OneRepublic’s hit “Counting Stars” has reached a massive streaming milestone. The pop-rock band’s single has surpassed three billion streams on Spotify.
“Counting Stars” is a single from OneRepublic’s 2013 third album, Native, which also featured singles “Feel Again,” “If I Lose Myself,” “Something I Need,” “Love Runs Out,” and “I Lived.” “Counting Stars” is the band’s latest tune to achieve a major feat. Their 2022 hit “I Ain’t Worried,” which first appeared on the soundtrack to Top Gun: Maverick and returned on the band’s 2024 album Artificial Paradise, recently hit two billion streams on Spotify.
The backstory of “Counting Stars” is a fun one: frontman Ryan Tedder began writing the tune while waiting for Beyoncé (with whom he’s frequently collaborated since) to come to their studio session in the Hamptons. “On the second day, I woke up early and I started combing through the internet, searching for stuff that would inspire me for Beyoncé,” he told Official Charts at the time. “I ended up coming across this weird song that had this indigenous folk sound to it that just struck me like lightning. I didn’t like the verses or lyrics, but I loved the feel and movement of it. That ended up inspiring ‘Counting Stars’.”
Listen to OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars” on Spotify now.
Tedder continued: “I debated playing it for Beyoncé and putting it forward for her album, but it didn’t feel like a song Beyoncé would record. I immediately came up with the chorus idea, went home, and for the next three months finished [OneRepublic’s] Native album.”
Tedder, known for his songwriting and production work for a multitude of artists outside of OneRepublic, has previously entered the Spotify Billions Club with songs like Maroon 5’s 2014 single “Maps,” Jonas Brothers’ 2019 comeback hit “Sucker,” Tate McRae’s 2023 “Greedy” single, and Beyoncé’s 2009 Grammy-winning “Halo” single.
Buy OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars” on vinyl now.
