Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ)
I came to fully appreciate Glen Hansard later than some.
Like many, I was properly introduced to him through the 2007 musical romance Once. I had been aware of his band The Frames, but it was Hansard’s portrayal of a Dublin-based busker that captivated me and made me dive deeply into his musical catalogue.
Once is a film I return to at least once a year. It’s one of my most beloved on-screen love stories, and my favourite on-screen musical. The songs, and Hansard’s portrayal of them, never fail to break my heart or restore my faith in the power of music – sometimes both at once.
I was, like so many of Hansard’s fans, heartbroken to read the awful news of his tragic passing yesterday in a motorcycle crash on the outskirts of Dublin. Hansard was 56 years old.
The Irish singer-songwriter, whose raw and searching voice carried him from busking on Dublin’s Grafton Street to an Academy Award for Best Original Song, has for almost 20 years been an artist whose music I return to over and over again for its passion, intensity and emotional depth.
A brilliant ‘half actor’
Hansard first found an audience as frontman of the rock band The Frames, a role he held from 1990 until his death. His transition into the role of a leading actor was not natural, despite a supporting role in The Commitments in 1991.
The director John Carney originally conceived of Cillian Murphy for the lead role of Once. However, as the low-budget project came together, Carney shifted his approach: rather than train an actor to become a convincing musician, he decided to build the film around someone who could truly sing and, in his words, “half act”.
That someone was Hansard, Carney’s old bandmate from the Frames, who had already been closely involved in shaping the story and its songs as a creative collaborator.
Carney’s gamble paid off. Hansard’s authentic and lived-in performance, opposite newcomer Markéta Irglová, became a key reason for the film’s powerful connection with audiences around the world.
Once is brilliant because it trusts small moments of intimacy over spectacle, created largely through two wonderful earnest performances by Hansard and Irglová. The film’s power lies in its restraint and authenticity; the romance is not manufactured, but instead emerges from two people changing each other through their love of music and of writing and playing together.
There’s a wonderful sequence in the film that illustrates Hansard’s ability to draw people in and connect.
Having recruited a somewhat dubious producer to record a demo, Hansard brings the band together and launches into When Your Mind’s Made Up, a searing ballad about lost love. It’s not long before the producer puts down his magazine and becomes, like the audience, transfixed by the power of Hansard’s voice and songwriting.
A life in Dublin
As a devotee of Once, a trip to Dublin several years ago became an opportunity for me to retrace the journey of Hansard’s busker on Grafton Street and beyond.
Standing in the space where he performs Say It To Me Now in the film’s opening brought goosebumps to my entire body.
Despite his incredible success, Hansard was known for returning to Grafton Street to join young buskers in song.
One of my strongest memories of Hansard is an incredible show at Sydney Opera House in March of 2014.
I was somehow fortunate enough to have a seat in the second row. The proximity to Hansard allowed me to witness how deeply he inhabited the emotional journeys of his songs. But the incredible thing is how that experience didn’t really require physical proximity. He created the same effect for the fans sitting in the very back row.
Every Hansard show was a transcendent experience of communion through song. Much of my personal grief and sadness at his passing emerges from the thought of never being able to have another of these moments.
As a solo artist Hansard released a string of acclaimed albums, including the Grammy-nominated Didn’t He Ramble (2015), and remained a prolific and generous presence in music up until his death, having released new material just last month.
Off stage, he was known for founding Dublin’s Christmas Eve Busk, an annual gathering of musicians raising money for the city’s homeless community.
The tributes flooding in today, from collaborators and bandmates to strangers who saw him once in a small room, reveal a genuine and heartfelt affection for a man who was rightfully lauded for his kindness and generosity.
He will be remembered by his musical brethren and fans alike as a tireless, warm-hearted troubadour whose music brought people together.
Adam Daniel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/07/30/glen-hansard-a-tireless-warm-hearted-troubadour-whose-music-brought-people-together/