Stranger Things star Joe Keery has unexpectedly claimed the top spot on Spotify, knocking Taylor Swift off the global chart over the weekend.
Keery, who releases music under the name DJO, saw a surge in streams of his 2022 track “End of Beginning” following the show’s highly anticipated series finale.
The song, from his album Decide, climbed rapidly and overtook Swift’s 2025 single “The Fate of Ophelia,” which had held No. 1 for 78 consecutive days.
Swift had previously praised Keery’s track.
The two met at Electric Lady Studios in New York, where Swift complimented the song. Keery recalled the moment during a 2024 appearance on The Spout Podcast:
“Before anything happened with this track, she said, ‘Hey, I really love that track of yours, End of Beginning.’ I was like, ‘What? You heard that song? How the hell did you hear that song?’”
He added that Swift is “really a music lover” who actively seeks out new sounds.
“Somehow it came across her desk, and she listened to it and said that she liked it. Really, really nice of her,” Keery said.
Keery also shared a humorous encounter with Swift fans outside The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
“I walked out the door, and it was like 1,000 people were standing out there,” he said.
“People looked at me expecting Taylor, and were like, ‘Who’s this guy?’”
Before his rise to solo stardom, Keery was a staple of the Chicago music scene as a founding member of the psychedelic rock band Post Animal.
Serving as a guitarist and vocalist, he contributed to their 2018 breakout album, When I Think of You in a Castle, before eventually departing to focus on his burgeoning acting career.
In 2019, he re-emerged under the moniker Djo, a name chosen to allow his music to stand on its own merits away from his Stranger Things fame.
His debut solo album, Twenty Twenty, earned critical acclaim for its neo-psychedelic sound, laying the groundwork for the massive success of his follow-up project, Decide.
Beyond his breakout role as Steve Harrington on Stranger Things, Keery has recently earned critical acclaim for more dramatic work.
He received high marks for his performance as Gator Tillman in the fifth season of the hit series Fargo and starred in the 2024 heist thriller Marmalade.
Keery is slated to lead the upcoming 2026 sci-fi horror film Cold Storage alongside Liam Neeson, continuing his transition into major leading roles.