As reported earlier this week, there is a Facebook-led movement to protest the date of the Hottest 100, by voting for A.B. Original’s powerful protest song ‘January 26’ in the countdown.
The event explains that: “By voting for a song which is both an explanation and rejection of the idea of January 26 as a day of celebration… we have the ability to send a message to triple j. Let’s end the division and change the date.”
Although numerous people have gotten on board with this protest, others shared concerns that triple j would simply disqualify the song like they did with Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’, which was the subject of a similar movement last year.
Simon Bags, organiser of the campaign (by which I mean, he started the Facebook page), responded to these concerns, outlining the key differences between the two campaigns, while pointing out that if triple j did disqualify the song from charting (which they wouldn’t dare), even the controversy behind that decision and the resultant media attention/public outrage would still be a good result.
Mr Bags wrote the following:
Interestingly, it was ex-triple j presenter Nina Las Vegas that first suggested the protest, tweeting in September that “Now is the time to start campaigning for [A.B. Original’s] ‘January 26’ to win triple j’s Hottest 100.”
This was directly after triple j had made the call to continue the countdown on January 26, despite widespread condemnation. Check out the song at the centre of it all, below.
