Glen Hansard, Irish songwriter and 'Once' star, dies at 56

Glen Hansard, the Irish singer who won an Oscar for the musical movie Once and led the bands The Frames and The Swell Season, died on Wednesday. He was 56 years old. Hansard's management shared a statement with NPR, and confirmed that he died following a motorcycle crash in Dublin.

"With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard in the early hours of this morning," the statement reads. "We are still dealing with the shock of it all, so we kindly ask that the privacy of Glen's family, colleagues and friends is respected at this difficult time."

Hansard dropped out of school at 13 to focus on music, performing frequently as a busker in Ireland. Not long after forming his band The Frames in 1990, he landed a part in the movie The Commitments — about a tempestuous Irish band that couldn't overcome conflicts among its members.

Hansard's own career proved more stable and long-lasting: The Frames, named for Hansard's affinity for bicycles, became a hit in Ireland, though it struggled for years to find the same level of fame in the U.S. The band married alt-rock bombast — stormy guitars, weeping strings — with the intimacy of a seasoned busker. Hansard's own showmanship, honed through years of street performances, made him a natural frontman.

After short stints on several major U.S. labels, The Frames nurtured a grassroots following in America, as 2001's independently released For the Birds attracted some of Hansard's best early reviews.

Hansard's biggest career move came when he was cast as the unnamed male lead in the 2007 film Once. Hansard and the Czech-born singer Markéta Irglová starred as a pair of struggling musicians in Dublin, and the pair won the 2008 Academy Award for best original song for their romantic duet, "Falling Slowly." The song quickly became a standard and the film's soundtrack sold hundreds of thousands of copies; later, after Once spawned a hit Broadway musical of the same name, Hansard won a Grammy Award for best musical theater album.

Hansard and Irglová became romantically involved during Once's run of success, and continued to collaborate over the years. In the wake of Once's success, they formed a band together called The Swell Season, which contained several members of The Frames. The group released a post-Once album, 2009's Strict Joy, before Hansard and Irglová embarked on solo careers; the pair reunited 16 years later to put out another album, Forward, in 2025.

Hansard also released a string of solo albums which often showcased a more subdued and reflective side of the artist; 2015's Didn't He Ramble was nominated for a Grammy for best folk album. Though the music often veered from the bombastic passion of Hansard's work with The Frames and The Swell Season, it also found him growing more musically expansive, as he worked with large bands that often included supporting players he'd worked with for years.

Earlier this year, Hansard released a pair of albums called Don't Settle. The albums, recorded over two nights in 2025, features live performances of songs that span Hansard's career.

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