Dies in motorcycle accident Glen Hansard, the singer-songwriter who triumphed with the film 'Once'

BarcelonaThe Irish singer Glen Hansard, who in 2007 won the Oscar for the song Falling Slowly –written for the soundtrack of the film Once–, has died at the age of 56 in a motorcycle accident in Lucan, west of Dublin, as reported by the BBC. Hansard was one of the protagonists of the film The Commitments (1991) and led his own rock band, The Frames, before triumphing with Once, starring Hansard himself and Markéta Irglová, who were also authors of the soundtrack as members of The Swell Season, a folk group that recorded three albums.

Born in Dublin in 1970, Hansard left school at 13 to start playing the guitar on the streets of Dublin. This was, more or less, his character in Alan Parker's acclaimed film The Commitments (1991), about a fictional Irish soul band where Hansard played the guitarist. After the film's great success, Hansard focused his energies on his musical career with the rock group he led, The Frames, one of the benchmark bands of Irish rock in the 90s. The Frames recorded six albums and even toured with Bob Dylan.

A story of love, solitude, and creativity

Precisely the bassist of The Frames, John Carney, used some of the stories that Hansard had told him about his years as a street musician to write the script for Once, a low-budget romantic drama that was initially supposed to star Cillian Murphy. In the end, Hansard himself ended up starring with the young Markéta Irglová, also a musician and with no acting experience, in this beautiful story of love, loneliness, and creativity. Premiered at the Sundance Festival, Once was one of the indie surprises of 2007. When Hansard and Irglová collected the Oscar for best original song (Falling slowly), the singer highlighted the independent spirit of the film, "shot with two handycam for $100,000 and in three weeks", expecting nothing from it, and called for "making art".

As a result of filming Once, Hansard and Irglová became an artistic and romantic couple and launched the musical project The Swell Season, which released its first album in 2006, even before the premiere of Once, and which already included Falling slowly. When they released their next album, Strict joy (2009), the romantic relationship between Hansard and Irglová had already ended, but they remained good friends and continued making music together. In fact, their third and last album arrived last year: Forward (2025). They performed in Barcelona in 2008 at Primavera Sound and, two years later, at Sala Apolo.

Hansard also had a solo career. He debuted in 2012 with Rhythm and repose and recorded a total of five albums. In 2024, he presented his latest album in Barcelona, All that was east is west of me now, 2023. As explained in Berta Coll's chronicle of that concert, Hansard recalled the figure of an old friend, the DJ and Barcelona musician Aleix Vergés, known as Sideral, whom he frequented as a young man. "He was my first friend in Barcelona and I miss him very much –Hansard explained–. We walked a lot, always with a bottle in hand, while we chatted at length". Hansard closed that concert with a beer in hand, toasting the living and also the dead and singing the nostalgic Irish ballad "Carrickfergus. Only a few months earlier, he had performed an extraordinary and moving rendition of Fairytale of New York to Shane MacGowan's funeral, the singer of The Pogues. I'm sure many songs will be sung in memory of Glen Hansard these days.