OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder Breaks Down Viral Hit ‘Counting Stars’ and David Guetta-Featuring ‘I Don’t Wanna Wait’ for Variety’s Behind the Song
variety.comTiana DeNicola editor Not many can claim a spot in the Top 20 most viewed YouTube videos of all time, but OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars” has earned its place with over 4 billion views on the platform.
While the world easily embraced the song as an instant hit, the journey to the band’s individual success wasn’t so straightforward.
For OneRepublic’s lead singer, Ryan Tedder, “Counting Stars” wasn’t just another single; it was a make-or-break moment for the band.
Reflecting on the pressure they faced at the time, Tedder shared in Variety’s Behind the Song, “We thought that our first two singles had misfired, and this was our last shot.” Tedder had a strong intuition about the track itself: “I placed [‘Counting Stars’] as the first track on the album for a reason,” he remembers.
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