“Take Me to Church” suddenly brought a struggling Irish musician, Hozier, to worldwide popularity immediately after its release, much to his amazement; and it seems that the public interest remains unabated. Six months after its original release, “Take Me to Church” comes back to the Irish Number One spot after achieving an impressive result: over 90,000 copies sold in his native country, more than one million worldwide.
In addition to that, his song has become the most streamed Irish song of all time: it has been streamed more than 250 million times. And the interest remains strong not only in Ireland, but worldwide: for example, this week his debut album is at Number 12 at the U.S. album charts.
Hozier himself reportedly was astounded by this sudden success. According to NME , he said he never expected, nor intended, to get into the charts and rub shoulders with musicians who write songs specifically designed to get into them.
“I never, ever, ever imagined having mainstream success, and it still amazes me. But it also makes me think that, if I can do it, there are so many other musicians who could as well. A lot of people complain about current music, about the Top 10 and the values reflected in it, but ‘ Take Me To Church ‘ found room there, and that has to be good.”
Hozier states that songwriting has always been like doing battle for him, and although he is happy that his song became so popular, he isn’t going to aim for the charts in future. At least, the Inquisitr reports that he isn’t going to change the way he works and performs to adapt to more mainstream culture and become more likable to the general public.
“ Hozier is battling to stay true to his values and preferences. His manager currently wants him to change his appearance to suit the current expectations of mainstream music. His manager and label want him to keep his hair loose while performing, but he likes to perform with it tied back. It is a difficult industry to work in, especially for artists that have their own styles that they want to keep.”
However, it remains to be seen just how eager he is to remain the same, now that he got a taste of real success; at least it is certain that “Take Me to Church” isn’t going to be his last international single – he is already working on a new one, called “Work Song.”
[Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images]