Strangers Things fans know Steve Harrington and the actor Joe Keery, but only a few of them know him as Djo. Keery uses the alias as a singer and songwriter and has released two studio albums so far. One of his 2022 tracks, End of Beginning, blew up on TikTok in early 2024. The song appeared on Djo’s second studio album DECIDE and found its success nearly two years later.
Keery has revealed on multiple occasions that acting is his daytime job and creating music is his hobby. Besides Strangers Things, the actor is famous for his roles in Free Guy and the crime drama series Fargo.
Stranger Things Fans May Not Realize That Joe Keery Created This Viral Song
While Joe Keery, the actor, is expected to receive more fan love in the upcoming season of Stranger Things, the musician in him, Djo, has also captured hearts. His song, End of Beginning, found social media success in early 2024 when TikTok users began a trend with the song. They started posting travel videos, which were soundtracked by Djo’s song.
His lyrics from the song served as the theme to these videos. It goes like this, “And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it. Another version of me, I was in it. I wave goodbye to the end of beginning.” Following the newfound popularity of the song, Djo released the song as a single. In March, he appeared on Zane Lowe’s podcast on Apple Music and discussed his viral song.
The actor revealed that he was happy that a song he wrote in 2022 has finally found its legs in the present day. He found it really cool that people were connecting to an idea that he thought was personal to him. Zane Lowe shared his thoughts on why the song became suddenly popular, sharing that everybody’s got a place in their life that knows them a little too well.
He added that Djo’s song was a tribute to a place in everyone’s life, like Chicago, that people are desperate to leave but also love to the core. He shared that the place knew who you were there and it was something that caught people’s attention to the song. Zane Lowe shared about the song on the Apple Music podcast:
Because everybody’s got a Chicago. If they don’t they’re going to have a Chicago. They’re going to have a place in their life that knows them a little too well. I think what’s great about that song is like… it’s a tribute to a place that you are desperate to leave behind but you also love. The comfort that it knows you and who you were there.
Keery released his first album as Djo in September 2019, titled Twenty Twenty. Before becoming a solo artist, Keery was a guitarist and drummer for the Chicago-based psychedelic rock band Post Animal.
Stranger Things May Not Kill Off Joe Keery’s Steve Harrington
Joe Keery teased the fate of his fan-favorite character, Steve Harrington, in the upcoming season of Stranger Things. During an interview with The Movie Dweeb, Keery shared that Season 5 has good things in store for his character. While it could mean anything, fans believe that Keery’s character will have a happy ending in the series. He shared:
Um… From the stuff that I’ve read, I think there’s literally nothing I can say about anything. But I do get to have some good, good things this time around. Yeah, I’m excited. It’s fun. It’s been very fun already.
The makers of Stranger Things have never shied away from killing off fan-favorite characters, but they never took that drastic step with the main crew of Hawkins until now. The prospect of a main character dying in the finale looms larger than ever and fans of Keery hope that it’s not Steve Harrington.
Stranger Things Season 5 is expected to be released in 2025 on Netflix.
