This year marks the 10th anniversary of “Take Me To Church,” the crossover hit single that made Hozier a worldwide star and established the native of Wicklow County in Ireland as a new artist to watch on the music scene.
The video for the song was posted on YouTube on Sept. 25, 2013 and almost immediately went viral.
This response caught the attention of bigger worldwide labels, and Hozier was signed by Columbia Records in America, which released Hozier’s self-titled debut album in September 2014.
“Take Me To Church,” naturally enough, became the album’s lead single and reached No. 2 on Billboard magazine’s all-genre Hot 100 singles chart in December 2014. By the time touring behind the debut album wrapped up in late 2016, the self-titled album had gone double platinum and Hozier was a bona fide star.
Sometimes, though, signature songs like “Take Me To Church” can come with unwelcome side effects. Artists can get judged by the success of a monster hit and mocked if they don’t reach those heights again. Or, the song can wear on artists as they feel required to perform the song at every concert, year after year, from that point forward.
Hozier has no such afflictions when it comes to the hit.
“I was sort of operating from quite an indie or alternative space, and then that song catapulted me into very, very popular spheres in the way it charted. It absolutely changed my life,” Hozier said reflecting on the song in a mid-August video interview. Hoizer is now out in support of his latest album, “Unreal Unearth” and will perform at Petco Park in San Diego on Oct. 29 and the Hollywood Bowl on Nov. 4.
“And I was pretty proud of it when I wrote it, and what its sort of mission statement was and what I hoped to communicate,” he continued. “In ways, I’m very happy and grateful for that. But if any of my songs can have the sort of reach that that song achieved, I’m very glad that it was ‘Take Me To Church.’”
Despite the…
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