Counting Stars

Ryan Tedder stated that "'Counting Stars' came about [in August 2012] as an idea. It was probably the most versions of any song[...]to get it right". He also called it "one of [his] two favorite songs on the [Native] album".^[1] Tedder started writing "Counting Stars" while waiting for Beyoncé to turn up to a studio session, about a month after starting to write "Love Runs Out".^[7] In an interview with the Official Charts Company, Tedder said, "I had the idea for Counting Stars originally in the summer of 2012 when I was in the Hamptons. I was working in the largest house I've ever stepped foot in, which was being rented by Jay-Z and Beyoncé. I was in the middle of working on my most recent album with OneRepublic, Native, and during that time I was determined not to work with any other artists. I broke the promise because I also did sessions that year with Beyoncé. When Jay-Z and Beyoncé invite you to stay with them in the Hamptons, you don't say no!"^[8] He continued: "I was out there for about five days and on the second day I woke up early and I started combing through the internet, searching for stuff that would inspire me for Beyoncé. 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. 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 the Native album."^[8]

"Counting Stars" is a folk pop^[9] and pop rock song.^[10] Ricardo Baca of The Denver Post said that the song is "an extremely effective (and infectious) song — with Tedder's polished pop hijacking a folk song, and a little R&B attitude in there as well."^[11] The band explained that the song is about "laying in bed awake at night when you're stressed out of your mind, thinking 'How are we gonna make ends meet? How are we gonna pay the bills?' You know, all those things you wanna do with your life – how are we gonna make them work? How's this actually gonna happen or come to pass? So, instead of counting sheep, we're counting stars."^[1] Sheet music for "Counting Stars" is in the key of C♯ minor with a tempo of 107.6 beats per minute before increasing to 122 beats per minute, following a chord progression of C♯m-E-B-A.^[12]Ryan's vocals span from a low of B₂ to a high of C♯₅.

The music video was filmed on May 10, 2013, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and premiered on May 31, 2013. The video features the band performing the song in a gloomy ground floor of a building surrounded by hanging light bulbs, interspersed with scenes of several people in a religious revival service on the upper floor, dancing along with the song. At the end of the video, the ceiling collapses, causing one of the people in the service to fall through the floor into the room the band is performing in. The video also shows clips of an alligator crawling through the ground floor.^[13]

The video became the first music video by a band in history to reach 1 billion views, doing so on November 2, 2015.^[14] It has received over 3.9 billion views and 16 million likes on YouTube, and, as of January 2023^[update], is the 16th most viewed video on the site.^[15]

"Counting Stars" debuted at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 on July 6, 2013.^[16] The song peaked at number two on January 18, 2014, and stayed there for two weeks behind "Timber" by Pitbull, featuring Kesha.^[17][18] The song spent 25 consecutive weeks in the top ten, and finished fifth for the most total weeks on the Hot 100 after spending 68 weeks on the chart.^[19] It is tied with "Apologize" as OneRepublic's highest-peaking single in the United States, and is their third US top-ten hit. The song has sold over 5.3 million copies in the US as of December 2014.^[20]

In Canada, the song set the record for the longest climb to number one on the Canadian Hot 100, reaching number one on its 34th week on the chart on February 8, 2014. The song has topped the charts in Canada, Finland, Israel, Poland, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom,^[21] and charted within the top ten in 20 countries, including attaining top five placements in Australia, Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand. In the United Kingdom, "Counting Stars" spent 34 consecutive weeks inside the top 40.^[22] On October 11, 2014, the Official Charts Company confirmed that "Counting Stars" had sold 1 million copies in the UK.^[8] On February 28, 2022, Live Nation Entertainment confirmed that song had sold 41 million copies worldwide.

CD single^[3]

1. "Counting Stars" – 4:18
2. "Counting Stars" (Lovelife remix) – 3:55

Other Versions

• 7th Heaven Club Mix - 7:15
• 7th Heaven Radio Edit - 3:14
• 2023 Version - 3:52

Recording^[23]

• Recorded at Black Rock Studio Santorini, Santorini, Greece, and Patriot Studios, Denver, Colorado
• Mastered at Sterling Sound, New York

Personnel^[23]

• Songwriting – Ryan Tedder
• Production – Ryan Tedder, Noel Zancanella
• Engineering – Smith Carlson
• Assistant engineering – Matthew Tryba
• Harp – HarpEri
• Acoustic guitar – Zach Filkins
• Rhythm guitar – Drew Brown
• Bass – Brent Kutzle
• Keys – Ryan Tedder
• Drums, percussion – Eddie Fisher
• Backing vocals – Bobbie Gordon, Brent Kutzle, Zach Filkins, David McGlohon
• Mixing – Joe Zook
• Assistant mix engineering – Ryan Lipman
• Mastering – Chris Gehringer, Will Quinnell

• List of best-selling singles in Australia
• List of best-selling singles in the United States
• List of Billboard Adult Contemporary number ones of 2014
• List of Canadian Hot 100 number-one singles of 2014
• List of UK Singles Chart number ones of 2014
• List of million-selling singles in the United Kingdom