoy some of the sickest tunas that 2016 had to offer.
Happy Hottest 100 day, everyone!
Update: Read our Hottest 100 of 2016 midway report
Hottest 100 of 2016 Milestones
- Flume has charted four times with #95 Lose It (Feat. Vic Mensa), #37 Smoke & Retribution (Feat. Vince Staples & Kučka), #8 Say It and #1 Never Be Like You (Feat. Kai).
- Tash Sultana has charted twice with #32 Notion and #3 Jungle.
- Montaigne has appeared on two charted tracks, firstly with her own single #25 Because I Love You and then with Hilltop Hoods on #4 1955.
- Hilltop Hoods have charted twice with #49 Higher (Feat. James Chatburn) and #4 1955 (Feat. Montaigne & Tom Thum).
- Childish Gambino has charted twice with #88 Me And Your Mama and #5 Redbone.
- DMA’s have charted twice with #39 Step Up The Morphine and also with their Cher cover of #6 Believe (Like A Version).
- Vera Blue has appeared on two charted tracks, firstly with her own single #78 Settle and then with Illy on #7 Papercuts.
- Illy has now charted 10 times on the Hottest 100
- Illy has charted twice with #23 Catch 22 (Feat. Anne-Marie) and #7 Papercuts (Feat. Vera Blue).
- Flume has charted three times with #95 Lose It (Feat. Vic Mensa), #37 Smoke & Retribution (Feat. Vince Staples & Kučka) and #8 Say It (Feat. Tove Lo).
- The Weeknd has charted twice with #41 I Feel It Coming (Feat. Daft Punk) and #10 Starboy (Feat. Daft Punk).
- Violent Soho have charted five times with #92 How To Taste, #73 No Shade, #69 So Sentimental, #53 Blanket and #14 Viceroy.
- A.B. Original chart twice with #45 Dumb Things (Like A Version) and #16 January 26.
- Catfish And The Bottlemen have charted three times with #77 Soundcheck, #57 Twice and #19 7.
- Kanye West has charted twice with #72 Famous and #22 Ultralight Beam.
- SAFIA have charted three times with #89 Over You, #85 My Love Is Gone and #26 Make Them Wheels Roll.
- Unearthed High 2016 winner Gretta Ray places at #27 with her winning song Drive.
- The Avalanches have charted three times with #91 Subways, #75 Because I’m Me and #28 Frankie Sinatra.
- Sticky Fingers have charted three times with #51 Outcast At Last, #36 Sad Songs and #29 Our Town.
- RÜFÜS have charted twice with #55 Say A Prayer For Me and #30 Innerbloom (What So Not Remix).
- Drake has charted twice with #99 Too good and #31 One Dance.
- Dune Rats have charted twice in a row with #34 Scott Green and #33 Bullshit.
- Glass Animals have charted three times with #98 Season 2 Episode 3, #63 Life Itself and #38 Youth.
- Broods have charted twice with #71 Free and #42 Heartlines.
- D.D Dumbo has charted twice with #47 Walrus and #44 Satan.
- 32 tracks in the bottom 50 feature Australian Artists.
- Blink-182 return to the Hottest 100 with #54 Bored To Death. Their last appearance was in 2003 with #53 Feeling This.
- Guy Sebastian makes his Hottest 100 debut with his cover of L D R U’s Keeping Score (with Paces) for Like A Version at #56
- Frank Ocean has charted twice with #84 Pink + White and #59 Solo.
- DOPE LEMON has charted twice with #87 Uptown Folks and #62 Marinade.
- The Amity Affliction have charted three times with #76 This Could Be Heartbreak, #67 I Bring The Weather With Me and #65 All Fucked Up.
- Rihanna has appeared on two tracks so far in the countdown, featuring on #99 Too Good with Drake an #72 Famous with Kanye West.
- Radiohead have kept up their regular appearances in the Hottest 100 – becoming the only band to have appeared the first annual Hottest 100 and the latest Hottest 100 #79 Burn The Witch (thanks to @Patrickavenell).
- The Avalanches now hold the record for the longest gap between Hottest 100 entries; their last appearance was in 2001 with Since I Left You and Radio.
- Rhianna’s appearance on #99 Too Good with Drake makes Barbados the 21st country to be represented on the Hottest 100 (thanks to @Patrickavenell).
- Birds Of Tokyo have made their 11th appearance in the Hottest 100 at #100 with Brace.
