WARNING: The following story contains spoilers for “Heated Rivalry.”
Dan Boeckner said the audience at recent Wolf Parade concerts has looked different than in recent years, and it’s all due to “Heated Rivalry.”
The band’s song “I’ll Believe in Anything” has found a new audience 21 years after its original release. It soundtracked a pivotal scene in the wildly popular queer hockey romance series, which airs on Crave.
“‘Heated Rivalry’ putting eyes on Wolf Parade really let a younger generation of people discover our music,” Boeckner said during a recent interview with CTV News.
“At our shows in Ontario, we had the old heads, people who have been coming to our shows before we were signed to Sub Pop, who would drive to Toronto to see us at a Dan Burke show at the Comfort Zone or the Silver Dollar. But then we also had these young kids who knew all the songs.”
Wolf Parade was recently announced as one of the featured performers at the Winnipeg Folk Festival this summer, giving Winnipeg audiences a chance to see them for the first time since 2018.
‘No way we could say no’
Wolf Parade’s song is most prominently featured in the fifth episode of the series, also titled “I’ll Believe in Anything.” At the end of the episode, Scott Hunter, the captain of the New York Admirals, is celebrating after leading his team to the championship. He spots his secret lover, Kip Grady, in the stands. Scott invites Kip down to the ice and passionately embraces him, coming out publicly for the first time.
Wolf Parade’s song is playing over the whole scene.
Boeckner said over the years the band has received requests for their songs to be licensed in everything from commercials to movies and noted that many requests are similar.
“They essentially want something to soundtrack content,” he said.
Boeckner said Jacob Tierney, the creator of the “Heated Rivalry” television series, personally sent the band a message, explaining how he wanted to use the song in the series. Snippets of “I’ll Believe in Anything” are heard throughout the show during scenes showing Kip and Scott’s relationship.
“This pitch that Jacob sent us, he made it very clear that the lyrical content of the song and the musical movement of the song were mirrored by the television show,” he said. “I thought it was extremely flattering and clever how he worked in the build of the song into the build of the show by dropping little bits of it.
“And then at this climactic scene, I just thought it was a perfect mix of, like, cinematography, writing and him choosing the right parts of that song to deploy. So, there was really no way we could say no to it. I never had anybody ask to license a song and be so thoughtful about it.”
‘A moment in the zeitgeist’
Since the episode aired in December, the song’s popularity has exploded.
Twenty-one years after it was first released on their album “Apologies to the Queen Mary,” the song peaked at four on Billboard’s U.S. Alternative Digital Song Sales chart and at seven on Billboard’s Rock Digital Song Sales. According to Billboard, global streams of the song rose more than 2,000 per cent since the episode aired.
The popularity of the song prompted Sub Pop, Wolf Parade’s label, to reissue “Apologies to the Queen Mary” on pink vinyl, years after the album was last in print.
According to the most recent Spotify data, it is Wolf Parade’s most popular song on the service, with more than 52 million streams as of March 26, 2026.
“As a musician, I don’t think there’s anything better you can ask for, really, than to have like a moment in the zeitgeist but also (a moment) that reinforces the value of your career,” Boeckner said.
Boeckner added that since the episode aired, it has led to fans also discovering other songs in the band’s catalogue.
“It’s really interesting to see what people have grabbed onto,” he said. “’Fine Young Cannibals’ is, I think, our second most-streamed track, and we put it back in the setlist, and people were going bananas.”
‘If it’s a good song, people will listen to it’
“I’ll Believe in Anything” is the latest example of an older song getting new life years later.
Some recent examples include Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” which went viral after being used in a video of Nathan Apodaca skateboarding and drinking Ocean Spray (viewed more than 50 million times), and Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” which stemmed from its use in a pivotal scene in “Stranger Things” (and was used in more than two million videos on TikTok).
Music journalist Alan Cross said social media, especially TikTok, is helping with the revival of older songs, as users are adding clips from the songs in their videos, which spread.
“Today’s music consumers really aren’t interested in segregating or separating songs by era,” Cross said during a recent interview. “If it’s a good song, they’ll listen to it. If it’s properly produced, they’ll listen to it. Age does not matter. And what we’re seeing through the social media viral situations is people recognizing old songs for the quality that they have when they missed them the first time around.”
“I’ll Believe in Anything” has been featured in more than 260,000 TikTok videos. Cross said these social media videos are giving bands an extra lifeline.
“It does keep their career alive longer than perhaps it otherwise would,” he said. “The lifespan of a song is as unpredictable as it has always been, but it can be extended further than anyone ever thought, and by means that no one ever expected.”
Boeckner said the popularity of the song comes at a time when indie rock music is experiencing a revival, led by bands such as Geese and IDLES, with young listeners also looking back to find bands that influenced these newer groups.
“I think weird, angular art rock music is making a comeback, and people who are younger are very excited about this,” he said. “They’re looking backwards to, like, the early 2000s to see this sort of antecedent of that.”
What’s next for Wolf Parade?
Boeckner said Wolf Parade will be spending the rest of 2026 recording songs and touring, including their stop at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, which runs from July 9-12, 2026. The daily schedule for performances will be announced in April.
Boeckner said he is looking forward to performing in Winnipeg again.
“I don’t think we’ve ever played a festival in Winnipeg,” he said. “Winnipeg Folk Fest is a pretty big deal. It’ll be nice.”
The band has stripped itself down to a three-piece group similar to when they started out, and Boeckner said recent concerts have been enjoyable for the group.
“We’ve just been going through the catalog and playing,” he said. “We kind of returned to playing a lot of stuff from Apologies that we’d sort of shelved for a while. And it’s been really fun to go back to the original arrangements and then pulling out, like, deeper cuts.
“We just did a tour of southern Ontario for Sonic Unyon. And I think those sets were some of the best sets we’ve ever played. So that’s probably what we’re going to bring to the stage.”
CTV News, Crave and CP24 are owned by Bell Media, which is a division of BCE.
