Kate Cosentino

May 6. An ordinary late afternoon at Gov. Thomas Johnson Middle School in Frederick — except that it wasn’t.

Mondays usually find FC Frederick Academy II players entering the gym portal to practice futsal, a lightning-fast soccer variant played on a flat surface. Instead, some of the girls’ team arriving early were confronted with audio PA speakers. Behind the mic was a colorfully dressed woman playing a futuristic guitar strapped to her side. She waved hi to the players and resumed sound check. This was a strange departure for the girls, some of whom looked bewildered as they warmed up with rondos (a keep-away, small-sided drill) opposite the speakers.

Confusion for some instantly cleared as parents opened the “change of plans” email sent a few days prior from FC Frederick executive director Bo Eskay, which detailed a secret concert for the girls to learn the FC Frederick fight song. Leading this was none other than Kate Cosentino, a Nashville-based singer-songwriter whose turn on “The Voice” competition on network TV last year elevated her budding indie jazz-meets-folktronica career. She was in the neighborhood after playing a show in D.C. the previous weekend.


Two years prior to Cosentino’s TV debut, Eskay was mulling over the first rough draft of the club song, penned at an FC Frederick summer camp by intrepid counselors. When Eskay discovered that an ex-colleague’s daughter (Cosentino) was an aspirational songwriter, he commissioned the future “Voice” contestant to finish the song.

Several drafts later, Cosentino, with fellow Nashville musician Luke Bodine, finished the final version: a bouncy, punky, emo number set to an updated “You Are My Sunshine” melody. The companion music video on YouTube shows the two artists in a studio jumping around, shredding on guitars, while singing and flexing triumphantly. In short, mayhem and fun.

•••

Before elaborating on this secret show, it’s worth examining the intersection of soccer and music. Call it soccer or football, many musicians incorporate the game into their world.

Frederick musician Ricole Barnes, who goes by Retro/Ricole as a solo hip-hop artist and on collaborative music projects Bikes and Da’mood, pointed out that in the late ’90s, “before I started watching soccer, you heard hints of it being mentioned in certain hip-hop artists’ records … Maradona, Pelé. Pelé was probably, back then, the most referenced footballer in hip-hop.”

It piqued Barnes’ interest in soccer, and sizzling tracks popping in the newest FIFA video game editions every fall furthered it. That video game is what drew Snoop Dogg into becoming a soccer aficionado over a decade ago. Today, Yo Gotti is now a part owner of DC United, and from Atlanta to L.A., artists like Nicki Minaj, Drake, Future and Jay-Z continue to name-drop the latest crop of soccer superstars (Messi gets mentioned a lot) in homage to jogo bonito: “the beautiful game.”

That phrase is historically synonymous with Team Brazil. During the 1970 World Cup, Pelé and his compatriots dazzled the world in full technicolor. They owe their other nickname, “The Samba Boys,” to the traditional samba sway using bent knees to “dance” with the ball and “ginga,” a concept traced to Capoeira, a unique Afro-Brazilian homegrown martial arts disguised in a form of a dance set to a hypnotic beat. Capoeira relies on kicking, deception and evasion, ideas Brazilians brought into soccer with feint moves and deft change of speed to outwit defenders.

Synergy between music and soccer extend far beyond Brazil. Jamaica’s soccer teams are known as the Reggae Boyz and Reggae Girlz in reverence to their country’s greatest musical export. Their best known exporter was of course Bob Marley. It was his other passion, and he sought out street soccer games everywhere he toured. “Football is freedom,” the late reggae artist chimed.

To unpack what he meant by that, let’s bring up one of the architects of modern soccer, the late Johan Cruyff. If you watched “Ted Lasso,” the fictional Coach Beard delivered a fabulous explanation of the real life Cruyff. Summarizing Coach Beard: Cruyff revolutionized soccer as a countercultural “hippie” player and later as a heady coach. Winning, as he saw it, required unbalancing opponents by understanding the angles, distance, time and space between teammates and opponents and finding creative solutions within pockets of space. Those watching his “total football” philosophy in action witnessed a geometric symmetry that was aesthetically stunning.

Marley often sung about freedom from oppression. Through playing soccer, he discovered freedom within the mere matrix of the rectangular pitch, sharing Cruyff-ian ingredients akin to music creation, of rhythmic timing, space between lines and ultimately direction. “If you want to get to know me, you have to play football against me and the Wailers,” he once told a journalist. It’s perhaps no coincidence that long after his untimely death (not from a soccer injury, as widely misreported, but to melanoma), his son Ky-Mani Marley sang in 2018 his father’s hit “Three Little Birds” at Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam to over 50,000 Ajax supporters. It was adopted as their club anthem. Win or lose, “don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing is gonna be alright.”

Other clubs have also adapted existing tunes to brag on their team or burn opponents (often both). Manchester City and Manchester United, fierce rivals in the same industrial English city, have seen their supporters modify the Joy Division song “Love Will Tear Us Apart” as their own diss track (substitute “love” for a player’s name that just scored, i.e., “Haaland — Haaland will tear you apart … again”).

