Artist · chart history
The Cat Empire
Band Melbourne Australia Formed 1999
The Cat Empire formed in 1999 in Melbourne, Australia. The Cat Empire has 28 chart appearances on 16 radio countdowns from 5 stations on RockLists, spanning 2003–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “The Car Song”, which appears on 6 lists with a best position of #25. The station that charted The Cat Empire most often is Triple J (Australia (national)), with 13 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2007.
The Cat Empire started up in Melbourne in 1999 with music built to turn any room into a sweaty carnival. Their sound throws jazz, funk, ska and rock into a pot and spices it with Latin rhythm, and for most of their run the core was singer and percussionist Felix Riebl, trumpeter and singer Harry James Angus, drummer Will Hull-Brown, Jamshid Khadiwala on turntables, Ollie McGill on keyboards and Ryan Monro on bass, with the Empire Horns, Ross Irwin on trumpet and Kieran Conrau on trombone, often adding brass.
The Sun EP in 2002 brought "Hello", a buoyant, horn-happy invitation to the dance floor, along with "Two Shoes" and "The Chariot". The self-titled album followed in 2003 with "Days Like These", and Two Shoes in 2005 delivered "The Car Song", "Sly" and "Party Started". So Many Nights (2007) carried its title track and "No Longer There", Steal the Light (2013) brought "Brighter Than Gold", and Rising With the Sun (2016) had "Wolves".
Angus, Hull-Brown and Khadiwala all left in April 2022, and Riebl and McGill regrouped with Grace Barbé, Daniel Farrugia and Neda Rahmani.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Cat Empire on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Car Song | 6 | #25 | – | 2007 | |
| 2 | Sly | 5 | #38 | – | 2005 | |
| 3 | Hello | 4 | #6 | – | 2003 | |
| 4 | Two Shoes | 2 | #13 | – | 2007 | |
| 5 | So Many Nights | 3 | #36 | – | 2008 | |
| 6 | Days Like These | 1 | #37 | – | 2003 | |
| 7 | No Longer There | 1 | #62 | – | 2007 | |
| 8 | Going To Live | 1 | #655 | – | – | |
| 9 | Thunder Rumbles | 1 | #67 | – | 2023 | |
| 10 | Wolves | 1 | #79 | – | 2015 | |
| 11 | Brighter Than Gold | 1 | #89 | – | 2013 | |
| 12 | Party Started | 1 | #100 | – | 2005 | |
| 13 | The Chariot | 1 | #100 | – | 2003 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Featured on
Songs by other artists credited with The Cat Empire as a guest.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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