Taylor Swift disqualified from Hottest 100?

Taylor Swift sparked heated conversation on social media this week following a push by her fans to have her track Shake It Off listed in triple j’s Hottest 100 list. Now, their efforts using the #Tay4Hottest100 hashtag may have proved futile with KFC reportedly to blame for her disqualification.

Using a photoshopped image the fast food chain posted the following message to its Facebook page:

“The #Tay4Hottest100 campaign is going strong and she’s got our vote. Tell us which Taylor Swift song is your favourite for a chance to win a voucher for $19.89! (Generous we know). #taylortribute.”

While the post has since been removed, ABC rules for the competition state: “Triple J reserves the right to remove artists from the list who have benefited from competitions or commercial campaigns that incentivise fans to vote for them.”

Crucially though, former triple j presenter Angela Catterns made a comment on Monday when she guested on ABC TV program The Drum. She said: “The Hottest 100 takes places, that fantastic institution, on Australia Day. And you probably know there was a push to get a Taylor Swift song in there, which has now had to be disqualified because a fast food chain became involved in the whole process.”

A spokesperson for KFC has issued a statement to Mumbrella, stating KFC did not intend to influence the poll’s voting:

“We know many of our fans are music lovers and our recent post has caused a bit of a stir so to avoid any more confusion we have removed the post. The post simply asked our fans to tell us what their favourite Taylor Swift song was for the opportunity to win a voucher, we were not incentivising people to vote for the Hottest 100.”

TMN reached out to triple j, who declined to comment at press time.

The triple j Hottest 100 is a globally recognised music poll and the world’s biggest publicly-voted list of its nature.