{"id":2418928,"date":"2026-05-16T00:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T00:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2418928"},"modified":"2026-05-16T00:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T00:06:12","slug":"jack-coyne-meet-the-man-behind-track-star-who-quizzes-celebs-like-cillian-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/jack-coyne-meet-the-man-behind-track-star-who-quizzes-celebs-like-cillian-murphy\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Coyne: Meet the man behind Track Star who quizzes celebs like Cillian Murphy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Like many millions of people, I\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

Track Star, which has made him one of the internet\u2019s 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 \u2014 the cash often donated to charity.<\/p>\n

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The show\u2019s success is underpinned by the engaging format and Coyne\u2019s friendly and outgoing manner but behind that seemingly effortless ease is a significant amount of research and a talented production team.<\/p>\n

As well as ordinary \u2018civilians\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019Neill, Lankum, Fontaines D.C. and the up and coming Cork band Cardinals. He even gets in a joke about Van Morrison at the end.<\/p>\n

\"JackJack Coyne of Track Star with Niall Horan<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that shows the power of music, right?\u201d enthuses Coyne. \u201cYou can open someone up, someone who is maybe more reserved or introverted, who can\u2019t resist the power of what you feel when you listen to a great song that you love. You can\u2019t not smile when you hear something that moves you like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 a native New Yorker, all of his great-grandparents, on his mother and father\u2019s side, were Irish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess there\u2019s a little bit of a bias because that\u2019s where my ancestors are from, but all the artists I\u2019m speaking to are really interesting, talented, and unique. I\u2019m not speaking to them just because they\u2019re 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\u2019s not just in music but in culture more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JackJack Coyne of Track Star with CMAT<\/p>\n

Coyne\u2019s paternal grandparents passed away before he was born but he was very close to his mother\u2019s parents as a child. Their parents had come over from Ireland as teenagers and they grew up in the Bronx. Indeed, it was Coyne\u2019s great-grandmother who was his first ever interviewee.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe called our company Public Opinion Productions because we wanted to hand people a microphone and listen to what they have to say. And that\u2019s what we\u2019ve done now for the last four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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 \u2014 one of the first searches that comes up when you google the show is \u2018Track Star Irish girl\u2019. 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a musical genius and she is a true, true fan. She\u2019s at shows every night. She lives for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s psyches.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the game of guessing the songs is like the Trojan horse, for the storytelling that we\u2019re doing. When people are distracted or focused on guessing songs, they let their guard down a little bit. They\u2019re like, \u2018oh, I love that song. Now I\u2019m in a good mood. I\u2019ll tell you about all these other things.\u2019 Instead of just coming right out with some hard-hitting question.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JackJack Coyne of Track Star is known for interviewing celebrities to test their music knowledge\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have lots of opportunities to speak to politicians, which has been amazing. I\u2019m not a political reporter, so I\u2019m 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\u2019m working on getting better at that because I think it\u2019s especially important in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s iconic tribute to the Big Apple, with many wondering if he was throwing shade at the singer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he was, he was keeping a very straight face in doing so, and he tricked me, because I was like, you really don\u2019t know this, this is surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n

The adage \u2018never meet your heroes\u2019 certainly doesn\u2019t apply for Coyne who has met musicians from David Byrne to Olivia Rodrigo. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve unlocked is that everyone\u2019s just a human being, and especially when we talk about a shared love of music, everyone is on the same level together.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, there is one encounter that was a personal highlight for Coyne.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy 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\u2019s Superstition]. It was just a magical experience.\u201d <\/p>\n