“You know, the one that’s Nancy’s ex-boyfriend, the one that’s always with the kids.”
That’s how TikTok creator @zuhailaxx described Joe Keery in a video posted on January 10 after stumbling across his interview with Jimmy Fallon. She didn’t know his name. She just knew him as that guy from Stranger Things.
The video has since amassed over 252,000 views and counting.
@zuhailaxxThat song went double platinum in my house and it’s been him the whole time??♬ original sound – zuhailaxx
Then Fallon started listing the stats for Keery’s song “End of Beginning”: No.1 on Spotify globally, 1.5 billion streams, sixth most streamed song in the world in 2024, and over 60 billion views on TikTok.
She’d never heard of it. Had to be some niche side project she missed, right?
Then she looked it up.
“And when I’m in Chicago, I feel it—no way is that him.”
She knew the song. She just had no idea the actor who played Steve Harrington made it.
The reaction has since resonated with thousands of viewers, many of whom were equally surprised to learn the voice behind one of 2024’s biggest tracks belongs to an actor they’ve watched on the hit Netflix series for nearly a decade.
Keery has been releasing music under the name Djo since 2019, when he stepped back from his Chicago-based band Post Animal to focus on his acting career. But he never stopped making music. He has since released three solo albums, performed at Lollapalooza, and embarked on a world tour.
Despite amassing nearly 2 billion streams, a significant portion of his Stranger Things audience remained unaware of his music career.
That changed when the series finale aired on New Year’s Day. “End of Beginning”—a reflective track about nostalgia and revisiting the past—returned to #1 on Spotify’s global chart, displacing Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia,” which had held the top spot for 78 consecutive days.
Within 24 hours, the track had accumulated 6.5 million streams globally and 1.38 million in the US. Keery’s overall catalog saw a 114% surge, with digital sales increasing by 364%.
Swift, notably, had expressed admiration for the song before it went viral. In a previous interview, Keery recalled the exchange: “Before anything happened with this track, she said, ‘Hey, I really love that track of yours.’ I’m like, ‘What? You heard that song? How the hell did you hear that song?’
During his appearance on The Tonight Show, Fallon pointed out another detail that has since caught fans’ attention: the verse melody of “End of Beginning” is built on the same D major 7th chord as the Stranger Things theme. The only difference is the key.
For many fans now discovering his music, it seems Keery had been hinting at the connection all along.