As Australian youth broadcaster triple j recovers from its 50th birthday celebrations in January, they’ve announced the festivities will continue with a newly-detailed Hottest 100 poll.
Officially dubbed the Hottest 100 of Australian Songs, the new countdown will take place on July 26, with voting open to the public, who can select their favorite songs performed by Australian artists.
As usual, there are a few eligibility caveats. Firstly, eligible songs are any tracks which were released prior to Jan. 19, 2025, and must feature a minimum 50% of Australian artists. As a result, New Zealand artists (who are often considered honorary Australians) are ineligible, though Crowded House are eligible, despite being formed by Neil Finn after the dissolution of Split Enz and his move from New Zealand to Australia.
Notably, tracks recorded for triple j’s long-running Like a Version cover series are not eligible either. Though perennial favorites of triple j’s annual Hottest 100 countdown, the series received its own poll back in 2023, with DMA’S reigning supreme with their acoustic cover of Cher’s “Believe.”
triple j – which launched on Jan. 19, 1975 as the result of new policies by then-Prime minister Gough Whitlam – first kicked off their Hottest 100 countdown in 1989, with the first three years allowing listeners to vote for songs from any year.
In 1994, the station rebooted the concept, this time opening the polls only to songs which had been released the year prior. It’s since become known as – as triple j have labelled it – “the world’s greatest music democracy,” with an average of almost 2.5 million votes being cast each year.
In the ensuing decades, the list of winners has been plentiful, featuring Australian acts such as Spiderbait, The Wiggles, and two-time winners Powderfinger and Flume. Numerous international acts have also taken out the top spot, such as Oasis, Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar.
The most recent poll was announced in January 2025, with Chappell Roan being crowned the victor with “Good Luck, Babe!”
Notably, the latest countdown also left a sour taste in the mouth of Australian music-lovers, with the full list featuring the lowest number of homegrown artists in almost three decades. With only 29 Australian artists appearing across the full list of songs, it was the worst showing for Aussies since the 1996 list. Only the debut poll in 1993 and its 1994 follow-up are worse, with 24 and 26 Australian artists, respectively.
Alongside the annual poll, other one-off countdowns have been held over the years, with 1998 and 2009 seeing the release date restrictions lifted once again, 2011 focusing on Australian albums, 2013 allowing songs released in the past 20 years, and 2020 focusing on songs released in the 2010s.
The latter poll may give an indication of what may rank highly in the upcoming countdown, having been topped by Tame Impala’s “The Less I Know the Better.”
