For a self-professed atheist, Andrew Hozier-Byrne brings a lot of the fire of gospel music to his songs. Those huge blocks of vocal harmonies, those soul-searching lyrics and pleas for redemption. He may have achieved global recognition (and an Ivor Novello award) for a song called Take Me To Church, but he鈥檚 clearly already taking the church with him wherever he goes.
He even managed to make a gospel-inflected ruckus out of an Ariana Grande song, with a magnificently intense rendition of Problem in the Live Lounge last year. And it鈥檚 that intensity that has drawn so many people to his music, as anyone who saw him perform on the John Peel Stage at last year鈥檚 Glastonbury can confirm. One notable recent convert is the dancer Sergei Polunin, whose ballet interpretation of Take Me To Church became an unexpected YouTube hit earlier this year. Now watch him make converts of us all, as he conquers the Pyramid Stage.
For a self-professed atheist, Andrew Hozier-Byrne brings a lot of the fire of gospel music to his songs. Those huge blocks of vocal harmonies, those soul-searching lyrics and pleas for redemption. He may have achieved global recognition (and an Ivor Novello award) for a song called Take Me To Church, but he鈥檚 clearly already taking the church with him wherever he goes.
He even managed to make a gospel-inflected ruckus out of an Ariana Grande song, with a magnificently intense rendition of Problem in the Live Lounge last year. And it鈥檚 that intensity that has drawn so many people to his music, as anyone who saw him perform on the John Peel Stage at last year鈥檚 Glastonbury can confirm. One notable recent convert is the dancer Sergei Polunin, whose ballet interpretation of Take Me To Church became an unexpected YouTube hit earlier this year. Now watch him make converts of us all, as he conquers the Pyramid Stage.