Frederick-based indie musician Jasen Reeder (formerly of Mr. Husband and Page France) proudly flies the flag of Liverpool FC. Their departing coach Jurgen Klopp is known for an aggressive “heavy metal football” style that he developed at his previous team, Borussia Dortmund in Germany. Coincidentally, both sets of fans share the same club song, sung loudly and emotionally before each match at Liverpool and Dortmund respectively. Reeder explained via text, “One of the big initial draws to LFC was ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone.’ I was a fan of that tune prior, but the connection I saw and intrinsically felt between supporters, the club and the lyrics just resonated with me instantly. The way those words have transcended an old Broadway number to become representative of an entire community is pretty remarkable.”

•••

Returning to TJ Middle’s gymnasium, Cosentino’s mic check had ended, and the girls scooched closer to the PA speakers next to a projection screen. Eskay introduced Cosentino by replaying a clip of her audition on “The Voice,” when she had to convince industry judges to turn their chairs around. She sang a stripped-down version of Dionne Warwick’s 1967 hit, “I Say a Little Prayer.” She nailed it, moving onto the next level by impressing judges Kelly Clarkson, Chance the Rapper and Niall Horan.

The lights turned back on, and this time, the real live Cosentino showcased a mini set of her elegant originals for the young audience. A Q&A between numbers was revealing. A video game, Guitar Hero, kickstarted her desire to play the instrument, but she recalled it was mostly boys who played, not girls. Undeterred, she kept practicing and eventually was able write her own songs early on.

More girl-powered inspirational pep talk as Cosentino remembered her annoyance while replacing a broken guitar strap; her local music-gear shop had narrowed her choice to “a pink one.” That patronizing moment spurred her to make her own line of custom guitar straps under her company Big Chick Energy.

Biggest crowd? “50,000 people,” after appearing on “The Voice.” Naturally, that led to a question about getting nervous before shows. Cosentino’s answer indirectly connected her pre-concert rituals to the girls’ games: Sure, she still gets nervous, but with more practice and more shows under her belt, the nervousness fades and confidence builds. That rung a very familiar note to the girls facing a big end-of-season match.

Toward the end of the performance, Cosentino readied for the last challenge: teaching soccer girls to shed their inhibitions at singing and embrace the FC Frederick fight song. The girls stood up with lyric cheatsheets in hand, one of the parents banged on a bass drum in 4:4 time, and Cosentino led the girls in singing, “WE’RE FC FREDERICK! WE ARE ELECTRIC!” and the other stanzas that followed.

It took several passes for the girls to warm up to it. A few were still reluctant to participate, perhaps a bit self-conscious. They gathered around her for a photo shoot, not necessarily to run through the song again, but then somehow it sparked back up. With the drumbeats louder and guitar chords hammering away, this time the girls really got into it and began jumping up and down, singing next to and behind Cosentino, loud and clear. Soccer rock level achieved. One could envision the group amped up on stadium bleachers with thunderous feet-stomping to the club song’s beat.

Two days afterwards, Eskay was upbeat but also in uncharted territory for what that event may lead to. FC Frederick might be the only U.S. grassroots soccer club with their own club song. An early version of the song could be heard at their fourth division semi-pro NPSL league games last season at home, but apart from a handful of members of the 1765 Repudiators FC Frederick supporter group, few in the stands joined in to sing, chant, wave flags or participate in setting off colorful smoke bombs.

The experiment of building an organically grown soccer support culture in Frederick continues with their next NPSL game as FC Frederick takes on Annapolis Blues at St. John’s Catholic Prep on May 26 (kickoff at 7 p.m.). What does it mean for FC Frederick to have their own club song?

“We are hoping to have an experience for the players that is deeper and more robust and more meaningful,” Eskay said. “I think the idea is that things like a club song would be one more touch point of connection that they have to the organization … something that is connecting to the community in a stronger way than just ‘I signed up to play soccer this season.’”

And why bring Cosentino to perform at a training session just for the girls? Eskay said he believes she has some “really powerful messages that would resonate with our younger girls and their journeys.” In the future, he signaled he would like to give the boys academy a similar opportunity to learn the club anthem.

•••

Indie rocker Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, is also worth noting. Before she became a guitar god, Clark played travel soccer. She demonstrated an eye-catching “rainbow” soccer move for the cameras in 2014, part of an unorthodox promotion for her then-upcoming album. Prior to switching gears toward guitar, she said to Rookie Magazine, “the ‘rainbow’ is probably one of the first manifestations of an obsession with a [skill] move, so I would practice this over and over again … I just knew I wanted to be really good at it. But then guitar came in and took that obsessive energy and focused it someplace else.” The process of mastering things, Clark explained, is yours through practicing with enough time and energy.

