Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter who won the Best Original Song Oscar for “Falling Slowly” from the 2007 film Once, is dead at 56.
“With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard in the early hours of this morning,” reads a post shared to Hansard’s official Instagram on Wednesday (July 29). “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.”
According to a report from BBC News, Hansard, who also founded The Frames and was a co-founder of The Swell Season, died in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash in Lucan, near Dublin.
In Once, co-starring his Swell Season collaborator and fellow Oscar winner Markéta Irglová, Hansard plays a Dublin-based busker named Guy. Irglová’s character, Girl, joins him on a romantic musical journey that leads to a decidedly bittersweet end for both. The film, a critical and commercial success boasting a modest budget, was later adapted into a Tony and Grammy-winning musical.
“What are we doing here?” Hansard, clearly shocked, said when accepting the Oscar for Best Original Song alongside Irglová in 2008. “This is mad. We made this film two years ago. We shot it on two Handycams. It took us three weeks to make. We made it for 100 grand. We never thought we’d ever come into a room like this and be in front of you people. It’s been an amazing thing, and thanks for taking this film seriously, all of you. It means a lot to us. … Make art, make art.”
As a solo artist, Hansard’s recent work includes the 2023 album All That Was East Is West of Me Now, and his dual Don’t Settle volumes earlier this year. In 2025, he and Irglová shared a new The Swell Season project, Forward, marking the duo’s first full-length together in over 15 years.
RIP.
