Music

Triple J Has Given Us Some Juicy Hints About Who Will Dominate This Year’s Hottest 100

Let the guessing games begin.

Hottest 100

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There’s only three days to go until we find out which song will top triple j’s Hottest 100, and we’re starting to get a pretty good idea of what the countdown will look like. 

Voting officially closed on Monday, with triple j receiving a whopping 2.3 million votes all up — the highest ever for the poll. Since then, the station has raked over the numbers to pull out some teaser stats ahead Saturday‘s countdown.

triple j have today revealed that 65 Australian songs will appear in the poll (one less than 2016’s record-breaking year) and five of those were uploaded to triple j Unearthed in 2017. 26 artists will make their Hottest 100 debut (up from 23 last year) and eight acts will appear in the countdown for the third time. All up, 10 countries will be represented in the poll, down from 13 last year.

As for who is going to take out the #1 spot? We think there’s a pretty solid chance it will be Kendrick Lamar with ‘HUMBLE.’ When we last checked in with Hottest 100 prediction site 100 Warm Tunas, the DAMN. track was sitting comfortably in first place, followed by Sydney band Gang of Youths at #2 and #3, with ‘The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows’ and ‘Let Me Down Easy’.

It’s also shaping up to be one of the most diverse Hottest 100s in history. If Lamar does take it out with ‘HUMBLE.’, it would be the first time ever that a person of colour has won. It would also be only the second time a hip-hop song has topped the poll, following Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ ‘Thrift Shop’ in 2012 (which like…come on.)

The Hottest 100 will kick off this Saturday, January 27, at 12pm Eastern Standard Time.

triple j 2017 Hottest 100 Stats

— 65 Australian songs appear in this year’s Hottest 100

— 10 different countries are represented

— 26 artists appear for the very first time

— 5 songs were uploaded to triple j Unearthed in 2017

— 8 artists appear for a third time in an annual Hottest 100 countdown