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Triple J Hottest 100

Triple J's annual listener-voted countdown poll

Triple J Hottest 100

Summary

Triple J's annual listener-voted countdown poll

FieldValue
nameTriple J Hottest 100
current_awardsTriple J Hottest 100, 2025
imageTriple J Logo.png
caption"The world's greatest music democracy"
dateFourth Saturday in January
awarded_forThe year's top 100 songs as voted by listeners
presenterTriple J
countryAustralia
holderOlivia Dean – "Man I Need" (2025)
most_winsBernard Fanning (4 wins)
year
websiteTriple J Hottest 100

The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual music poll presented by the Australian youth radio station Triple J since 1989. Listeners are invited to vote for their favourite songs of the year in an online ballot conducted before the new year.

In its early years, the Hottest 100 was broadcast in March, then on various days in January and February. From 1998, it was consistently held on Australia Day (26 January), before moving to the fourth weekend of January starting in 2017. Generally the Hottest 200 (songs 200–101) is also held on this weekend.

The poll has grown from 500,000 votes in 2004 to a peak of over 3.2 million in 2019, and it has been referred to as "the world's greatest music democracy". British singer Olivia Dean's song "Man I Need" is the latest song to top the Hottest 100. A special Hottest 100 of Australian Songs was broadcast on 26 July 2025 to celebrate Triple J's 50th anniversary.

Since 2015, the countdown has raised more than $3.3 million for various Australian charities through donations and merchandise sales. ABC Music issued compilation CDs following each year's countdown until 2022. In 2023, Triple J launched Triple J Hottest, an online radio station featuring a playlist of tracks from all previous Hottest 100 countdowns.

History

1988–1991: The Hot 100

In 1988, Triple J producer Lawrie Zion had the idea to run a poll to determine his listeners' 100 favourite songs of all time. The idea was taken from Brisbane community radio station 4ZZZ, which developed the original Hot 100 in 1976. 4ZZZ themselves borrowed the idea from an Adelaide radio station and British magazine NME.

For the Hot 100, before Triple J had become a national broadcaster, Sydney listeners were required to write their 10 favourite tracks on the back of an envelope. Some entries were sent into the station written on a variety of items, including paintings, sculptures, and hand-rolled cannabis cigarettes. The results of the first poll were counted down on Sunday, 5 March 1989.

The station repeated the event the following year when it started broadcasting to other capital cities besides Sydney. In 1991, Triple J was forced to change the poll's name to Hottest 100 to avoid legal action with 4ZZZ.

In the poll's first two years (1989 and 1990), the winner was "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division, while 1991's favourite song was "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, which had been released that year.

1992–1995: The Hottest 100

1993]]

Realising that the poll's results were unlikely to significantly change from year to year, Triple J rested the Hottest 100 in 1992 and relaunched it as an annual poll the following year. The new system required listeners to vote for their favourite songs of that year. Denis Leary's comedy anthem "Asshole" was voted number one in 1993.

The inaugural Hottest 100 compilation CD, Triple J Hottest 100 (The Hottest Of The Hottest), was released by ABC Music in 1994.

1996–2016: Rise in Australian music

In 1996, Spiderbait became the first Australian act to reach number one. Since 1999, Australian acts have made up the majority of the polls.

The first Hottest 100 DVD, Triple J Hottest 100: The Hottest Videos For 2002, was released in 2002. Queens of the Stone Age's "No One Knows" was voted into the top position in that year, while Grinspoon, Motor Ace, Darren Hanlon, Machine Translations and Ms Dynamite were other Hottest 100 artists featured on the release.

In 2003, Powderfinger became the first act to be featured three times within the top 10 of the countdown, with "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind", "Sunsets" and "Love Your Way" being voted in at No. 4, No. 7, and No. 10, respectively.

After its beginnings as a write-in poll, the Hottest 100 progressed to phone-in voting, which then progressed to SMS and online voting. In 2003, only web votes through the Triple J website were accepted, with registration required and a limit of 10 votes applied. In 2004, the guidelines were expanded so that voters were entitled to 10 internet votes and 10 SMS votes.

In 2014, Chet Faker repeated Powderfinger's achievement from 2003 by placing three times in the top 10 positions. Faker reached the number one spot with "Talk Is Cheap" and the seventh and eighth positions respectively, with "Gold" and "1998". All three songs came from Faker's 2014 album Built on Glass. Chet Faker placed a total of four times in the entire poll, with a Like a Version cover of Sonia Dada's "You Don't Treat Me No Good" in the 22nd position. The 2014 Hottest 100 poll received a record of 2,099,707 million votes, cast by 258,762 voters from 188 countries.

