Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' 'Thrift Shop' Named 2012's Biggest Hit in Australian Poll

It’s official. “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis was the biggest hit with Australian youths last year.

On Australia Day, the global smash took out the Australian state-funded network Triple J’s Hottest 100 list, now regarded as the biggest annual music poll of its kind in the world.

The song, which in December 2012 became the first number one on the new ARIA streaming chart, bowed at the top of a Triple J poll which this year registered a record 1,516,765 votes, up 10% on last year.

The poll is typically a strong indicator of where the youth market’s tastes are at. A big performance on the list can go some way to defining the marketing campaigns for some acts. This year, the 20th annual Hottest 100, saw almost 188,000 people cast votes in the poll, up 11.71% on the prior year.

In a breakout of songs by their country of original, Australian acts accounted for 41 tracks, while 25 came from the U.S., 22 from the U.K., four from Sweden and three arrived from Canada.

The Hottest 100’s voting system, however, is now under scrutiny after some observers guessed right on the winner in the days leading up to the countdown, claiming they’d figured it out through data analysis. Some bookmakers stopped taking bets after a pair of markets apparently analysed more than 35,000 Hottest 100 public votes submitted through social networks.

The winner of the Triple J Hottest 100 poll last year was Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know,” a track which would later go on to become one of the biggest worldwide hits of the year.