As Hozier takes time off to work on his next album, he’s keeping a low profile. Still, little bits and pieces of news pop up from time to time, so we’ve made a home for them. Similar to the Friends page, this is a brief assortment of odds and ends collected over 3 months.
December 2016
Dec 31: Take Me To Church was #2 on the iTunes chart in Belarus.
Dec 30: SiriusXM The Spectrum had Hozier’s Better Love at #16 on their top 20 songs of 2016.
Dec 26: Hozier scored 5 of the top 20 songs on Spotify in Ireland for 2016: Take Me To Church (6), Someone New (8), Cherry Wine (9), From Eden (11), Jackie and Wilson (18).
Dec 24: Glen Hansard’s Christmas Eve busk on Grafton Street was shut down after 3 songs due to over-crowding. Every year Hansard invites friends to play over the course of a few hours to raise money for the Dublin Simon Community and the Peter McVerry Trust, organizations that help the homeless.
A few photos from Grafton Street earlier. Ireland's top musicians busking for @PMVTrust. Didn't last long but the sentiment rang true. pic.twitter.com/LhrdyGEp8T
— Dara Munnis (@daramunnis) December 24, 2016
This year, Hozier managed to squeeze through the crowd to the low stage to join in on Fairytale of New York with pals The Coronas, Roísin O, Gavin James and Hudson Taylor. In 2015, Hozier played Take Me To Church and joined Bono from U2 to sing When Love Comes To Town.
Dec 23: Take Me To Church was certified 3x Platinum in the UK.
Dec 20: Hozier joined Glen Hansard, members of Kodaline and other artists and activists at Apollo House to show their support for Home Sweet Home’s campaign to end homelessness. Read our full coverage.
Dec 13: For the third year, Hozier reinterpreted advent calendar chocolate shapes. This time, he invited people to post a photo of their chocolate for enlightenment. Here is the full collection of his comments from Christmases past.
I won't be explaining the historical symbolism of advent calendar chocolates this year, but if you send me photos I will enlighten. Deadly
— Hozier (@Hozier) December 13, 2016
Dec 13: It was announced that Better Love, Hozier’s song from The Legend of Tarzan movie, was one of 91 songs on the long list for Best Original Song nomination at The Oscars. The final nominations will be announced January 24, 2017.
November 2016
Nov 28: Take Me To Church was #3 on the iTunes chart in Romania.
Nov 23: Bahamas has great taste in music. Today, Like Real People Do was #1 and In A Week was #2 on the iTunes chart.
Nov 21: Hozier’s black boots raised £2,101 for The Small Steps Project that helps children escape a life working on garbage dumps.
Nov 18: Take Me To Church was #2 in Nicaragua on the iTunes chart.
Nov 14: Hozier participated in the Safe Ireland Summit, speaking about his Face Up To Domestic Violence campaign and performing Cherry Wine (audio).
Audio from full interview and performance is on the Irish Times Women’s Podcast (45:45). Coverage: Irish Mirror, VIP Magazine, Independent.
October 2016
Oct 31: Hozier was on episode 6 of the RTÉ 1 Pantisocracy podcast with a panel of guests discussing life in Ireland and he performed To Be Alone.
Oct 20: RadioEins featured Hozier on their Friendly Takeover show where he played songs and talked about them. We created a playlist for his selections with all the tracks, except for Prince’s I Wanna Be Your Lover as it’s not on Spotify. It came between Vulfpeck and Ella Fitzgerald.
Oct 14: Hozier was honoured with a Spirit of Ireland Award, presented by Gabriel Byrne, at the Irish Arts Center in New York. He performed solo acoustic versions of To Be Alone and Take Me To Church, his first performance of the latter since the tour ended on March 3, 2016. Read our full coverage.
.@Hozier with a beautiful, intimate performance at the @IrishArtsCenter #SpiritofIrelandGala pic.twitter.com/s8g7RDwyyn
— NYS A/M Kavanagh (@BrianKavanaghNY) October 15, 2016
Oct 14: Shazaam for Brands announced that Hozier’s Take Me To Church was the #1 most Shazaamed song in a TV ad in France. The song was used in a campaign for Renault Clio.
Oct 14: iNews in the UK spoke with Hozier about his support of the Repeal the 8th movement.
Oct 13: Take Me To Church was #2 on the iTunes chart in the Caribbean country of Anguilla.
Oct 10: Hozier accepted a BMI award for Someone New in London. Read our full coverage.
Thanks to all of our contributors with special thanks to @literarypengke and @Megn0481.
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Featured image: Dara Munnis