2015: Taylor Swift controversy

Hottest 100]].

Following a 13 January 2015 article on BuzzFeed, the "#Tay4Hottest100" hashtag campaign began during the voting period for the Hottest 100 poll for 2014 to promote Taylor Swift's hit single "Shake It Off". According to those critical of the campaign, the Hottest 100 is reserved for non-mainstream artists who were "discovered or fostered by Triple J" and provides valuable exposure for artists in the outer circles of the music industry.

The campaign led to discussion about the broader cultural implications of the controversy generated by Swift. The Guardians Elle Hunt wrote: "... the virulent response to #Tay4Hottest100 has revealed the persistence of a dichotomy I'd thought we'd thrown out long ago: that of high art versus low." Writing for The Conversation on 23 January 2015, Charles Darwin University academic Gemma Blackwood concluded:

The cultural and economic meanings attached to the celebrity-sign of "Taylor Swift" seems antithetical to Triple J's self-representation as a place for exciting new music, with a supposed focus on emerging Australian talent. This perhaps explains why Swift is excluded from the playlist when other "mainstream" American artists and chart toppers ... are still played on the station heavily: the alignment and transfer of values of what is considered "cool" and "hip" between the station and its chosen artists ... It raises the question: what responsibility does a national youth broadcaster have in the shaping and the adapting of young musical interests?

Station manager Chris Scaddan told the media that the Swift campaign was within the rules of the poll, later instructing Triple J employees not to comment to "media, friends, family" about the campaign, as "it will all become clear when we get to the countdown next Monday." The station said: "we don't comment on voting campaigns whilst Hottest 100 voting is open. It draws attention to them and may influence the results of the poll." Marketing website Mumbrella suggested on 20 January that a Facebook post by KFC incorporating the "#Tay4Hottest100" hashtag was against the Hottest 100 rules and could see Swift disqualified. The Guardian submitted a freedom of information request to the ABC in regard to the station's response to the campaign.

After journalist Peter Vincent reported that the Swift campaign had "swallowed" the Hottest 100 for 2014, citing research from the University of Queensland that showed that over 7,341 Hottest 100 posts in a 30-day period leading up to the poll results related to Swift, "Shake It Off" was eventually disqualified by the radio station in an announcement on 26 January 2015. The official announcement read: "it became pretty clear, pretty quick that a lot of people just wanted to prod some 'hipsters' for the lulz", acknowledging that the station "had a heap of fun" with the campaign, while also acknowledging Swift is "smart", "cool" and "successful". The song would have placed in 12th position if it had been allowed to compete.

On the inside cover of the Triple J Hottest 100 Volume 22 CD, bold capital initials spell out "TAYLOR SWIFT BAN".

2017–present: Announcement of date change

In mid-2016, support grew for a campaign calling on Triple J to change the date of the Hottest 100 due to ongoing debate about the meaning of the date of Australia Day to Indigenous Australians. Calls were led by Indigenous activists, with Australian hip-hop duo A.B. Original and their protest single "January 26" playing a particularly instrumental role in drawing support to the cause. Triple J responded to the campaign in September 2016, announcing a review over whether the date of the Hottest 100 should be changed.

The review of the date continued into 2017, including consultation with Reconciliation Australia, the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, and the National Australia Day Council, while the 2016 Hottest 100 was held on Australia Day without change. In August 2017, Triple J launched a survey asking for public opinion on whether the date should be changed. 60% of participants voted in support of moving the date; 39% responded to not change it.

In 2017, Triple J announced that they would no longer hold the Hottest 100 on 26 January. Instead, the Hottest 100 would be held on the fourth weekend of January each year, beginning with the 2017 countdown on 27 January 2018.

Some organisations offered alternatives to Triple J's Hottest 100 in response to the date change. These include nationwide rock radio station Triple M broadcasting an Ozzest 100 countdown of only Australian songs on 26 January, and Senator Cory Bernardi's Australian Conservatives publishing an AC100 playlist of Australian music on Spotify.

Top tens and summaries

Note: All-time countdowns
YearTop tenHighlights
All time (1989)
All time (1990)
All time (1991)
1992*No Hottest 100 Held*
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
All Time (1998)
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
All Time (2009)
2009
2010
Australian Albums (2011)
2011
2012
20 Years of the Hottest 100 (2013)
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2010s (2020)
2020
2021
2022
Like a Version (2023)
2023
2024
Australian Songs (2025)
2025

Impact

The Hottest 100 has been branded a "national institution" and "the world's greatest music democracy". The countdown receives millions of votes every year— in 2019, a record of 3.2 million were cast. In 2022, one in two Australians engaged with the Hottest 100 campaign, and 3.6 million people listened on the day, according to national ratings.

