From “The Neverending Story” to “Running Up That Hill,’ music is an integral part of Stranger Things.
Each season, classic ’80s tunes that are featured on the show end up shooting up the music charts, experiencing something of a mini-revival.
However, this time around, fans paid a different kind of musical tribute to Stranger Things.
Rather than a song featured directly in the show, Djo’s ‘End of Beginning hit No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart for the first time following Stranger Things‘ December 31 finale, making it the number one song in the world.
The reason this song is significant is that the artist behind it is our very own Steve Harrington: Joe Keery.
The song’s previous viral moment
Keery, who adopts Djo as a stage name, first released “End of Beginning” back in 2022 as part of his album Decide.
The song first garnered attention in early 2024 after going viral on TikTok. Some users were touched by the nostalgic tribute to Chicago, while others simply couldn’t believe that the Stranger Things star dropped such a banger without anybody realising it was him.
As buzz around the song accelerated, it ended up shooting to No. 3 on the Billboard Global 200.
“I have literally no idea what’s going on,” Keery told Rolling Stone at the time. “I’m probably more confused than ever, but it’s really, really cool to see something that you’ve written affect people and have them take it in as their own and into their own lives.”
Fans react to Djo’s reign
The song is also making a splash on Spotify. It recently dethroned Taylor Swift from her top spot by climbing to No.1 on the Global Spotify chart with 8.39 million streams.
In response to this news, fans were thrilled.
“It is genuinely impressive how much staying power this track has, especially for a song that was originally released back in 2022,” one wrote.
“Man, this is wild,” a second said. “Djo really holding it down with streams like that, gotta love it.”
While a third simply said: “Well deserved.”
And a fourth declared: “Joe’s got the whole world singing along.”
“End of Beginning” also reached 2 billion streams on Spotify, which is Djo’s first song to reach that milestone.
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