Why this favourite to win the Hottest 100 has sparked hostility online

The triple j Hottest 100 is just a day away and this year, a frontrunner is also its most contentious contender.

Written by Keli Holiday (born Adam Hyde, best known as one half of electronic duo Peking Duk) about his partner, media personality Abbie Chatfield, Dancing2 is an unapologetic love song – and one that has come to spark nearly as much online hostility as joy.

Three days after its release in August, Dancing2 was shared by Chatfield to TikTok in a post captioned, “Reacting to the song my boyfriend wrote about me (Ft what I see in my head when I hear it).”

In the five-minute video, the track plays in full, interspersed with footage of the loved-up pair over the course of their relationship. Fans of the celebrity couple swooned, but five months on, Dancing2’s honeymoon period is well and truly over – and the backlash appears driven by far more than its musical merits.

On those merits: Dancing2 is a catchy, well-crafted pop song. Built around a restrained electronic pulse, Hyde’s half-spoken vocal delivery gradually gives way to swelling strings and bursts of sax that make no bones about its sentimentality.

It doesn’t reinvent any wheels, but you could say the same of countless beloved pop songs. In any case, the Hottest 100 has never functioned as a referendum on innovation, or even on quality alone. When The Wiggles’ cover of Tame Impala’s Elephant topped the countdown in 2021, it proved that emotional resonance and novelty can matter as much as musical daring.

Another undeniable factor influencing the Hottest 100 in recent years is TikTok, which makes certain songs ubiquitous both on the social media platform and far beyond it. Within weeks of Dancing2’s release, thousands of TikTok users had attached the song to their own uploads, using it to soundtrack relationship montages, cancer recovery stories and family dance routines. Holiday and Chatfield reshared many of these videos, often adding their own emotional reactions, and Dancing2 continued to spread like a rumour in a small town, quickly reaching No.1 on TikTok’s viral chart.

In September, Chatfield posted footage of herself dancing onstage with Holiday to Dancing2, marking the first time he performed the song live. The video has since attracted more than 2.2 million views, while her original reaction clip – still pinned to the top of her TikTok profile – has surpassed 1.3 million views.

At some point, however, the song’s omnipresence may have begun to work against it. TikTok frequently suggests trending audio as default sound, which may explain why some social media producers reported Dancing2 auto-attaching itself to videos documenting unrelated or grim news wholly unsuited to a romantic pop soundtrack. Oversaturation can sour even otherwise faultless music; in cases like this, it can also breed suspicion.

Promotion has long played a role in the Hottest 100 ecosystem, with artists and labels encouraging fans to vote through social media campaigns. While such activity is widespread, and often difficult to distinguish from organic enthusiasm, few artists have been scrutinised as intensely for it as Holiday, which suggests that frustration with Dancing2 might have less to do with campaigning than with who is doing it.

Some criticism has also centred on alleged similarities between Dancing2 and LCD Soundsystem’s All My Friends. While surface parallels can be drawn, a more obvious musical forebear is Alex Cameron – a co-writer on the track – whose work has long explored male insecurity, bravado and theatrical performance, often punctuated by generous lashings of saxophone from bandmate Roy Molloy.

Online critiques of Holiday have at times veered into the absurd, with one TikTok account accusing him of plagiarising not just melodies but even his signature raised-arm hip-swivelling dance move, allegedly borrowed from Axl Rose. The tone of much of this commentary has felt less like musical analysis than personal grievance.

Beyond fatigue with the song itself, it’s clear there are other motivations behind the anti-Dancing2 movement. Chatfield is a polarising figure and by extension, so is her relationship with Holiday. Forthright on issues from misogyny to Palestine, she has always attracted vitriolic detractors alongside her effusive fans. That Chatfield and Holiday have lived out their relationship so openly and expressively on social media has further intensified the backlash, especially among those troubled by a heterosexual male pop star supportive of gender equality, trans rights and women’s safety.

For many fans, however, the appeal of Dancing2 is inseparable from what the couple represents. Holiday’s embodiment of non-toxic masculinity – here, set to strings and sax – offers an aspirational counterpoint at a time when conservative values are making a forceful return. While their relationship undoubtedly forms part of their public brand, it is difficult to dismiss the conviction of Chatfield and Holiday’s politics, or the sincerity of their connection.

The Hottest 100 has always reflected not just musical taste, but the emotional temperature of the moment. The past two countdown-topping songs have celebrated modern forms of women’s empowerment – from Doja Cat’s defiant rejection of stan culture in Paint the Town Red to the pointed farewell of Chappell Roan’s sapphic pop anthem Good Luck, Babe!

It’s not hard to see why many listeners are gravitating toward the earnest romance of Dancing2: the song offers a brief escape from the ambient dread of the present, rendered more real by fans’ parasocial intimacy with its subjects.

Whether it wins or not, perhaps the more pertinent question is this: why has a man’s public devotion to an outspoken woman proven so difficult for so many to stomach?

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