Facts for 1999

The 1999 Hottest 100 was the seventh annual Hottest 100 countdown since the change of the format which allowed only songs from the previous year to be voted for.

The Countdown

The countdown took place in January of 2000 and featured a mixture of 72 different artists.

The 1999 countdown is notable as the first countdown in which the number of Australian artists overtook the American artists. Since 1999, Australia has remained the dominating country, beating the United States and England in every countdown to date. The record of 52 Australian tracks was equalled again in 2007, although it was beaten in 2014, which featured 59 Australian artists. In keeping with the Australian theme, 1999 marked the first time an all-Australian top 3 has occurred. It again occurred in 2006 when Augie March topped the poll and once more in 2014 when topped by Chet Faker.

Also notable is the fact that Killing Heidi, an independent band discovered by Triple J's independant music program 'Unearthed', reached the #2 position. They were closely followed by The Tenants, who were also an Unearthed band. Until Vance Joy's #1 song 'Riptide' in 2013, this was the highest position that an Unearthed artist had achieved. The then record was again equalled in 2002 by Grinspoon, Missy Higgins in 2004, Art vs. Science in 2009 and Little Red in 2010.

Starting with Gerling's 'Enter, Space Capsule' at #45, and ending with The Whitlams' 'Chunky Chunky Air Guitar' at #38, a run of 8 Australian tracks in a row featured. This is the longest streak of songs that any country had experienced up to that point. The record was again equalled by Australia in 2012.

At #69, Nine Inch Nails featured with their song 'Starfuckers, Inc.'. The song was reportedly inspired by the lyric 'starfucker' in Tori Amos' song 'Professional Widow', of which a remix charted at #98 in the 1996 countdown.

Artists Featured

The best performing bands of the countdown were Powderfinger and Silverchair, who achieved 4 tracks each. Powderfinger managed the highest entry, reaching #1.

Frenzal Rhomb, Something For Kate and Spiderbait all managed to gain 3 tracks each. Frenzal Rhomb managed the highest entry, reaching #26.
16 other artists managed to appear twice in the countdown.

Artists With Multiple Entries

4 Tracks

3 Tracks

2 Tracks

Countries Featured

The 1999 Hottest 100 featured artists from 8 countries, including 52 from Australia, 31 from the USA and 12 from England.

As stated before, the 1999 Hottest 100 was the first time that Australian entries exceeded the American entries. Australia's 52 placings is a record that was tied with the 2007 countdown until it was beaten in 2014, which featured 59 Australian artists. The 2015 featured Australia with 53 tracks, beating 199 and 2007 to become the second highest amount by a country.

A Note

‘Sun Is Shining’ was a collaboration between Bob Marley and Funkstar De Luxe, who are from Jamaica and Denmark, respectively. However, the track is counted as a Jamaican entry for simplicity.

Countries Represented in the 1999 Countdown

Flag	Country	Entries
	Australia	52
	Canada	1
	England	12
	Germany	1
	Jamaica	1
	New Zealand	1
	Sweden	1
	USA	31