Musicians who have taken out the number one spot have often seen a popularity boost after the annual countdown. Following Alex Lloyd winning the 2001 countdown with "Amazing", it became the most played song on Australian radio for the next year. The singer said commercial stations only started playing it after his win on Triple J; from royalties then received, he was able to buy a house. Alternative rock band the Rubens won the Hottest 100 of 2015 and immediately had to upgrade the venues for their upcoming tour due to an influx of new fans.

Voter turnout and fundraising

Since the 2015 countdown, Triple J has annually partnered with an Australian organisation to donate all funds raised from Hottest 100 merchandise, usually a T-shirt branded with the countdown's logo. In total, these fundraisers have raised over $3.3 million for a variety of causes that the broadcaster deems most important to listeners each year.

YearVotes castVR?Charity partnerAmount raisedRef.
1990 (All Time)10,000rowspan="25"rowspan="25"
199350,000
1995100,000last=MACDONALDfirst=EMMAdate=13 January 1997title=Australian Band Spiderbait Traps Triple J's Top Titlework=The Canberra Timesquote=Triple J's "Hottest 100", when the songs are played one after the other, drew a record number of votes - 300,000, compared with last year's 100,000 - and even more listeners.}}
1996300,000
1997250,000last=Chapmanfirst=Heatherdate=25 Jan 1999title=On The Airwork=The Sydney Morning Heraldquote=TRIPLE J says it has received more than 500,000 votes for listeners' favourite 1998 songs for tomorrow's Hottest 100 Day - more than double the number last year.}}
1998500,000
1998 (All Time)100,000
1999650,000
2000900,000
2001350,000
2003383,000
2004475,000
2005606,060
2006671,024
2007700,000
2008800,000
20091,100,000
2009(All Time)500,000
20101,260,000
20111,378,869
2011(Australian Albums)47,000
20121,516,765
20131,490,000
2013(Past 20 Years)940,000
20142,099,707
20152,094,000Australian IndigenousMentoring Experience$100,000
20162,255,110$250,000
20172,286,133$250,000
20182,758,584Lifeline$631,000
20193,211,596Greening Australia$250,000
2020(2010s)1,869,659
20202,790,224Lifeline$653,000
20212,700,000$1,200,000
20222,436,565Australian ConservationFoundation$550,000
20232,355,870Headspace$502,000
20242,489,446We Are Mobilise$312,000
2025(Australian Songs)2,655,826colspan="2"
2025We Are Mobilise

Notable artists

Since its inception, the artist who has been featured the most in the annual countdown is Hilltop Hoods, who has appeared 28 times from 2003 to 2025; the second most appearances is shared by Billie Eilish and G Flip who have both featured 25 times; Tame Impala have the third most appearances with 23; followed by 22 songs by Powderfinger (between 1996 and 2009); the Foo Fighters (between 1995 and 2014); and Flume (between 2012 and 2022).

Powderfinger frontman, Bernard Fanning, is the only artist to have taken the top spot on four occasions—three times in the annual countdown, twice with Powderfinger in 1999 and 2000, and as a solo artist in 2005; additionally, he topped one all-time list in 2011 with Powderfinger on the Australian albums countdown. Flume (2016 and 2022) and Powderfinger are the only artists to have topped an annual countdown more than once.

Dave Grohl, frontman of the Foo Fighters, has appeared in annual countdowns 32 times, including five times with Queens of the Stone Age in 2002, four times with Nirvana, and once with Them Crooked Vultures. Grohl also holds the record for the most appearances in a single countdown, racking up ten entries with the Foo Fighters, Nirvana and Queens of the Stone Age in 2002.

Hilltop Hoods have also featured in annual 15 countdowns, the highest total of any artist. The record for the most consecutive appearances belongs to The Living End, who featured in every annual countdown from 1997 to 2006.

When including all of Triple J's countdowns (adding the five Hottest 100 of All Time countdowns, the 2011 Australian Albums countdown, and the 2013 Twenty Years countdown), The Cure has made more appearances than any other band, with 31 entries in the All Time countdowns and five in the yearly countdowns. Powderfinger and Silverchair have been featured 30 and 28 times, respectively, in total. As for individuals, Dave Grohl has achieved 47 entries (24 with Foo Fighters, 15 with Nirvana, seven with Queens of the Stone Age, and one with Them Crooked Vultures), Bernard Fanning has 33 (30 with Powderfinger, three as a solo artist), and Robert Smith has 32 (31 with The Cure, one from a solo collaboration with Crystal Castles in 2010).

Notes

References

References

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