Hottest 100 of 2016 Countdown (Updated Live)
- 1. Flume – Never Be Like You (Feat. Kai)
- 2. Amy Shark – Adore
- 3. Tash Sultana – Jungle
- 4. Hilltop Hoods – 1955 (Feat. Montaigne & Tom Thum)
- 5. Childish Gambino – Redbone
- 6. DMA’s – Believe (Like A Version)
- 7. Illy – Papercuts (Feat. Vera Blue)
- 8. Flume – Say It (Feat. Tove Lo)
- 9. Peking Duk – Stranger (Feat. Elliphant)
- 10. The Weeknd – Starboy (Feat. Daft Punk)
- 11. PNAU – Chameleon
- 12. Milky Chance – Cocoon
- 13. Mura Masa – Love$ick (Feat. A$AP Rocky)
- 14. Violent Soho – Viceroy
- 15. Miike Snow – Ghenghis Khan
- 16. A.B. Original – January 26 (Feat. Dan Sultan)
- 17. Big Scary – The Opposite Of Us
- 18. Chance The Rapper – All Night (Feat. Knox Fortune)
- 19. Catfish And The Bottlemen – 7
- 20. The xx – On Hold
- 21. The Smith Street Band – Death To The Lads
- 22. Kanye West – Ultralight Beam
- 23. Illy – Catch 22 (Feat. Anne-Marie)
- 24. Cub Sport – Come On Mess Me Up
- 25. Montaigne – Because I Love You
- 26. SAFIA – Make Them Wheels Roll
- 27. Gretta Ray – Drive
- 28. The Avalanches – Frankie Sinatra
- 29. Sticky Fingers – Our Town
- 30. RÜFÜS – Innerbloom (What So Not Remix)
- 31. Drake – One Dance (Feat. Kyla & Wizzkid)
- 32. Tash Sultana – Notion
- 33. Dune Rats – Bullshit
- 34. Dune Rats – Scott Green
- 35. Client Liaison – World Of Our Love
- 36. Sticky Fingers – Sad Songs
- 37. Flume – Smoke & Retribution (Feat. Vince Staples & Kučka)
- 38. Glass Animals – Youth
- 39. DMA’s – Step Up The Morphine
- 40. Kid Cudi – Surfin’ (Feat. Pharrell Williams)
- 41. The Weeknd – I Feel It Coming (Feat. Daft Punk)
- 42. Broods – Heartlines
- 43. MØ – Final Song
- 44. D.D Dumbo – Satan
- 45. A.B. Original & Paul Kelly – Dumb Things (Feat. Dan Sultan – Like A Version)
- 46. Mac Miller – Dang! (Feat. Anderson .Paak)
- 47. D.D Dumbo – Walrus
- 48. Kingswood – Creepin
- 49. Hilltop Hoods – Higher (Feat. James Chatburn)
- 50. Gang Of Youths – Strange Diseases
- 51. Sticky Fingers – Outcast At Last
- 52. Halsey – Love Yourself (Like A Version)
- 53. Violent Soho – Blanket
- 54. Blink-182 – Bored To Death
- 55. RÜFÜS – Say A Prayer For Me
- 56. Paces – Keeping Score (Feat. Guy Sebastian – Like A Version)
- 57. Catfish And The Bottlemen – Twice
- 58. Ali Barter – Girlie Bits
- 59. Frank Ocean – Solo
- 60. Sofi Tukker – Drinkee
- 61. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Gamma Knife
- 62. DOPE LEMON – Marinade
- 63. Glass Animals – Life Itself
- 64. Maggie Rogers – Alaska
- 65. The Amity Affliction – All Fucked Up
- 66. Beyoncé – Hold Up
- 67. The Amity Affliction – I Bring The Weather With Me
- 68. L D R U – Next To You (Feat. Savoi)
- 69. Violent Soho – So Sentimental
- 70. Golden Features – Wolfie (Feat. Julia Stone)
- 71. Broods – Free
- 72. Kanye West – Famous
- 73. Violent Soho – No Shade
- 74. Camp Cope – Lost: Season One
- 75. The Avalanches – Because I’m Me
- 76. The Amity Affliction – This Could Be Heartbreak
- 77. Catfish And The Bottlemen – Soundcheck
- 78. Vera Blue – Settle
- 79. Radiohead – Burn The Witch
- 80. BANKS – Gemini Feed
- 81. Desiigner – Panda
- 82. Thundamentals – Think About It (Feat. Peta & The Wolves)
- 83. Tkay Maidza – Simulation
- 84. Frank Ocean – Pink + White
- 85. SAFIA – My Love Is Gone
- 86. Bliss N Eso – Dopamine (Feat. Thief)
- 87. DOPE LEMON – Uptown Folks
- 88. Childish Gambino – Me And Your Mama
- 89. SAFIA – Over You
- 90. Luca Brasi – Anything Near Conviction
- 91. The Avalanches – Subways
- 92. Violent Soho – How To Taste
- 93. Empire Of The Sun – High And Low
- 94. Vallis Alps – Fading
- 95. Flume – Lose It (Feat. Vic Mensa)
- 96. Elk Road – Hanging By A Thread (Feat. Natalie Foster)
- 97. Alex Lahey – You Don’t Think You Like People Like Me
- 98. Glass Animals – Season 2 Episode 3
- 99. Drake – Too Good (Feat. Rihanna)
- 100. Birds Of Tokyo – Brace
Gallery: 15 Things The 2015 Hottest 100 Taught Us About Ourselves
Things We Learnt From The Triple J Hottest 100 Of 2015
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The urge to vote remains strong:
