Why This Year’s Hottest 100 Is Shaping Up To Be Historic

Christmas is over, New Year’s is done and dusted, and we now turn our attention to the next big event on the calendar: triple j’s Hottest 100.

This year the countdown takes place on Saturday January 25, with the Hottest 200 (that is, the songs that just missed out) on Monday January 27. By the looks of it, it’s going to be a very tight race — today triple j revealed that only a few hundred votes separate the songs at #1 and #2, likewise between #4 and #5.

We already have a pretty good idea of what those tracks are: 100 Warm Tunas is once again trawling the internet and collating votes, which it has done for the past few years with pretty alarming accuracy. It’s managed to pick the winner — and large chunks of the top tens — for the last three polls, the exception being in 2016 when it put Amy Shark’s ‘Adore’ above Flume’s ‘Never Be Like You’, which ended up winning.

At the time of writing, Denzel Curry’s ‘Bulls On Parade’ cover for Like A Version is currently in the top spot on the site, followed by Billie Eilish’s ‘bad guy’, G Flip’s ‘Drink Too Much’, Thelma Plum’s ‘Better In Blak’, and FIDLAR’s ‘By Myself’.

Tones And I’s ubiquitous ‘Dance Monkey’ is hanging back at #7, while Mallrat’s ‘Charlie’ and Vera Blue and Flume’s ‘Rushing Back’ also feature in the predicted top ten. Even if there’s a bit of jostling at the top when the countdown is revealed, the 2019 Hottest 100 is going to set some records.

If Curry takes out #1, it’ll be the first time a Like A Version has ever landed in the top spot, and only the second time a LAV has ever placed in the top ten — DMA’s Cher cover ‘Believe’ came in at #6 in 2016. It’ll also be the second time a person of colour has been crowned the winner, the first being Kendrick Lamar with ‘HUMBLE.’ in 2017.

If Billie Eilish wins, it will be the first time in history that a solo female act has won. Alternatively, it’s an honour that could be snatched up by G Flip (who would become the countdown’s first openly queer winner as well), Thelma Plum (who could become the first woman of colour, and Indigenous Australian, to win), or Mallrat.

It’s shaping up to be one of the strongest years for female representation ever, with the potential to set the record for the most female or female-featuring acts in the top 10 (seven is the previous record holder, which included five ‘featured’ slots). It will almost certainly break the record for the most solo female acts in the top ten.

There’s a lot of records on the line, and with only a few hundred votes currently separating the top two, it’s just a question of which record will fall first. Check out the current Warm Tunas ranking below.

Voting for the Hottest 100 closes January 20, and the countdown will be broadcast on January 25.