With his track Humble, Lamar becomes the first person of colour to win the countdown, in a landmark year for the station

Kendrick Lamar has become the first person of colour to win the Triple J Hottest 100, a milestone for the annual countdown after it was moved from its broadcast on Australia Day for the first time since 2004.

Lamar’s incendiary hit Humble was widely tipped to come in at No 1 on the list of Triple J listeners’ favourite songs of the year. The California rapper has released three critically acclaimed and uncompromisingly political albums, and his highly anticipated 2016 record Damn, intended to be “a hybrid” of his first two albums, became his most commercially successful.

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Lamar came close to topping the Hottest 100 in 2015 with King Kunta, but was pipped at the post – controversially in some quarters – by New South Wales group the Rubens, who scraped in this year at No 77 this year with Million Man.

Lamar becomes the first ever artist to make a leap from No 2 to No 1 in the countdown, and the second hip-hop artist to hit No 1.



Two tracks by the Aria-sweeping Australian rock group Gang Of Youths came in at No 2 (Let Me Down Easy) and No 5 (The Deepest Sighs, The Frankest Shadows) this year. With band members of Samoan, Fijian and Korean backgrounds, there are more Australian people of colour in the now London-based band than there have been in all previous Hottest 100 top tens put together.

And while an Indigenous artist is yet to break into the top 10 , Yolngu rapper Baker Boy came the closest ever, with Marryuna at No 17 and Cloud 9 at No 76. The enthusiastic embrace of the 21-year-old from north-east Arnhem Land is testament to both Triple J’s more deliberate efforts to include more Indigenous artists on its playlist and the openness of its audience to music it might have found challenging 10 years ago.

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Last year was a benchmark year for the countdown, with seven tracks featuring women included in the top 10 – including the top three.

On Saturday, only four tracks by or featuring women placed that high, including Green Light by New Zealand pop star Lorde at No 6, and Chateau by Angus and Julia Stone, which came in at No 3. Mataya and Kira Divine appeared as featured artists on Thundamental’s Sally (No 8) and PNAU’s Go Bang (No 7) respectively.

Some of the year’s most successful Australian female performers made it to the top 20, including major-label artist Vera Blue, indie artist Alex Lahey, and breakout singer-songwriter Alex the Astronaut. Lorde also came in at No 14 with Homemade Dynamite.

According to data provided by the broadcaster, 51 songs in this year’s Hottest 100 came from male artists or groups, 25 from female solo artists and groups, and 24 from acts including both male and female members.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alex the Astronaut made it into the top 20 on this year’s list.

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The countdown was moved to Saturday 27 January as part of the country’s ongoing reckoning with the political resonance of Australia Day.

The current date of Australia Day is considered a day of mourning for the country’s Indigenous communities, with record-breaking Invasion Day protests and Survival Day events held around the country on Friday. In recent years the call to move the countdown to a date more appropriate for the celebration had reached critical mass. AB Original’s #ChangeTheDate anthem January 26 hit No 19 on last year’s Hottest 100 after a pointed campaign, underlining the shift in the voters’ mood.

After an extensive internal discussion and a public consultation process, where a majority of listeners indicated they either supported or were indifferent to the prospect of a date change, the youth broadcaster announced late last year that the countdown would be held on the last Saturday in January, beginning in 2018.