4 days ago
How The Veronicas' 'Untouched' became their Hottest 100 debut in 2025
Please stand for your national anthem and number three placegetter in the Hottest 100 of Australian songs — 'Untouched' by The Veronicas.
Written in Los Angeles by the sister duo of Jess and Lisa Origliasso, with German producer and songwriter Toby Gad whose credits include Beyoncé, John Legend, Fergie, Nicole Scherzinger and more), 'Untouched' explores the all-encompassing longing that's felt when you're physically separated from those you love.
In The Veronicas' case, being on the other side of the world and away from their family in their early 20s.
Released in 2007 and recognised as the Australian response to alternative pop icons like Avril Lavigne and P!NK, 'Untouched' was the first single in the US and UK from Hook Me Up, The Veronicas' second album, and delivered the sisters their first taste of international attention.
Defying the hesitations of their record label at the time, 'Untouched' peaked at number two in Australia, number one in Ireland and reached the top 10 in Czech Republic, Canada, the Netherlands, the UK and New Zealand.
Locking in double platinum in the US, and platinum in Australia and Ireland, 'Untouched' truly established The Veronicas as a pop force to be reckoned with.
But it had never made a Hottest 100 countdown, until now.
The power-pop heater opens with those iconic strings and then explodes into its fast-paced lyricism and tempo to match.
It's certifiably a speedy song. Sitting at 177 BPM, 'Untouched' is one of the most amped-up tracks in the entire Hottest 100 of Australian Songs, narrowly behind Amyl and the Sniffers' 'Hertz' at 185 BPM. Something about them just makes you want to get up and go , and that's in the beat.
The music video is an iconic piece of Australian cinematic history in itself.
Filmed at the Marble Bar at Sydney's Hilton Hotel, it captures the essence of edgy teen fashion in the mid-2000s. Black lace, sweeping fringes, heavy eyeliner — a gothic, baroque moment seen throughout the era (looking at you, Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy).
It's no surprise that The Veronicas launched their own fashion range in major Australian department stores shortly after.
While 'Untouched' had its time in pop culture around the time of its release — notably in TV series such as The Hills and 90210 — the song lived primarily in '00s pop party and throwback playlists until it found a renewed audience with the queer community.
After Jessica was outed by tabloids at age 20, and just beginning her career, she famously dated Ruby Rose on and off from 2008 to 2018. She later got engaged to her partner Alex Smith in late 2022.
"It was weird to have it written about so publicly because you don't really see that anymore. I was 20," Jessica told Stellar Magazine in 2023.
"I didn't want to give them an answer because I didn't know what the answer was at the time. Labels were loaded back then. But all our fans knew I was queer; I wrote about it in so many songs."
Fast forward to 2019 where the pair introduced 'Untouched' at LA Pride as "the national gay anthem", cementing the LGBTQIA+ community as the custodians of the power pop hit.
"People say that we gave the gays 'Untouched,' but it was actually the gays that gave us 'Untouched'."
"Because we literally grew up influenced by all the music that was defining queer culture," Jessica told Nylon Magazine in 2019.
"So, of course, we were going to go on to create music that reflected that. 'Untouched' doesn't say 'I want to kiss a girl,' that's 'Take Me on the Floor'. There's no overt language in 'Untouched', but it's something about that song."
Back home in Australia, The Veronicas struck the sweet spot when they joined Allday at Splendour In The Grass in 2019, bringing a whack of 2000s nostalgia to the stage.
Their trap-infused remix of the song countless young Aussies had on their childhood iPods catapulted Jessica and Lisa into the zeitgeist, and ushered in a whole generation of new fans.
This new legion of fans showed their love for the track in the way a chronically-online generation knows how: memes. Lots and lots of memes.
Most recently, 'Untouched' has featured in the psychological supernatural horror Bring Her Back by fellow Australian power twins, Danny and Michael Philippou.
"You're always trying to find songs that tie into the themes of the film or tie into something we're trying to convey," Danny told triple j.
"And Laura's a character that when she's in these uncomfortable situations, she blasts music to try and cope with her nerves."
So how do The Veronicas feel about a track they wrote 17 years ago having new life breathed into it?
"It's literally the dream as a songwriter and as a performer," Lisa told Lucy Smith in 2023.
"It was the first song for our second album. For us we took everything that we learned and we took a risk with 'Untouched' because at the time the genre and style of music that it was wasn't being played on radio. Lady Gaga hadn't even come out yet, so electro pop rock just wasn't a thing.
"For this to be the blueprint of The Veronicas that people really feel like solidifies our sound is, for us, just the highest compliment."
'Untouched' is a song that has lasted the test of time, seen an artist through the bell curve of rising, falling and rising popularity, and now reached the podium of the best Australian Songs.
The Veronicas are truly untouchable.
