Taylor Swift Might Have Been Disqualified From The Hottest 100

A version of this post first appeared on Junkee’s sister site, FasterLouder. It has been republished with their permission.

–

After the #Tay4Hottest100 campaign swept through the nation in the lead-up to the voting deadline, former triple j presenter Angela Catterns has claimed Taylor Swift has been disqualified from the triple j Hottest 100.

Catterns made the claim on ABC program The Drum on Monday morning. Invited as a guest on the panel to discuss triple j’s 40th birthday celebration Catterns casually revealed that Swift is out of the running due to the involvement of a fast food chain. “You probably know that there was a push to get a Taylor Swift song in [the Hottest 100], which has now been disqualified because a fast food chain became involved in the whole process” she says. Watch from the 23-minute mark here.

While she doesn’t name the fast food chain, the “involvement” to which Catterns is referring could possibly be a Facebook competition run by KFC which promoted the grass roots social media campaign by posting a picture of Taylor alongside the official #tayforhottest100 hashtag. “The #tay4hottest100 campaign is going strong and she’s got our vote,” the post declared. “Tell us which Taylor song is your favourite for your chance to win a voucher for $19.89!”

It’s possible that the promotion breaks one of the Hottest 100 voting rules which states that triple j “reserves the right to remove artists from the list who have benefited from competitions or commercial campaigns that incentivise fans to vote for them”. While the KFC giveaway doesn’t encourage people to vote for Taylor Swift, it could be deemed to be endorsing the artist.

Another development working against the legitimacy of the voting process was taylorswift.io, a website set up on Thursday January 15 which automated voting for the pop star’s fans. The website creator claims the site contributed 2488 votes to the cause, and argues that these votes should be counted as legitimate. “It is important to note that the website in no way “gamed the system” or placed multiple votes at a time,” the site’s owner claims. “The Hottest100 voting system required the user to confirm their vote via an email sent after submission. All users that used this site were receiving the same email, as their submissions were being put through the same system as the site provided.”

triple j has declined to comment.

–

Read about the #Tay4Hottest100 campaign here.