Glen Hansard has released a new single, ‘Take Heart’, which features Marketa Irglova and three Ireland-based Ukrainian refugees on backing vocals. Check it out below.
While on tour in February, Hansard saw a post online of Patti Smith saying, “People, take heart. Things will get better, and if they don’t – we’ll make them better! We call for the transformation of waste, our government is full of it; politics is full of it. Transformation of waste, it’s the oldest preoccupation of man. People, tonight were coming out gold.”
After returning home, Hansard was inspired by the stories he heard from Maria, a mother of one of the Ukrainian families his neighbour Marina had taken in. He then reached out to his local Red Cross, who connected him with three refugees: Anna, Alex, and Olena. One of the lines they help sing, “Povernit’sya do mene/ Povernit’sya do mene/ Povernit’sya do mene/ Do mene Neushkodzhenym,” translates to: “Return to me/ Return to me/ Return to me unharmed.” Hansard is encouraging donations to Ukranian Action.
“This song is a single flower placed at the foot of all this devastation, a candle lit among the millions placed helplessly at the doors of embassies or left burning in windows; it’s a prayer sent up into the great cloud of goodwill that circles the globe,” Hansard said in a statement. “It’s a thing that didn’t exist and now it does, an offering, thanks to Patti, Alex, Anna, Olena and Markéta who heard it as I was working on it and joined in to make it stronger. This is for them, and to all those who lost or are missing loved ones on every side of this brutal war.”