Triple j Hottest 100 registers a record 2.2 million votes

Yesterday’s 2016’s Hottest 100 set a new voting record for the countdown, triple j announced. Over 2.2 million votes (2,255,110) were cast, a rise of 7.6% from the previous year, making it one of the biggest music polls in the world.

As tipped, Flume’s Never Be Like You (feat Kai) was #1, the 25-year old’s first poll-topper. The track, which has achieved 5x platinum in Australia and broke into the US Top 20, beat fast rising Gold Coast singer Amy Shark’s Adore which was released in August.

The rest of the Top 10 was made up of Tash Sultana’s Jungle at #3, Hilltop Hoods’ 1955 ft. Montaigne at #4, Childish Gambino’s Redbone at #5, DMA’s cover of Cher’s Believe at #6, Illy’s Papercuts ft. Vera Blue at #7, Flume’s Say It ft. Tove Lo at #8, Peking Duk’s Stranger ft. Elliphant at #9, with The Weeknd’s Daft Punk collaboration Starboy rounding it off at #10.

Another new record poll was set as 66 Australian songs made it into the Top 100. Violent Soho had the most inclusions with five, followed by Flume who has 4 Top 100 placings.

Second highest were tracks from America with 16, followed by England (6), Canada (4), Wales (3) and New Zealand (2). Sweden, Germany and Denmark had one each.

Gender voting was split 51% males and 47% females, with 2% for “others” and 1% abstaining. Those who made it into the Hottest #200 to #101 will be unveiled from 10:00 am on Sunday January 29.

Other facts and figures supplied by triple j included:

• This was the fourth consecutive year an Australian artist has taken out #1, after Vance Joy, Chet Faker and The Rubens. It was the longest streak of domestic artists at the top.

• Females artists appeared as key vocalists in seven songs in the Top 10. They were Amy Shark, Tash Sultana, Kai, Montaigne, Vera Blue, Tove Lo and Elliphant.

• Meanwhile, 34 songs were from acts with at least one woman: 14 female solo artists, 12 female guest vocals, 7 bands with female members and one all-female band.

• $230,000 was raised for the Hottest 100’s charity partner AIME, helping towards putting 10,000 Indigenous kids through high school and into university, training and employment by 2018.

• Groups fared better with 59 inclusions versus solo acts (41).

• 26 acts made their debut in the poll. 26 of them were discovered on triple j Unearthed.

• The most number of songs (13) came from the month of May, with 12 each coming from March and November. Of the others, January had 5, February 9, April 8, June 8, July 6, August 11, September 9, October 5 and December 2.

• DMA’S Cher cover was the highest charting Like A Version in the countdown’s history. It surpassed Chet Faker’s reworking of Sonia Dada’s LAV (#21 in 2014). However, the highest ranking cover remains Boy & Bear’s Fall At Your Feet (#5 in 2010).

• Illy made his eighth consecutive appearance on the Hot 100. Record holders are Dave Grohl (various bands over 9 years) and The Living End’s decade long streak lasting from 1997 to 2006.

• 14 artists in the countdown have not even released an album. This list included Amy Shark, Tash Sultana, Peking Duk, Mura Masa, Gretta Ray, Ali Barter, Sofi Tukker, Maggie Rogers, L D R U, Golden Features, Vera Blue, Elk Road, while Chance The Rapper and Desiigner have only released mixtapes.

• Radiohead are the only artist to appear both in this year’s countdown (#79 with Burn The Witch) and the first ever annual Hottest 100 in 1993 (Creep at #2).

This could well be the final Hottest 100 countdown to take place on January 26. Last September, the broadcaster confirmed the date was “under review” reflecting a sensitivity to what the date holds for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and others in the widespread community.

It now adds that consultation will continue throughout the first half of this year with a wide array of indigenous artists and community groups. The new date, if there is one, will be unveiled in the second half of 2017.