Irish musician Glen Hansard has tragically died following a motorcycle crash in Dublin. “With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard in the early hours of this morning,” a press release reads. “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 was 56 years old.
Hansard dropped out of school at age 13 and started busking on local Dublin streets. He formed his own band, the Frames, in 1990, named for his hobby of fixing his friends’ bicycles. The group signed to Island Records and put out their debut album, Another Love Song, before being dropped by the label. They went on to release six studio albums, working with Steve Albini on 2001’s For the Birds and supporting Bob Dylan on tour. (Hansard recorded a version of Bob Dylan’s ‘You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” for the film I’m Not There.)
The Frames’ final LP, The Cost, featured a duet with Markéta Irglová called ‘Falling Slowly’, which Hansard then recorded as part of their duo the Swell Season. It became the centerpiece of Once, a 2007 film written and directed by the Frames’ ex-bassist John Carney, and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Hansard also starred in the movie, having acted just once before, in the 1991 BAFTA-winning comedy-drama The Commitments. The second Swell Season album, Strict Joy, came out in 2007, and a documentary about the pair was released two years later. In 2022, Hansard and Irglová recorded a song with Ukrainian refugees, ‘Take Heart’, and reunited for the 2025 album Forward.
Hansard released five solo albums, the most recent of which was 2023’s All That Was East Is West of Me Now. Though he didn’t pursue acting after the success of Once, he appeared as a voice actor on an episode of The Simpsons and recorded a song for the soundtrack of The Hunger Games.
Ireland’s culture minister, Patrick O’Donovan, paid tribute to Hansard, writing: “Few artists made as big an impact on modern Irish storytelling … Hansard consistently poured passion and vulnerability into every note. His impact will last generations in Irish music, even as his life has ended far too soon.”