After a record-breaking number of votes were lodged last year (2,099,707), participation in this year's Hottest 100 has stayed relatively consistent, with 2,094,350 votes being cast by music fans in 172 countries around the world. Democracy does work! -
Aussies love Aussie music:
The 2015 Hottest 100 marks the 3rd consecutive year that a homegrown artist has taken out the top spot. The Rubens bagged the number #1 position this year with Hoops, following Chet Faker in 2014 and Vance Joy the year before. Not to mention we also saw multiple entries in the countdown from several other Aussie artists, with Tame Impala and Courtney Barnett nabbing four songs apiece to dominate 8% of the list. Altogether, 54/100 songs in the Hottest 100 were brought to us by true blue fair dinkum Straya'n artists. -
Underdogs really can conquer the odds:
Just like Rocky Balboa, The Karate Kid, The Mighty Ducks and Frodo Baggins before them, The Rubens claimed the 2015 Hottest 100 crown against all the odds. Flying in the face of the statistical 'Swarm Theory' - which posits that artists who have multiple songs in the countdown are more likely to take out the top spot - the Menangle-bred indie rockers became only the third act in Hottest 100 history to take out the #1 position without having any of their other songs chart in the countdown. *Cue triumphant Joe Esposito power anthem* -
Kendrick Lamar is so hot right now:
Lamar's stock is well and truly on the rise Down Under. The Bluesfest headliner skyrocketed from the #53 position in 2014 with his song i all the way up to #2 this year with his massive hit King Kunta. Not to mention his other tune Alright - which formed the unofficial anthem for the Black Lives Matter movement over in the States - also seemed to make an impact here in Aus, hitting the countdown at number #37 this year. -
Triple J listeners remain immune from Bieber Fever:
Despite a betting company-led campaign to boost the Biebs into the big list - and his tracks What Do You Mean and Where Are U Now with Jack U being hotly tipped by the bookies to chart - the 2015 Hottest 100 remained a Bieber-free zone. Prior to unveiling the countdown, Triple J also confirmed that zero troll campaigns had been successful in affecting this year's results. However, unlike the great Taylor Swift brouhaha of 2014, the station never announced Bieber's disqualification, meaning that the controversial popstar simply must not have racked up enough votes to chart. Looks like you win again, taste elitists #Biebs4life -
It's still very much a man's world:
Although female representation in the Hottest 100 was up from last year, with 37 songs in total featuring female vocals (made up of 33 songs with lead female vox and four with both female and male vox) compared to 32 in 2014, that's still a whopping 63% of tracks dominated by male artists. And despite the voter breakdown being fairly evenly split when it comes to gender, with 53% males, 46% females and 1% "other", the only female artists to feature in the list's top 10 were guest vocalists in the form of MØ on Major Lazer and DJ Snake's Lean On and Lorde on Disclosure's Magnets. -
Voters followed their animal instincts:
Here's a super fun fact: it turns out that 12 acts to feature in the 2015 Hottest 100 had one wild thing in common: their affinity to the animal kingdom. Boy & Bear, The Wombats, Peking Duk, Tame Impala, Drake, DJ Snake, Snakehips, Foals, Jai Wolf, Birds of Tokyo, The Cat Empire and Ratatat are all named after little critters. And, factoring in the multiple songs that some of them scored in the list, that makes an ani-maniacal 18% of the Hottest 100 this year related to all things feathery, furry or scaly. -
...And felt the need for speed:
The average BPM for songs in the countdown rose to an unprecedented 123 BPM this year - a decidedly dancey tempo for a list that used to champion guitar music. -
We were also partial to some blasts from the past:
