Glen Hansard

Glen James Hansard was born on 21 April 1970 in Ballymun, Ireland. A singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and Broadway book writer, he left school at age 13 to busk on the streets of Dublin, an experience that would shape the trajectory of his career.

In 1990, Hansard founded the Irish rock band The Frames, with whom he has remained the frontman ever since. The group released six studio albums, four of which reached the top ten of the Irish Album Charts. His first appearance before a wide audience came in 1991, when he played guitar player Outspan Foster in Alan Parker's film The Commitments, though Hansard has said he regretted accepting the role, feeling it pulled focus from his music. In 2003, he presented the RTÉ television programme Other Voices: Songs from a Room, which highlighted Irish musical talent.

Hansard expanded beyond The Frames in 2006, releasing a collaborative album, The Swell Season, on Overcoat Recordings alongside Czech singer and multi-instrumentalist Markéta Irglová, Finnish violinist and violist Marja Tuhkanen, and French cellist Bertrand Galen. That same year, he began filming the Irish music drama Once, in which he portrayed a Dublin busker opposite Irglová as an immigrant street vendor. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007, where it received the World Cinema Audience Award. The song "Falling Slowly," co-written and performed with Irglová, earned both artists the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Once was subsequently adapted for the stage, and Hansard received a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics in 2012 for his work on the Broadway production.

The Swell Season continued as a recording project, releasing Strict Joy in October 2009 on the ANTI- label. Hansard launched his solo career with the album Rhythm and Repose in 2012, followed by Didn't He Ramble in 2015, which received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Folk Album. He has also contributed to film soundtracks beyond Once, recording "Take the Heartland" for the 2012 film The Hunger Games and co-writing "Come Away to the Water," which appeared on the same soundtrack performed by Maroon 5 and Rozzi Crane. In 2015, he and Lisa Hannigan recorded "On Love" for the soundtrack of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet.

Hansard has collaborated and performed alongside a range of prominent artists. He joined Eddie Vedder on Vedder's American solo tour in the summer of 2011 and again toured with him in 2022. He performed at Pearl Jam's 20th Anniversary Festival PJ20 at Alpine Valley Theatre in September 2011. In July 2013, he sang with Bruce Springsteen at Nowlan Park in Kilkenny, Ireland, and in July 2015 performed "Raglan Road" with Ed Sheeran at Croke Park in Dublin. In December 2018, he sang "Coyote" at the Joni Mitchell 75th birthday concert in Los Angeles. In October 2022, he recorded "Take Heart" with Markéta Irglová, Bono, and Ukrainian refugees in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In December 2023, he performed "Fairytale of New York" alongside Lisa O'Neill, backed by The Pogues, at Shane MacGowan's funeral in Nenagh, County Tipperary.

Beyond music, Hansard voiced an Irish busker in a 2009 episode of The Simpsons and guest-starred as himself in an episode of the television series Parenthood, performing "High Hope" from Rhythm and Repose. In 2008, he completed a four-week filmmaking workshop at the New York Film Academy. In 2016, he was a member of the Home Sweet Home Group, a coalition of activists and homeless people that occupied Apollo House in Dublin before being required to vacate following a High Court ruling.

In his personal life, Hansard and his partner, poet Maire Saaritsa, welcomed a son named Christy in October 2022 and planned to marry later that year. The couple divide their time between Ireland and Helsinki. Among his most recognizable possessions is a battered Takamine NP15 acoustic guitar, which he calls "The Horse," notable for a large hole worn into its body.