"Staring at the Stars" is a country song written and recorded by Dan Marfisi and Glenn Jordan that was used in "Dreamland II", which was the fifth episode of the sixth season of the science fiction TV show The X-Files.
"Staring at the Stars" became the subject of a years-long search by fans of the TV show as it was not mentioned in the end credits or in other sources such as the episode's IMDb page and had not been commercially released.
The name of the song and the identities of its composers were finally discovered following a thread on X, formerly Twitter, from Lauren Ancona which went viral on December 5, 2023 (over 21 million views as of 1 January 2024).
[1][2][3][4] Marfisi and Jordan are musicians based in Los Angeles and had been requested to compose and record a country song by the TV show's producers.
[5] The duo have also announced on Marfisi's band's website that they had started working on releasing the song as a single.