Chappell Roan won the Triple J Hottest 100 with a song she did not even need help from a second entry to carry. “Good Luck, Babe!” was her only track eligible for the poll, and it still finished at number one when the countdown aired on 25 January 2025. About 2.4m votes were cast.
Single-entry winners are rare. OUTinPerth listed the few who got there before her: Denis Leary in 1993, The Cranberries in 1994, Spiderbait in 1996, Augie March in 2006 and The Rubens in 2015.
Royel Otis close behind
The Sydney duo Royel Otis took second place with their Like A Version cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor”. That recording went viral, passed 67m streams worldwide and reached number one on the US Alternative Airplay chart. The band also had two original songs in the countdown. Brisbane Times described the margin at the top as Roan “edging out” the band.
Roan’s win capped a breakthrough year. Her debut album became a sleeper hit after its release, and “Good Luck, Babe!”, a later single, has since become her biggest song.
Charli XCX and Billie Eilish everywhere
Below the top two, two international pop stars filled much of the list. Charli XCX placed eight tracks. Her highest was “Guess”, the duet with Eilish, at number six, followed by “Apple” at 20 and the Lorde remix of “Girl, so confusing” at 26.
Eilish landed at number three with “Birds of a Feather” and had six more solo songs in the poll, including “Lunch” at 17 and “Wildflower” at 27. OUTinPerth counted 25 Eilish entries across eight years, which it called the most of any artist in the countdown’s history.
A thin year for Australian acts
The home-grown numbers were the other story. Just 29 songs came from Australian artists, down from 52 the year before and 57 in 2022. Brisbane Times called it the third-lowest showing for local talent, behind only the first two countdowns in 1993 and 1994 and level with 1996.
Dom Dolla’s “Girl$” was the highest original Australian song, at number seven. Spacey Jane’s “One Bad Day” reached 18, and Old Murvs took 38 with “What You’ve Lost”. RUFUS DU SOL and Amyl and the Sniffers each had more than one entry.
Lachlan Macara, head of Triple J, pointed to the release calendar. “It’s a combination of factors, it’s been a big year of releases from some key international artists, Charli XCX and Billie Eilish in particular,” he said. He added that Australian artists compete on a global scale, and that “it can be a real challenge to cut through the algorithm”. Representation had not slipped below 50 per cent in a long while, he told Brisbane Times, and “there’s no doubt we need to have a bigger conversation about Australian music discoverability”.
It was also the first Hottest 100 since music director Richard Kingsmill left the station after 35 years, at the end of 2023.
Sources
- Chappell Roan takes out the top spot on Triple J Hottest 100
- Chappell Roan's Good Luck, Babe! Wins Triple J's Hottest 100
- The Hottest 100 and the crisis facing Australian music: Triple J's annual poll highlights streaming challenge
