Triple J moves Hottest 100 from Australia Day after protests
Triple J has moved the Hottest 100 music countdown so it no longer falls on Australia Day, the radio station has announced.
For 2018 and 2019 the countdown will be held on the fourth weekend of January, it confirmed. The 2019 event will still be on the Australia Day long weekend, but the exact date of the Hottest 100 would be announced after next year’s countdown, Triple J newsreader Avani Dias said.
Almost 65,000 people voted inthe radio station’s nationwide survey, which was prompted by debate over the appropriateness of holding the countdown on a day that marks the beginning of British invasion and colonisation.
According to independent analysis of the responses, 60% voted in favour of changing the date, while 29% said they did not support the change. A second poll of more than 700 18-to-30-year-olds validated the results – 55% said the Hottest 100 should move.
“We all agreed that the Hottest 100 shouldn’t be part of a debate
about the day it’s on,” a statement from Triple J said. “The only debate should be about the songs.”
On Monday afternoon, program director Ollie Wards noted that 25% of the younger survey respondents didn’t care either way.
“For the people who did not want this day to move, we have heard you,” he said on Triple J.
He said he hoped those worried they would miss out on listening on a day off would get to hear part of the weekend broadcast.
“It does go for eight hours, so hopefully you can get amongst it,” he said. “To those who said this was political correctness gone mad, we are trying to do this to stop the Hottest 100 being a part of a political discussion and political debate.”
Triple J’s survey followed a period of consultation with Indigenous and non-Indigenous musicians, groups and other community leaders and representative bodies about Australia Day and the implications of holding the music countdown on that date.
Reconciliation Australia, the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, Recognise and the National Australia Day Council were among the national bodies consulted.
The station said that as a public broadcaster it did not take a view in the debate, but the Hottest 100 had increasingly become a symbol of Australia Day, despite having no official connection.
“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,” the statement said.
In the months leading up to voting on last year’s poll, the release of the song January 26 by AB Original featuring Dan Sultan galvanised support for changing the date of Australia Day – and some opposition.
The two members of AB Original, Indigenous hip-hop artists Briggs and Trials, added their calls for the date of the Hottest 100 to change. Late last year, Briggs said it would be “an obvious salute” to the duo.
“That’s solidarity right there, for something that would ... be the right thing to do. That’s a conversation that we should all be having with why we are celebrating that day.”
The song – which has won a slew of awards in the last year – polled in the top 20 of last year’s Hottest 100.
On Monday Briggs and Trials responded to the news Triple J was changing its date.
Mitch Fifield, the federal communications minister, reportedly said he was “bewildered” by the decision to move the Hottest 100.
“The ABC shouldn’t be buying into this debate. Australia Day is our national day. The ABC should honour it and not mess with the Hottest 100,” he said.
In its statement Triple J said the Hottest 100 was not connected to Australia Day, and moving it would free the station up to “to celebrate Australia Day as its own event too”.