The 2020 Triple J Hottest 100 was announced on 23 January 2021. It is the 28th countdown of the most popular songs of the year, as chosen by listeners of Australian radio station triple j. The countdown was announced on the fourth weekend of January.
English band Glass Animals was voted into first place with their single "Heat Waves", becoming the first British act to top the annual list in 11 years, with the previous case being when Mumford & Sons won the 2009 countdown with "Little Lion Man". Australian band Lime Cordiale achieved the most entries in the countdown, at five.
Background
The triple j Hottest 100 allows members of the public to vote online for their top ten songs of the year, which are then used to calculate the year's 100 most popular songs. Any song initially released between 1 December 2019 and 30 November 2020 was eligible for 2020's Hottest 100.
Voting opened on 8 December 2020. Several artists and presenters made their votes public, including Billie Eilish, Flume, and Glass Animals. The artists most often voted for by these artists were Tkay Maidza, Tame Impala, Spacey Jane, and The Strokes.
Projections
Prior to the countdown, two favourites had emerged. Various music blogs and bookmakers placed "Heat Waves" by English psych-pop band Glass Animals and "Booster Seat" by Australian indie-rock band Spacey Jane as the two songs most likely to take first place. Glass Animals previously placed 12th in 2014, also ranking in the top 40 in 2016 and 2019; while Spacey Jane debuted at 80th in 2019. Both songs respectively placed in first and second on the countdown.
Full list
Countries represented
Australia – 66
United States – 24
United Kingdom – 14
Canada – 3
Japan – 3
Ghana – 1
Italy – 1
New Zealand – 1
Artists with multiple entries
Five entries
Lime Cordiale (11, 16, 20, 25, 26)
Four entries
Spacey Jane (2, 15, 28, 81) G Flip (three times solo and once with Illy) (7, 44, 78, 95) Juice Wrld (twice solo, once as co-lead artist, and once with the Kid Laroi) (39, 40, 49, 60)
Three entries
Glass Animals (1, 18, 51) Tame Impala (5, 17, 33) Billie Eilish (10, 79, 90) Joji (59, 62, 98)
Two entries
Flume (once as lead artist and once as remixer/producer) (3, 54) Ball Park Music (4, 63) The Jungle Giants (8, 89) Ocean Alley (14, 72) Halsey (once solo and once with Machine Gun Kelly) (19, 36) Mac Miller (23, 24) Skegss (27, 66) San Cisco (31, 56) DMA's (32, 52) Amy Shark (34, 65) The Kid Laroi (37, 60) Bring Me the Horizon (38, 71) Ruel (45, 83) AJ Tracey (48, 94) Stormzy (48, 97) Headie One (once solo/as co-lead artist and once with Stormzy) (48, 97) Hockey Dad (96, 99)