Photo Credit: Djo (Instagram)
Stranger Things star Joe Keery’s solo music project Djo turns Spotify’s Global Chart upside down and dethrones Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia.”
Netflix’s hit show Stranger Things may have boosted the classic catalogs of the likes of Prince, Metallica, and Kate Bush, but now its final bow is buoying the music career of actor Joe Keery. Keery, who played Steve Harrington on Stranger Things, has a hit single, “End of Beginning,” released under the moniker Djo. The song has even replaced Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia” in the #1 slot on Spotify’s Global Chart after 78 consecutive days.
The track originally came out on his 2022 album, Decide, but has since been released as a standalone single after gaining some traction. Now, the song is sitting pretty at #1 on Spotify’s Global Chart with 6.5 million streams—but it’s not the first time it’s enjoyed the view. “End of Beginning” went viral on TikTok in 2024, which saw it reach the milestone for the first time. It’s also #1 on the U.S. Spotify Chart with 1.38 million streams.
Djo’s renewed popularity, and especially “End of Beginning,” makes sense given that it’s the end of 2025, the end of Stranger Things, and the track is a poignant reflection of things ending and beginning. It’s a perfect storm for Keery, who says even Taylor Swift herself is a fan.
When “End of Beginning” went viral in 2024, Keery revealed on The Sprout podcast that Taylor Swift told him she liked the song when he ran into her at a recording studio and she heard the then-work-in-progress.
“I just happened to be there the day that she was there. And she’s really nice,” said Keery. “Before anything happened with this track, she said, ‘Hey, I really love that track of yours, ‘End of Beginning.’’ She just said that she had heard the song, and you know, obviously, I’m like, ‘What? You heard that song? How the hell did you hear that song?’”
Keery said he hadn’t realized she had even heard the song while he was still working on it, but that Swift is “so hip to new music and things that are coming out” that she discovered it while looking for upcoming tracks.
“So somehow it came across her desk, and she listened to it and then said that she liked it,” said Keery, who was obviously a bit star-struck in his own right. “Really, really nice of her.”
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