OneRepublic have now announced that their huge hit 'Counting Stars' has become one of the UK's biggest-selling singles of all time.
Ahead of their UK tour, the band's chart-topping tune broke past the million copies sales barrier in the United Kingdom, according to sales data from the Official Charts Company, joining just 150 other tracks that reached this milestone.
First entering the UK charts in August of last year, it went on to hit number one after seven weeks and spent two non-consecutive weeks at the top.
It then spent an unbroken year inside the Top 75, making it only the seventh single in history to do so.
To this day it remains in the Top 100, never dropping out since its entry 61 weeks ago.
Frontman Ryan Tedder - who wrote and produced the song - said after hearing the news: "That's crazy! When we recorded the song we had no idea it would have this much success. At the time there was nothing else in the world that sounded like it, so releasing it felt like a bit of a risk. What I've learnt since is that the most un-safe thing in the world as a musician is to play it safe. The only safe thing is to be risky as hell!"
He then went on to explain the story behind the song.
"On the second day I woke up early and I started combing through the internet, searching for stuff that would inspire me for Beyonce. 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."
Ryan continued: "I debated playing it for Beyonce and putting it forward for her album, but it didn't feel like a song Beyonce would record. I immediately came up with the chorus idea, went home and for the next three months finished [OneRepublic's] Native album."
OneRepublic's new single 'I Lived' is to be released on November 9.
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