Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard passed away in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash near Lucan, Dublin, on Wednesday, 29 July. He was 56.
News of the singer’s passing was initially confirmed on his Facebook page. A statement from ATC Management reads:
With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard in the early hours of this morning.
We are still dealing with the shock of it all, so we kindly ask that the privacy of Glen’s family, colleagues and friends is respected at this difficult time.
Hansard is survived by his wife, Finnish poet Maire Saaritsa, whom he married in 2022, and their son.
Hansard was a famous, well-regarded singer-songwriter and actor. He fronted the Irish rock band The Frames from 1990, with whom he released six albums – four of them reached the top ten of the Irish Album Charts.
He also made up one half of the folk-rock duo, The Swell Season, before he released his first-ever solo album, Rhythm and Repose, in 2012. Didn’t He Ramble, his 2015 second album, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. His most recent album, All That Was East Is West of Me Now, was released in October 2023.
While he was primarily a musician, Hansard acted and wrote music for films. Notable television and film appearances included the BAFTA-winning series The Commitments in 1991, as well as Cyrano in 2021, which was nominated for a Golden Globe.
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The singer’s most famous film appearance, however, was in the musical drama Once, released in 2007. The film won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Falling Slowly, which Hansard co-wrote and performed with his The Swell Season collaborator, Markéta Irglová. Once was later adapted into a musical theatre production.
He last toured Australia in 2016. Since news of his passing was reported overnight, tributes have flowed for Hansard.
U2’s Bono described him as the “most musical and mischievous archangel of Ballymun,” and Bruce Springsteen called him “a great musician, a good friend and a generous and gracious man.” Hozier wrote: “Glen is so indelibly tied into the life and breath of Irish music, and particularly the city of Dublin, that it feels utterly surreal to imagine that he could be gone from us now.”
While he received tributes from the entertainment world, he also received one from Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, who said that Hansard was “A talented musician and actor who made a significant contribution to Ireland’s cultural landscape over many years.”
