A triple j veteran has called on listeners to send ‘January 26’ A.B. Original’s fiery collaboration with Dan Sultan to the top spot of the national youth broadcaster’s annual Hottest 100 countdown, which it’s been confirmed will be held on that very date in 2017.

Taking to Twitter, Nina Las Vegas, a triple j alumnus since 2004 who was the host of House Party from 2009 to 2014 before leaving the station, wrote, “Now is the time to start campaigning for [A.B. Original’s] ‘January 26’ to win triple j’s Hottest 100.”

Briggs, one half of A.B. Original, responded with, “love ya Vegas!” The DJ and label head’s tweet comes after triple j confirmed next year’s countdown broadcast would take place on Australia Day, despite a campaign to see the date of the broadcast changed.

A growing number of Australians believe changing the date of the Hottest 100 would show solidarity with Australia’s Indigenous community, including Briggs, who recently said that changing the date would be “an obvious salute” towards Australia’s Indigenous population.

‘January 26’ is a biting anti-Australia Day anthem whose lyrics rip apart what A.B. Original call a “farce of a holiday”. “They screaming ‘love it or leave it’ / I got more reason to be here, if you can believe it“, Briggs raps.

Elsewhere, Briggs’s partner Trials spits, “How you wanna raise a flag with a rifle to make us want to celebrate anything but survival / You watching tele for ‘The Bachelor’ but wouldn’t read a book about a fuckload of massacres“.

Las Vegas isn’t the first to suggest ‘January 26’ would be a fitting track to top the Hottest 100. Many triple j fans have taken to Twitter to encourage fellow listeners to vote for ‘January 26’ in the upcoming Hottest 100 voting round, which traditionally opens in December.

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