Sorry, Hozier Is Neither a One-Hit Wonder, Nor Your Irish Fairy King

Topping the charts is a long-sought dream of musicians worldwide. With hundreds of thousands of hopeful artists competing at once against established names backed by big labels — and now social media algorithms —  few manage to capture the attention and favor of national audiences. And if they do, even fewer manage to do it more than once.

One-hit wonders have long been a fundamental feature of the music industry that often produce some of the decades’ biggest songs and manage to break global records. Tones and I’s “Dance Monkey” remains the most Shazamed song since 2019. South Korean singer Psy’s “Gangnam Style” music video was the first to enter YouTube’s billion views club in 2012. But despite their marks on pop culture, all one-hit wonders are destined to the same fate: falling off the face of the Earth after their brief time in the spotlight.

Even in an era of inerasable digital footprints, many recent one-time chart-toppers have still become lost in the sands of time. When’s the last time you heard of Gotye after his 2011 breakthrough “Somebody That I Used To Know?” Or Passenger since 2014’s “Let Her Go?” The same could be asked about Ylvis of 2013 “What Does The Fox Say?” fame, but I think we can all agree that one’s a short-lived hit better left forgotten.

The term “one-hit wonder” is not always meant to be negative in nature, but it does set a certain image of an artist as someone who couldn’t quite make the cut in the music biz despite having a solid in. Some former one-hitters have proved others wrong with successful follow-ups in their career, like Weezer, Blink-182 and Rick Astley (a controversial pick, but true nonetheless). The same argument could be made for dozens of artists over the past decade, but what today’s audiences really need to focus on is reversing the damning “one-hit wonder” label for one of the most underrated artists of our time: Hozier.

Because Hozier is so much more than the “Take Me to Church” guy. He’s a genre-defining artist. Many may recognize Irish singer-songwriter Andrew Hozier-Byrne by his 2013 breakthrough EP, Take Me to Church. Its eponymous single launched him onto the Billboard Top 200 charts before he even released his first full-length album — an uncommon feat in a pre-TikTok industry.

Within his first year, Hozier took the world by storm, racking up over a dozen awards and nominations, including a nomination for Song of the Year at the 57th Grammys. Then, like many one-hit wonders, Hozier seemingly disappeared back into the Irish countryside from whence he came, never to be heard from again. But unlike many one-hit wonders, Hozier continued to hone his songwriting rather than silently exiting the music industry altogether.

Despite releasing two masterful albums over the last five years, including Unreal Unearth this past summer, Hozier continues to be slept on. Sure, we can all still agree that “Take Me to Church” is still one of the best things to come out of the 2010s, but it by no means marked the birth and death of Hozier’s career. Can your career truly have ended a decade ago if you were on one of countless collabs released by Noah Kahan last month?

Audiences’ poor memories and attention spans have had little effect on Hozier’s growth as a musician and performer, and those who actually have kept their ears open have noticed. His vocals quite literally continue to speak for his talent, and his increasingly experienced and impressive tone delivers equally rhapsodic lyrics. Poetic tracks such as “Wasteland, Baby!,” “Francesca” and “Arsonist’s Lullabye” might honestly rival some of Whitman’s greats.

Based on the performer’s natural talent alone, it’s probably confusing why he hasn’t continued to be showered with radio plays and praise. But as with many of today’s modern-day problems, the blame mostly falls on one infamous group of disruptors: Twitter stans.

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Hozier seemed giddy on stage at ACL, despite all the misunderstanding of his art.

Rachel Parker

It’s the identity that others online have crafted for Hozier, rather than the one he’s made for himself, that has made many misread and overlook the musician’s work. According to some of his Twitter fanbase, he’s nothing more than a “soft” mythical giant “bog man” who frolics among the Irish fae folk wearing woodland flower crowns. This kind of fantasy-based infantilization of the artist grossly exaggerates his musical brand.

Yes, Hozier has sung in Irish folk-stylings about tender, all-consuming love, but if these “fans” and other dismissive listeners really listened to what Hozier was saying, they’d quickly realize he’s really a fan of old-school soul and blues who loves singing about death, religion and eating pussy and the rich.

To be clear, Hozier has not once been shy about these inspirations. Songs “Jackie and Wilson” and “Almost (Sweet Music)” are evident R&B homages, and lyrics such as “I woke with her walls around me” and “A pillar I am, upright” aren’t exactly subtle allusions. And yet, the more universal and alluring aspects of Hozier and his songwriting are written off as fantasy-aligned tunes that backtrack Anne With An E TikTok edits. Hozier simply deserves better.

It’s not a terrible thing to make jokes about your favorite artists. Drake fans have dragged out “Drake the type of guy” gags on Twitter for years, and Tumblr girlies still get a kick out of the decade-old Taylor Swift “no its becky” meme. However, in the case of Hozier, the once-joking labels have now seemingly altered fans’ perception of the artist — to the point of disappointment when he doesn’t fit their desired image. While Hozier’s one-hit wonder perception is due in large part to audiences’ ADD and inability to look past streaming algorithms, discovering terms like “forest daddy” and “silly forest elf” when delving deeper into his work on social media may not help make the strongest case for his brand.

What Hozier really needs is a second chance — not one crafted by his fairy-obsessed fanbase, but by his own two hands and vocals. It’s easy to get lost in the matrix that is mainstream music, but beyond repetitive radio replays and talentless industry implants lies a man who’s made himself worthy of a listen for over 10 years. If you look past Hozier’s 2013 hit, you’d find there’s much more to love than just “Take Me To Church.” He can take you other places too.

Each expertly crafted album, including the recently Grammy nomination-snubbed Unreal Unearth, depicts a musician putting every ounce of effort into storytelling. Sure, he averages about five years between each release, but it’s worth it to see a refreshing prioritization of quality over quantity, especially in an age where Big Music churns out tired tracks as though up-and-coming artists are its underpaid Shein workers.

Simply put, Hozier needs more respect put on his name. Artists with his vocal and lyrical abilities are few and far between, and he deserves more than to be remembered for what is arguably one of his least impressive songs. Based on recent tour announcements, Hozier should be visiting Dallas’ Dos Equis Pavilion in April next year, granting locals plenty of time to see a perceived one-hit wonder in a new light. Hopefully by then, more will come to see that the impact he made in 2014 was only a small taste of what he has to offer.