Thanks to the growing trend of hip-hop artists sampling the work of musicians past, Rod Stewart and George Clinton both made cameos in the Hottest 100 of 2015 through A$AP Rocky and Kendrick Lamar, while Macklemore recruited old school rap champ Kool Mo Dee for his tune Downtown, which charted at #18. We also saw the return of The Chemical Brothers - who made their first Hottest 100 appearance in 1996 - with 2015’s Go becoming their 11th ever song to chart. -
And two heads were often better than one:
A whopping 24 of the tracks in the Hottest 100 also featured guest vocalists. That's up from 17 last year, and basically forms a bloody quarter of the entire list, demonstrating the prominence of genres like electronica and hip hop (which often rely on guest singers) in this year's poll. Three such tracks featured in the top 10: Major Lazer & DJ Snake – Lean On (feat. MØ) at #3, Hermitude – The Buzz (Feat. Mataya/Young Tapz) at #8 and Disclosure – Magnets (Feat. Lorde) at #10. -
Heavy music still isn't feeling much love:
Heavy rock and metalcore made up only 6% of the countdown this year. And the six heavy songs that did chart were brought to us by just 3 artists. In addition to Bring Me The Horizon (3) and The Amity Affliction (1) - who were also the only two heavy acts to chart last year - Parkway Drive also snagged two entries with Vice Grip coming in at number #58 and Crushed at number #48. Last year, the highest position that a heavy song received on the chart was The Amity Affliction's Pittsburgh at #22. This year it was the same band with Shine On at #25. It begs the question: is the problem a lack of airplay on triple j's behalf or a lack of interest on the voting public's behalf? -
However, there was a stronger show of support for guitar-based music in general
Compared to last year's top 10, which consisted of pretty much zero artists who routinely rely on electric guitars, this year saw a stronger showing of guitar-based music in general. Not only did indie-rockers The Rubens take out the top spot, the top 10 included two songs from psych-rockers Tame Impala, while homegrown punks Violent Soho came in at #15 with Like Soda. It'd be interesting to see - if jjj did up their support of heavy music this year - whether this Hottest 100 statistic would also change. -
The Hottest 100 is very much a reflection of triple j's playlist:
Not only have all of the songs to feature in the Hottest 100's top 10 received high rotation over the past year, there were no tracks to appear in the countdown that haven't been given at least some love on JJJ's flagship station. 30 songs were from artists that were first heard on triple j Unearthed, while 14 songs were from eight previous J Award winning artists. On the flip-side, zero songs from non-triple j supported Australian artists which were equally huge in 2015 (such as the ARIA-chart topping hip-hop artist Kerser's Next Step or fellow number 1-hitting Troye Sivan's WILD) appeared on the list at all. -
People are getting better at predicting the results of the Hottest 100:
For the most part, the spoiler lists that we saw floating around the internet in the lead-up to the Hottest 100 countdown were pretty accurate, especially when it came to the top 10. The Rubens' Hoops (#1), Kendrick Lamar's King Kunta (#2), Major Lazer & DJ Snake's Lean On (feat. MØ) (#3), Tame Impala's The Less I Know The Better (#4) and Let It Happen (#5), and The Weeknd's Can’t Feel My Face (#9) were all hotly tipped by the bookies - and leading Hottest 100 prediction blogs - to chart in the top 10. Which they did. -
There's one thing we can all agree on when it comes to Australia Day:
The controversy surrounding the origins of Australia Day and its meaning for our Indigenous Australians seemed to divide the nation more than ever this year. But regardless of the negative connotations that the public holiday holds for many, one thing that seems to bring us all together is the tradition of listening to the Hottest 100. Through music, and their strategically-timed charity initiatives raising money for indigenous education, triple j continues to give us all something to rally around on a day that tends to divide us. On ya, legends.