In a record-breaking year for votes, triple j celebrates two milestones as Billie Eilish takes out #1 in the 2019 Hottest 100.
At 18, not only is Billie Eilish is the youngest act ever to top the annual countdown, she’s also the first female solo artist to take out the top prize in Hottest 100 history. And she did it with ‘bad guy’ – a record-breaking, world conquering hit Billie wrote and recorded in a bedroom with her brother and producer, Finneas. It’s become so inescapable that it’s easy to forget how unlikely a blockbuster ‘bad guy’ really is. From its minimalist production to the playful, provocative lyrics and anti-pop star presentation, it’s a bass-heavy, beat-switching oddity that breaks nearly all the conventional rules of #1 singles.
On finding out that ‘bad guy’ was voted triple j listeners favourite song of the year, Billie Eilish praised them on-air, saying “Thank you, guys, you did this! That’s insane. Thank you so much, it’s an honour. It’s so crazy to me. I love Australia.
Returning the much deserved praise, triple j’s Music Director Nick Findlay adds “2019 had many musical success stories, but in the end the year belongs to Billie Eilish. Her debut album didn’t just prove itself a worldwide heavyweight, its popularity steamrolled over everyone else, and it’s lead single ‘bad guy’ is the perfect summary to Billie’s success. It’s the antithesis to a traditional pop song, an undeniable earworm, and a hugely deserved, record breaking Hottest 100 #1.”
Apart from Billie’s towering achievment there were lots of trends emerging from the countdown…
- Billie Eilish is the first female solo artist to get #1 in the Hottest 100, as well as the youngest.
- Billie Eilish scored the most songs in the countdown (5), followed by G Flip and Lime Cordiale with 4, and Tones And I, Flume, Thelma Plum, Tame Impala, BENEE andRuel with 3 each
- Denzel Curry’s ‘Bulls On Parade’ (#5) is the highest charting Like A Version ever, snatching the record from DMA’S and their version of ‘Believe’ (2016 #6)
- Thelma Plum is the highest-ranking Indigenous artist in Hottest 100 history, with ‘Better In Blak’ (#9) overtaking A.B. Original’s ‘January 26’ (2016 #16)
- Baker Boy showcased Indigenous Language in the Hottest 100 for the third consecutive year with ‘Meditjin’ (#98) and ‘Cool As Hell’ (#44)
- Slipknot mark the biggest gap between countdowns with ‘Unsainted’ (#86) released 19 years after their previous Hottest 100 entry of ‘Wait And Bleed’ (2000 #75)
- Hilltop Hoods have 20 songs in 10 annual countdowns, closing in on the 22-song record held by Foo Fighters and Powderfinger
- DMA’S and Peking Duk celebrate their 6th consecutive appearance in a countdown
If you want to a go deeper, There’s plenty more Hottest 100 facts to nerd out on, plus a great long read on Billie Eilish’s winning song ‘bad guy’.
If you haven’t already, you can still donate to Greening Australia who are part of the coordinated response to bushfire recovery. They run tree-planting projects across the country to restore natural environments, cool our cities, save endangered animals and pull carbon out of the atmosphere. Thanks for all your support so far! We’ll announce our final fundraising figure on Tuesday afternoon.
You can hear the Hottest 200 – 101 on Mon 27 Jan, closely followed by triple j’s Hottest 100 of the Decade!
