“The Hottest 100 wasn’t created as an Australia Day celebration. It was created to celebrate your favourite songs of the past year. It should be an event that everyone can enjoy together – for both the musicians whose songs make it in and for everyone listening in Australia and around the world.”
That’s right my good friends and fellow Australians, it’s time to crank A.B. Original’s ‘January 26’ a little louder today – because the triple j Hottest 100 has a new home – the fourth weekend of January.
As the station revealed on ABC news, Saturday 27 January 2018 will be the next date for the countdown, with a repeat on Sunday, too.
There will be new programming for January 26 that includes, among other things, coverage of Yabun Festival – Sydney’s Survival day/Invasion Day event put on my the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to honour what is, for the Indigenous peoples of Australia, a day of mourning.
So what’s with the change?
“triple j is making this move after hearing directly from you,” reads the statement. “Heaps of you took part in our online survey as part of our review of the date of the Hottest 100. You told us how much you love the countdown and most of you are up for a new day.”
“We all agreed that the Hottest 100 should’t be part of a debate about the day it’s on. The only debate should be about the songs (‘Ya joking shoulda been higher’).”
The first Hottest 100 was held on 5 March, 1989. It wasn’t reguarly held on January 26 until 1998.
“The date of the countdown has moved around and though the Hottest 100 has mostly been held on Australia Day, it’s not about Australia Day,” triple j pointed out.
The date change occurred following a huge survey of listeners, which almost 65,000 people responded to. The majority were keen for a date change. triple j also consulted with “musicians, community leaders, representative groups, triple j staff, ABC groups, and a wide range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander media, language groups, and many of the Indigenous artists featured on triple j”.
“There were a lot of different perspectives about 26 January, and different ways to approach Australia Day. But when it came to the Hottest 100, it was clear most people want the Hottest 100 to be on its own day when everyone can celebrate together.”
Voting for the 2018 Hottest 100 countdown opens Tuesday 12 December.
Note: Racist stereotypes and uneducated derogatory comments about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are against our community guidelines. If you post comments containing them, they will be deleted. If you do it again, or contact me to complain about it, you will be banned. And just a reminder – Australia Does Not Have Freedom Of Speech.
This is a story about a radio station moving a countdown to a more inclusive day. Not an excuse to drag up your thinly veiled racism. I shouldn’t have to read the kind of filth that has been directed towards my family and community – in my workplace, of all places. Be kind, people. It costs nothing. – Rae