Cosentino commiserated. “I think sports, music, anything that is both a hobby and a career and a thing that a kid would do after school — there's such a crossover in that all those activities involve hard work that isn't always fun. Maybe it is today. Like, I mastered a cool move and it's great. Or maybe today I'm trying super hard and failing and I'm frustrated. But continuing to tell yourself you can do it over and over again is what leads to the victory of getting to play in a game or getting to perform and do the really, really cool, fun part of it.”

Embracing the learning process, despite failures and frustrations, presents a paradox. Cosentino offered no easy answers, except to transform the work by turning it into play.

“It all starts with enjoying the craft of the thing you know,” she said. “Kicking a soccer ball around with your friends is the same as noodling around on guitar in your room, just making up sounds and not worrying about how you sound. And then lessons and being on a team is what gives you the structure to enhance your skills, so when you are just having fun, you have more of an arsenal.”

Academy player Courtney Bidinger said Cosentino’s visit was “really awesome. We had someone who was on ‘The Voice,’ who's really talented, and who’s famous come see us and perform in front of us.”

Reflecting on Cosentino’s message on learning skills, be it music or sports, Bidinger added, “I always make sure to have fun … but I also want to work hard because I want to get better, to be able to make myself proud. Not anybody else. If I know I play well, it will make me happy.”

Roy Ghim is occasionally a freelance writer, focusing on indie cinema, visual art, music and soccer with articles in The News Post, The New York Times and Soccer Journal magazine. - The Frederick News Post

When a star is born, grab your sunglasses and step out the way.

Kate Cosentino, a 23-year-old talent from Kansas City, shone bright when she stepped onto NBC‘s The Voice stage Tuesday night (March 14), for her Blind Audition.

It was a starry performance, judge Niall Horan would go on to say. He should know when he sees one.

Explore

Chance the Rapper

Dionne Warwick

Kate Cosentino
See latest videos, charts and news

Cosentino covered Dionne Warwick‘s “I Say a Little Prayer,” doing so in her own pace, stripped down, and with an electric guitar. Though her outfit screamed “clown couture” (her words), Cosentino’s played with no fuss, going with a finger-picking jazzy style, and without overriding effects.

Related
Cast and Crew Reflect on 50 Years of TV History in Trailer for Peacock's ‘SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night’
Cast and Crew Reflect on 50 Years of TV History in Trailer for Peacock's 'SNL50: Beyond Saturday…
01/07/2025
Kelly Clarkson turned first and led a domino effect, as Chance the Rapper and Horan swiftly fell for her charms.

“Amazing,” Chance said at the wrap. “You got such a cool vibe to you.” The hip-hop star paid tribute to her “full voice” which carries a “lot of joy that comes out of it.”

Trending on Billboard
The video player is currently playing an ad.





Clarkson moved. “You have such a pretty alto register,” said the country-pop star, “kind of like lullaby-ish. You really could go so many places.”

And with that, the sales-pitch was on.

Horan didn’t muck about. He opened strong: “Would you like to be on my team?” Her choice of song was an indication of high quality and standards. “You could go all the way. You’ve given us this really really famous massive hit that’s really tough to sing. There’s an already-made star in there. You’ve got this Italian confidence.”

Will this star being a shooting one, will it go supernova, or light the canopy for years to come

We’ll wait and watch. In the meantime, Horan will guide the artist into the next phase of the talent competition.

Watch below. - Billboard

Kate Cosentino, an Overland Park native who now lives in Nashville, got three judges to turn their chairs for her on season 23 of the music competition show "The Voice."
A self described "nerd," Kate Cosentino developed a love for music through watching Miley Cyrus in Disney's "Hannah Montana" and playing the video game Guitar Hero.

Now, the singer songwriter can be seen on one of music's biggest stages to launch new and up-and-coming artists — NBC's "The Voice."

Cosentino applied for the music reality show in the past without success.

This time, on season 23 of the music competition, three of the four judges on "The Voice" turned their chairs as she played guitar and sang Dionne Warwick's "I Say a Little Prayer."

"Now I'm riding the roller coaster of being on the show," Cosentino told KCUR's Up To Date.


Residing these days in Nashville, Tennessee, Cosentino gives credit to her Kansas City roots for making her the artist she is today.

"My musical education in Kansas City is so the reason that I've kept at it," Cosentino said. "It helped me become the musician I am today and just feeling like my voice was encouraged as a young person was so important."

Before hitting the stage for the "The Voice," the artist landed an opening act for pop star Katy Perry.

The lyrics in many of Cosentino's self-written songs tell a story about real life issues, like the struggles faced by trans children, eating disorders and Alzhemier's.

"That's my favorite way to connect and just be like, 'Think from someone else's perspective.' But I'm not telling you how to think, I'm just showing you the story and hope that you feel it," Cosentino said.

Cosentino said she appreciates the coaching she's received from season 23 judge and former One Direction member Niall Horan.

"The people that are finding me from this like me for me, and it's so the most amazing feeling to be like they like what I do, in all of its glory, not something that I'm not," said Cosentino. - NPR: KCUR