KASSON, Minn. — There’s a tune Cori Kennedy lives by as an “ordinary Minnesota gal experiencing the music industry”: gratitude. She thanks her family, “The Voice” judges and community, friends and people who’ve cheered for her along the journey.
She carried a set of encouraging words into her last performance on
from Grandma Linda Kennedy: “Whatever is meant to happen to you is going to happen to you today.” While living in Nashville and preparing to sing the national anthem at the Vikings game on Sunday, Kennedy said that outlook has helped with “taking it all in stride.”
As a “Minnesota girl through and through” from West Concord, Kennedy is excited to step onto the field at U.S. Bank Stadium to sing at the Vikings vs. Commanders game on Sunday, Dec. 7. The crowd will mark her largest in-person audience yet. However, she’s performed the challenging song for wrestling matches and the professional softball championship in Illinois. She’s grateful, too, for the Vikings creating a “family experience” with lots of family members as her “entourage.”
There’ll be one team member missing: Adam Thielen, who was
waived to play with the Steelers.
Thielen played football at Minnesota State University Mankato, where Kennedy — albeit years later — played softball. Kennedy also played basketball and volleyball at Kasson-Mantorville High School, where she graduated in 2015, and was inducted into the Komets Hall of Fame in 2023.
“I’ve had a couple of people already ask me like, ‘Oh, aren’t you nervous in front of that many people?’ I’m like girl, … I don’t think anything’s going to be scarier than my blind audition on the show,” Kennedy said. “So now it’s like I’m delusional, where it’s like I can’t do anything now.”
Cori Kennedy, a West Concord native and 2015 Kasson-Mantorville graduate, on the set of “The Voice” season 28 in 2025.
Contributed / Cori Kennedy
Known for her storytelling-style, country-music songs, including “Hey Who Shot the Water Tower,” Kennedy shared an
original song during her blind audition.
The song featured lyrics about her “Minnesota roots” and nods to judges Reba McEntire, Snoop Dogg, Niall Horan and Michael Bublé. Her creative tune was an instant hit on social media as well as with articles by national publications.
The style of her
was a “rock star” experience, as Bublé described during the Season 28 episode that aired on Nov. 17, with “You and I” by Lady Gaga. In the “full-circle moment,” Kennedy shared the same song she debuted her music performing journey with. Her original performance was a surprise by her college softball coach at a talent show. Kennedy won the talent show and lost the knockout.
While the song plays a “significant role” in her journey, it’s her Grandma Linda and Grandpa David Kennedy who have supported every note. Kennedy credits her grandmother for “helping me keep my head on straight because that woman is my rock” while the show was filming in Los Angeles.
During their many phone calls, Grandma Linda steadfastly shared how she was praying for Cori, whom she calls Bug. She commonly includes the refrain “I feel the Holy Spirit in my chest,” too. Grandma Linda and Cori also love to have private concerts with the two of them singing together.
“I remember her calling me that morning of the knockout rounds and obviously, like you’re a little angsty about these things,” Kennedy said. “She goes, ‘Bug, I got my sign today that you’re going to be okay. That whatever is meant to happen to you is going to happen to you today.’”
She described the conversation as a “freeing moment.” Kennedy saw another sign in a conversation with makeup artist Darcy, who dreamed just the day before that she was going to a Lady Gaga concert. Much like Kennedy’s upcoming performance of a Lady Gaga song.
“As I went on the stage, it was just this like really comforting feeling of you know what, I’m going to leave it all out there and whatever is meant to happen to me today is going to happen. Whether I win or lose, it’s all going to happen for a reason,” Kennedy said.
Before singing at college, in TikTok videos and on “The Voice,” Kennedy said her grandparents were the “biggest supporter for all of us grandkids.” Like wearing jackets embroidered with their six grandchildren’s names and visiting Kasson-Mantorville schools on their proclaimed
“They were the reason that I got into music because they used to give me the keys to their little country church in Berne, Minnesota. And I would go out there late at night and play piano and sing my heart out,” Kennedy said while adding that her grandparents gifted her a Yamaha keyboard. “… I owe everything with my music to my grandparents. … They’re just the best. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
While living a musician’s dream competing on “The Voice,” she’s most grateful for the “connections” like making lots of friends with the contestants and lessons from the “music legends” Snoop Dogg, Horan, McEntire, Bublé, Nick Jonas and Joe Walsh. She opened two episodes during the season and
while singing “Somethin’ Bad” by Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood.
“I was like, ‘You know what — this may be the end on the show but we are very, very far from the end of my career. It’s actually only the beginning,'” Kennedy said. “So I remember leaving the show, I was so excited for what comes next.”
She’s writing more storytelling songs “like a mad woman” and working on music with fellow “Voice” contestants in Nashville.
“There’s going to be lots of Cori Kennedy music coming out, we’ll have singles, we’ll have albums and we’ll have some live shows too. So just stay tuned because there’s a lot of fun things in the works and a lot of good things take time so I just ask my fan base to stay patient because more things are coming,” Kennedy said.
Cori Kennedy, a West Concord native and 2015 Kasson-Mantorville graduate, on the set of “The Voice” season 28 in 2025.
Contributed / Cori Kennedy
Cori Kennedy, a West Concord native and 2015 Kasson-Mantorville graduate, on the set of “The Voice” season 28 in 2025.
Contributed / Cori Kennedy