Irish singer and Oscar-winning musician Glen Hansard, a favourite of Prague audiences, has died

Singer and songwriter Glen Hansard, frontman of The Frames and an Oscar winner for the song Falling Slowly, has died in Ireland at the age of 55. According to The Irish Sun, the musician was killed in a motorcycle accident at around 4:30 a.m. near Strawberry Beds, in the Dublin suburb of Lucan, roughly 12 km from the Irish capital's centre. Only his own vehicle was involved in the crash; there was no collision with another car.

Hansard was born on 21 April 1970 in a poor working-class part of Dublin — his father worked as a parking lot security guard, and his mother sold fruit at a market. His love of music came early: an uncle gave him a Fender Telecaster electric guitar, which he continued to play until his final days. By the age of 13 he was already earning money as a busker on Dublin's streets, playing Irish folk songs, folk-rock and rock classics, and later his own compositions.

In 1990 Hansard founded The Frames, and soon after appeared in the film The Commitments, still regarded as one of the finest Irish music films ever made. The role brought him national fame and boosted the band's popularity — The Frames quickly won over European audiences too, releasing seven studio albums in total, from Another Love Song (1991) to Longitude (2015).

Hansard's ties to Czechia spanned many years of friendship: he first performed in Prague in 2001, giving three concerts, and returned to the country regularly ever since. "I feel blessed. Take Prague, for instance — I've played in so many places there. I've been coming back since the start of the millennium: I've performed at Baráčnická rychta, at an Irish pub, at Archa theatre and other venues," he said in an interview three years ago.

It was in Czechia, at the Valašský Špalíček festival in Valašské Meziříčí in 2001, that Hansard met a young Moravian pianist, Markéta Irglová. The couple were together from 2006 to 2009, performed together on stage and formed the band The Swell Season. In 2006 they starred in the film Once, which brought them worldwide fame, and the film's song Falling Slowly won an Oscar in February 2008.

Besides his albums with Irglová under the name The Swell Season, Hansard also released solo work. He recorded the song Take the Heartland for the soundtrack of The Hunger Games (2012), appeared in an episode of the TV series Parenthood, and in 2015 recorded the track On Love together with Lisa Hannigan. In 2018 he performed at a concert marking Joni Mitchell's 75th birthday in Los Angeles.

In 2022 Hansard toured with Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, and that October he recorded the song Take Heart together with Markéta Irglová, Bono and Ukrainian refugees as a response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In December 2023 he performed Fairytale of New York with Lisa O'Neill at the funeral of Shane MacGowan of The Pogues.

The last time Czech audiences saw the musician perform live was this past summer — in June he took the stage at the Slunovrat festival in Opava and at the Valašský Špalíček festival in Valašské Meziříčí.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz