Jack Coyne: Meet the man behind Track Star who quizzes celebs like Cillian Murphy
Jack Coyne of Track Star with Cillian Murphy
Like many millions of people, I’m accustomed to seeing Jack Coyne out and about on the streets of New York, microphone in hand, as he quizzes people on their musical knowledge for the hugely popular online show Track Star. So I do a slight double-take when he pops up on my screen sitting in his office, ready to be interviewed.
Track Star, which has made him one of the internet’s most recognisable faces, is a blend of game show and musical trivia, where Coyne plays songs through headphones for contestants, the initial $5 prize doubling with every correct answer — the cash often donated to charity.
The show’s success is underpinned by the engaging format and Coyne’s friendly and outgoing manner but behind that seemingly effortless ease is a significant amount of research and a talented production team.
As well as ordinary ‘civilians’ the show has featured lots of celebrities, from musicians to politicians, building a massive following on social media platforms since it launched in 2023, with many of the clips going viral. Among those was the recent episode with Cork actor Cillian Murphy, which has hit 2.6 million views on YouTube alone.
It is a highly entertaining encounter, showing the lesser-spotted smilier side of Murphy. The star, who famously struggles to hide his disdain during social media-driven press junkets, is right at home discussing one of his favourite topics, music. He name-checks several Irish musical acts including Lisa O’Neill, Lankum, Fontaines D.C. and the up and coming Cork band Cardinals. He even gets in a joke about Van Morrison at the end.
“I think that shows the power of music, right?” enthuses Coyne. “You can open someone up, someone who is maybe more reserved or introverted, who can’t resist the power of what you feel when you listen to a great song that you love. You can’t not smile when you hear something that moves you like that.”
Coyne has featured many Irish artists on the show, including Niall Horan, Hozier, CMAT, Fontaines D.C., and Dermot Kennedy. His enthusiasm for Irish music, partly at least, is rooted in his own background — a native New Yorker, all of his great-grandparents, on his mother and father’s side, were Irish.
“I guess there’s a little bit of a bias because that’s where my ancestors are from, but all the artists I’m speaking to are really interesting, talented, and unique. I’m not speaking to them just because they’re Irish. Ireland is punching above its weight in terms of talent at the moment, just the amount of incredible artists that are making waves, and it’s not just in music but in culture more broadly.”
Coyne’s paternal grandparents passed away before he was born but he was very close to his mother’s parents as a child. Their parents had come over from Ireland as teenagers and they grew up in the Bronx. Indeed, it was Coyne’s great-grandmother who was his first ever interviewee.
“She was from Dublin, and she came over when she was 13 to Ellis Island. I knew her well as a kid, and she was a firecracker. I remember in second or third grade, we had to do a project about Ellis Island, so I interviewed her about that experience and what that was like. She was as open as she could be, I guess, but she was more focused on the present than on looking back.”
The company behind Track Star, Public Opinion, was founded by Coyne, his brother Kieran and their friend Henry Kornaros, and also produces documentary-style YouTube videos on the urban realm in New York.
“We called our company Public Opinion Productions because we wanted to hand people a microphone and listen to what they have to say. And that’s what we’ve done now for the last four years.”
It’s not just the famous contestants who go viral. When Lauren Kennedy, an Athlone woman based in New York, featured, she captivated viewers with her comprehensive music knowledge — one of the first searches that comes up when you google the show is ‘Track Star Irish girl’. She won more than $20,000, the highest ever amount won on the show, which she donated to charity. Coyne and Kennedy have stayed in touch.
“She’s a musical genius and she is a true, true fan. She’s at shows every night. She lives for it.”
Coyne says one of the reasons Track Star has been such a big hit is that music can be a revealing but more natural way in to people’s psyches.
“Sometimes the game of guessing the songs is like the Trojan horse, for the storytelling that we’re doing. When people are distracted or focused on guessing songs, they let their guard down a little bit. They’re like, ‘oh, I love that song. Now I’m in a good mood. I’ll tell you about all these other things.’ Instead of just coming right out with some hard-hitting question.”
Track Star is also a way to reach younger generations, which is why it has proved popular with politicians, including former US presidential hopeful Kamala Harris and more recently, Zohran Mamdani who appeared during his successful campaign for mayor of New York.
“We have lots of opportunities to speak to politicians, which has been amazing. I’m not a political reporter, so I’m not an expert at breaking down their policy agenda or those types of things, but I just do want to have a human conversation, and I want to see where people are at in their heart. I’m working on getting better at that because I think it’s especially important in this country.”
The Mamdani episode hit the headlines, attracting some comment from those who were surprised when the politician failed to recognise New York State of Mind, Billy Joel’s iconic tribute to the Big Apple, with many wondering if he was throwing shade at the singer.
“If he was, he was keeping a very straight face in doing so, and he tricked me, because I was like, you really don’t know this, this is surprising.”
The adage ‘never meet your heroes’ certainly doesn’t apply for Coyne who has met musicians from David Byrne to Olivia Rodrigo. “What we’ve unlocked is that everyone’s just a human being, and especially when we talk about a shared love of music, everyone is on the same level together.”
However, there is one encounter that was a personal highlight for Coyne.
“My number one favourite of all time was when we went to Sesame Street, and I interviewed Elmo [for an instant mood-lifter, see the beloved Muppet grooving along to Stevie Wonder’s Superstition]. It was just a magical experience.”
Coyne says Track Star shows the power of music as a universal language which unites and connects. While New York is at the heart of the show, now that it is established around the world, he says it would be great to take it on tour, including to Ireland.
There’s just the small matter of his three-month-old daughter to factor into travel arrangements. He has been in Ireland a couple of times, most recently for a wedding in the West.
“After I graduated college, I went for two weeks with my brother and my parents, and we drove all around, we went to Kerry and met some cousins at a farm that they still operate. It’s amazing, I’m desperate to get back.”
Coyne could have some other cousins to look up when he eventually returns — when Grian Chatten, the lead singer of Fontaines D.C., claimed to be related to Coyne during their appearance on the show, there was widespread scoffing in the online comments. However, it turns out to be true, says Coyne.
“There is definitely a family connection. We were talking back and forth, and I shared my family tree, and he said, oh yeah, I’ve checked this with my grandma, we are distant cousins. Recently, we were recording with Lewis Capaldi and he said right before ‘are you really Grian’s cousin?’ There’s probably a stereotype of Irish-American people where we’re like, oh yeah, we’re Irish, and you guys are like, no, you’re not, give me a break, you’re Americans. I think it’s leaning into that, in a playful way, but, yes, we are distantly related!”
Coyne describes Fontaines as “one of the best bands in the world right now”. Which leads us on to a discussion of U2, previous holder of that title, and why they don’t seem to get the TikTok love from the younger generation that other ‘legacy’ bands do.
“We talk about that on the show a lot, but I guess one way to fix it is the guys can come on Track Star. They would be dream guests, for sure.”
Bono and the boys, you know where to find him.
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