With Taylor Swift out of the way, Chet Faker had clear sailing to the No. 1 spot on the Triple J Hottest 100 list, an annual Australian poll that ranks the nation's favorite tunes from the past year.
Faker's song "Talk Is Cheap" came out on top after hundreds of thousands of Aussies voted, via ABC.
"'Talk Is Cheap' dropped right at the start of 2014. By year's end, it was still sounding as fresh as the first day we played it," Triple J music director Richard Kingsmill told Billboard. "Chet played and produced the whole album himself (bar one guitar solo). The way the sax starts the song is just magical and sucks you right in. The song sounds simple, until you hear all the instruments and voices at work. You're kept there right until the end, when Chet Faker's layered vocals bring the song to a fitting close."
The station disqualified Swift's "Shake It Off" after a viral social media campaign — #Tay4Hottest100 — threatened to shake the event's integrity. Triple J offered up a tongue-in-cheek list of reasons why the American pop star would not be able to claim the prize.
"Taylor Swift got played on triple j a total of 0 times in 2014, adding to her cumulative total of 0 plays since we started as a radio station in 1975," the site wrote. "Luckily, other Australian radio stations picked up the slack and played Shake It Off 13,511 times (and counting!) since it was released in August."
Triple J noted that the campaign would not have been completely successful, anyway. The votes for Swift would have only landed her the No. 12 spot in the final poll.
Long live Faker! Check out the Australian native's winning song below:
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