Stranger Things 5's beloved star Joe Keery aka DJo has dethroned Taylor Swift on Spotify. Infact such was the impact and adulation for his character Steve
Harrington, that his song End of Beginning got pulled back in the charts. Joe, who records under moniker Djo has hit No. 1 on Spotify's Global chart earlier this week with his 2022 viral track amassing 6.52 million daily streams. Joe earned his biggest streaming day on the chart with 8.81 million streams on Wednesday. It has now spent eight straight days at No 1. This overthrows Taylor Swift's The Fate of Ophelia, which has remained at the top spot for most of the time, ever since her album The Life of a Showgirl debuted in October 2025. End of Beginning by DJo has been number one since January 2, 2026, and the timeframe perfectly matches with Netflix dropping the final epsiode 8 titled The Rightside Up for Stranger Things 5, brining curtains down to the mega hit show after a 9-year run.
Joe Keery overthrows Taylor Swift
When not acting, Joe is a famed musician who composes under the name of DJo. From 2015 to 2018, Joe was a drummer, guitarist, and vocalist for Chicago-based garage and psych-rock band Post Animal. After his departure from the band in 2018 due to his acting commitments, Joe went solo and delivered the sleeper hit End of Beginning in 2024. It was initially the sixth track from his second studio album, Decide. But since it went viral on social media, especially TikTok, it was launched as a single on March 1, 2024. The song went on to become his first Billboard Hot 100 entry.
Taylor Swift's reaction to End of Beginning
Joe had previously spoken about Taylor Swift's reaction to his hit song End of Beginning before it was released, when they were at Electric Lady Studios at the same time. "She said, 'Hey, I love that song of yours…' Somehow it made its way to her desk and she said she liked it — very kind of her," the artist shared.
Joe Keery on keeping his actor and singer side separate
Joe had also shared how he tries to keep his two alter egoes of being an actor and a musician at the same time. He said in an interview with Bustle, "It’s important to disassociate Steve from Stranger Things to the band because I think it will eventually hurt the band. I think it’s important that they’re hitting the pavement for a while and making a name for themselves and it’s not necessarily associated with Stranger Things."
For the unversed, Joe had also suggested showrunners the Duffer Brothers to use the original version of Heroes in the end credits of Stranger Things 5 along with a montage of all the characters from several scenes across the seasons, in an animated comic book avatar. According to him, it matched with the Netflix show's vibe given how its previous seasons featured Peter Gabriel's cover.
