Hozier

Born in 1990 in the small Irish town of Bray, Andrew John Hozier-Byrne—better known as Hozier—was first heard in the company of others, contributing his preternaturally powerful voice to Ireland’s renowned Trinity Orchestra and choral troupe Anúna. But where those early pursuits immersed him in his country’s rich musical traditions, his first single as a solo artist took aim at its most formidable institution. Few debut tracks come out swinging as hard as “Take Me to Church”, a doomy anti-gospel sermon that sets its crosshairs on the hectoring and hypocrisies of the Catholic Church, delivered in a commanding, corrupted-choir-boy voice imbued with equal doses of grace and grit. That striking single topped charts worldwide and scored Hozier a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year. Still, the self-titled debut album it introduced also showcased a singer-songwriter with a deft command of sweet soulful rockers (“Someone New”) and dreamy folk reveries (“Like Real People Do”). The dichotomy between rage and romanticism would only become more pronounced on 2019’s Wasteland Baby!, where some of Hozier’s prettiest performances to date (like the delicate finger-picked hymn “Shrike”) rub up against the righteous fury of “Nina Cried Power”, a spirited, Mavis Staples-assisted protest anthem that took him back to church to further rattle the steeple. The flames of protest burned on with “Swan Upon Leda”, a stirring prayer for women’s rights inspired by Egyptian feminist Mona Eltahawy and the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran. But all roads ultimately lead back home, and Hozier's next album, Unreal Unearth, centred Irish folklore and language across sprawling, searing tracks “Butchered Tongue” and “Eat Your Young”, collaged together with motifs from Dante's Inferno. In 2024, Hozier reminded fans that for every solemn paean, he can still pen a grizzled, hip-swivelling earworm, this time in the form of “Too Sweet”, a bluesy sinner's anthem that raced up the charts and proved his earlier successes were no mere miracle