Six things that will decide this year’s Hottest 100

When Triple J announces its Hottest 100 countdown on Saturday, it'll be defining a musical year ravaged by an absence of live gigs, stalled releases, and zero tours from international artists – which, oddly enough, means that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has a chance of claiming the top prize. Confused? Sure, aren't we all.

The international favourite

It sounds like a standard song from a jeans ad but, according to online prediction aggregator 100 Warm Tunas, Heat Waves by UK pop-rockers Glass Animals is the one to beat. A woozy single with an earworm of a chorus, it's spawned countless remixes and inspired YouTubers to create hours-long mixes of the song so it never ends. Some might say that's torture, but they wouldn't be Triple J listeners.

COVID rock is the new yacht rock

Perhaps it's understandable that the local songs tipped to top this year's list are on the softer side, languid sun-drenched tunes with a focus on nostalgia and escapism. Cherub from Brisbane veterans Ball Park Music is a muted strum with campfire harmonies, while Booster Seat by Perth's Spacey Jane is similarly mellow, a driving song with a jangly Lindsey Buckingham-esque guitar hook about the innocence of being a kid in the backseat booster seat (obviously one for the late-millennial set, since booster seat laws only came into effect in 1985).

Daniel Andrews, pop star

Brisbane dance duo Mashd N Kutcher certainly captured a moment with their Get On The Beers remix, a song sampling Victorian premier Dan Andrews' speech imploring Melbourne's locked-down residents to stop getting pissed at home 'cause the pubs were shut. Promisingly for Andrews' pop star aspirations, past results – Dennis Leary's Asshole topping the list in '93; Offspring's Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) finishing first in '98; plus countless placings for the likes of Pauline Pantsdown and TISM – have shown Hottest 100 voters love a novelty jam.

Can't Tame Impala

Somehow manic genius Kevin Parker has yet to top the countdown proper – Tame Impala's The Less I Know The Better won Triple J's special Hottest 100 of the 2010s last March – but he's back with multiple entries expected from last year's ARIA Album of the Year, The Slow Rush. It's also notable that Tame Impala was named Triple J's most played artist in 2020 so the chances of taking top spot are, like most Tame Impala fans, high.

Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker is chasing a Hottest 100 win.

What about WAP?

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's explicitly sex-positive song, which sparked pearl-clutching from the likes of Russell Brand and anyone who had to explain what "WAP" meant to their kids and/or grandparents, was 2020's breakout single worldwide, even breaking records on the local ARIA charts. A COVID-delayed lack of big international hits this year might work in its favour, but seeing as Billie Eilish was the first solo female artist to ever top the list just last year, it might be asking too much of Triple J's listeners to vote for "macaroni in a pot" just yet.

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s explicit WAP was the year’s breakout hit.Credit:CardiBOfficial.com

The closest vote ever?

It may have just been a ploy to animate straggling voters, but Triple J have touted that this year's result might be the closest since 2007, when Muse's Knights of Cydonia pipped Silverchair's Straight Lines by just 14 votes. Your joke vote for Flume's remix of Eiffel 65's Blue (Da Ba Dee) doesn't seem so funny now, does it?

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