Guest blogDRIIA: It's a huge goal of mine to hear one of my songs at Anfield

As a kid, I used to play football with my dad and younger brother in the garden after school.

Dad called me “90 per cent leg” due to the enormous backswing my right leg would take before thwacking the ball towards the goal. This was across the eras of Torres, Suarez, Agger, Lucas and Gerrard, and not to mention my football crush – Andy Carroll – at the time. I remember subconsciously learning all the teams and the shirt numbers so that I could get involved with my dad and brother’s conversations when watching the games on TV.

Liverpool FC has always been our household team. My dad has supported them since he was younger, and in turn we inherited that too. We’ve been to Anfield a handful of times to watch home games – walking up the steps into the stands for the first time is something I’ll never forget. The atmosphere and energy in Anfield is unlike anything else I’ve experienced. I don’t think I’ve ever not teared up whilst singing You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Sometimes I’ve stopped singing halfway through just to experience the sheer power of 60,000 bellowing voices echoing around the stadium. The ground trembles with the unbreakable force of Liverpool supporters, and you’re reminded why teams dread playing against us at home. What always strikes me is how kind, gentle and generous everyone is at Anfield. The energy there feels like home, as if the game is larger than ‘just football’ – everyone is looking out for each other.

My family and I even had the opportunity to go to the 2019 Champions League final, which, for a multitude of reasons, I will never forget. The spirit of Liverpool permeated into every crevice of the Metropolitano – awaiting the spike in decibels and dopamine every time we had a shot, turning to hug a stranger when we scored, laughing and smiling in disbelief with everyone around you.

At school, I’d often be the only girl out on the pitches at break time. The other girls in my year presumed I was doing it for attention, and even teased me for it, but all I cared about was playing those quickfire 20-minute slots of football. I’d beg the boys not to ‘take it easy’ on me just because I was a girl, that ‘honestly it’s fine if you want to slide-tackle me’ – which in hindsight probably wasn’t the wisest idea!

Don’t get me wrong, I was no superstar by any means – I even broke my elbow during one break time when I was 13 (in what I thought was a “rare” moment of poor form, I went to kick the ball and missed it, resulting in my not-so-funny bone meeting concrete). Once healed, I went back every day as usual. I genuinely had so much fun.

Thinking back to tween DRIIA, being fearless enough to step onto the pitches with boys twice her size and strength, to learn and fall and get up again, makes me wonder where I use that same boldness now. Perhaps when I’m performing live, or facing rejection, or sat in business meetings with intimidating industry heads and affirming myself in times of doubt.

For my brother’s most recent birthday, he subtly requested that he wanted a classic football shirt. After trawling the internet and setting myself a budget, I came across a 2000-01 Liverpool away shirt. I knew that was the one, and, when his birthday came around, the bright orange and navy top with “Carragher 23” on it had the desired effect.

This summer I was asked to DJ at iconic club Amnesia, in Ibiza. I’m cripplingly indecisive at the best of times, and had no idea what sort of thing to wear. “If I wear a dress, will I look ‘over the top’? If I wear baggy trousers, will it be too casual?” The day of our flight to Ibiza, I ran into my brother’s room as a last resort to see if I could poach something. And then I saw it. Without a second thought I persuaded him to let me try it on (he was surprisingly willing) and paired it with a denim skirt and some Air Max 95s, and I said jokingly, “Do you reckon the boys in the crowd will take me more seriously if I’m wearing a vintage Liverpool shirt?”

I heard my latest single, A LITTLE LIFE, being used on the outro of Football Focus the other day, to promote upcoming football programmes like Match of the Day and Final Score. Safe to say, my dad was pretty excited hearing his daughter’s voice and music being paired with football! It was so surreal for me because, when I first wrote the song, I played it over muted clips of Match of the Day segments to see if it would fit. It’s a huge goal of mine to hear or perform one of my songs at Anfield one day – apparently they’re on the official Liverpool playlist on Spotify, so who knows?!

It’s obviously sad to see Jürgen Klopp go after all he did for us. Even coming back into this season, part of my subconscious still expected to see him on the sidelines. It’s undeniable the effect he had on the team, on the supporters, on the past, present and future of Liverpool. I’m super-excited to see what stamp Arne Slot puts on us. So far so good, I’d say.