Triple J caught out defying their own Hottest 100 rules

After much hoo-ha leading up to Triple J’s Hottest 100, which was played over the Australia Day weekend, Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off was deemed ineligible to be voted for in the countdown since the song had never actually been played on the youth network.

Still that ‘rule’ did not stop a song by artist Sia from making it into the Hottest 100. The Adelaide singer’s hit single Chandelier was never played in its original guise on Triple J and yet it swung into the Top 10, sitting pretty at ninth place.

Indeed the first time Sia’s Chandelier was played proper was on January 26, 2015, not including a remix of the song (the Happy Accidents Vocal Remix) reportedly spun during Nina Las Vegas’ Saturday night’s ‘House Party’ session.

A cover version of the song had also been spun now and then, courtesy of Like A Version contributing act Montaigne, but, still, this does not mean the original single was actually entitled to be included in the voting system (think about it; it’s like saying Pharrell Williams’ Happy was eligible simply because the John Butler Trio covered it – ironically, we’re sure).

Said the station’s manager, Chris Scaddan, to online music magazine, Tone Deaf, “Chandelier was never on rotation, but [it] was played on House Party and Mix Up programs and won the 2014 J Award for best music video, so was included in the Hottest 100 voting list.”

As Taylor Swift fans might well say: “Whatevs.”  Antonino Tati

Pictured top of story: A publicity-shy Sia, whose song ‘Chandelier’ was never officially played on Triple J but made it into the Hottest 100 despite terms and conditions that kept Taylor Swift out.