The Rubens Freaking Out Over Their Hottest 100 Win Is The Most Pure And Perfect Joy You’ll See Today

There are plenty of reasons to feel down after yesterday.

For another year, the population was starkly divided into those mourning the violence done to our nation’s first peoples at the hands of white imperialists and those celebrating the (distinctly white) culture that grew from that same colonisation. Though this year brought about huge numbers of protesters in Australia’s major cities and significant mainstream debate about the possibility of a change of date, the aftermath is likely still playing out in your Facebook feed and, as per tradition, is both completely horrifying and exhausting.

Alternatively, you may have found smaller heartbreak in the Hottest 100. For another year, the countdown was dominated by male acts with not a single woman featured in the top ten songs. Despite being one of the most critically-acclaimed musicians in the world last year, Courtney Barnett topped out at just number 46 with ‘Pedestrian At Best’. Kendrick Lamar fans were gutted ‘King Kunta’ missed the top spot. Justin Bieber was not featured at all. No matter how it plays out, triple j’s annual think piece generator always finds myriad ways to slightly upset everyone.

But, amidst all this, there were five guys from rural NSW who were feeling GREAT. Early yesterday evening, triple j had a camera trained on The Rubens in studio as they found out they’d scored the number one spot for ‘Hoops’ and the resulting clip is now going viral.

In the midst of the big important arguments, small disappointments, and constantly churning debate about it all, it’s nice to see a little simple, well-earned happiness. As the station pointed out last night, The Rubens are the first triple j Unearthed act to ever win the Hottest 100, and doing so against a Grammy Award-winning US rap legend is nothing to scoff at.

I mean… it’s fitting that the most joyous moment of the day was taken by five white guys with a hooky indie rock song, but I guess we have to work with what we have.

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For more on the Hottest 100, our sister site FasterLouder has the full rundown.