Glen Hansard, Oscar-Winning ‘Once’ Singer-Songwriter Dies in Motorcycle Crash at 56

Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter and leader of The Frames and folk duo Swell Season has died at age 56 following a motorcycle crash near his home in Dublin, Ireland. A statement from his management team at ATC sent to Billboard on Wednesday morning (July 29) read: “With broken hearts we announce the passing of Glen Hansard in the early hours of this morning. 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.”

At press time no additional information was available about the crash that took the life of the singer who won the Oscar for best original song for “Falling Slowly” from the 2007 musical drama Once, which co-starred Hansard and his Swell Season bandmate and co-writer Markéta Irglová as a pair of struggling musicians finding their way in Dublin. The duo composed and performed all the film’s original songs.

Born Glen James Angus Hansard in Dublin suburb of Ballymun on April 21, 1970, the musician known for his passionate, literary songwriting and warm vocals started his career at 13, when he dropped out of school and started busking on the streets of his hometown. After five years of plying his trade, his demo made its way to Island Records, which signed the young singer, who promptly formed a band, The Frames, and began work on their debut album, 1992’s Another Love Song.

While awaiting the LP’s release, Hansard scored a role in the hit 1991 musical drama The Commitments, which was based on the 1987 novel by Roddy Doyle and directed by Alan Parker (Pink Floyd — The Wall, Mississippi Burning) and told the story of a scrappy group of working-class Irish kids who form a soul band.

Though he earned good notices for his role in the film, Hansard focused on his music, releasing a series of albums with the Frames, including 1995’s Fitzcarraldo, 1999’s Dance with the Devil, 2001’s For the Birds and 2002’s Breadcrumb Trail, all driven by the singer’s warm, yearning voice and heartstring-pulling lyrics.

Hansard paused The Frames in 2006 to form Swell Season with Czech singer-songwriter Irglová, with the couple tapped to play fictionalized versions of themselves in Once, which was a box office hit upon release in 2007 and later earned the pair an Oscar for “Falling Slowly,” a moving acoustic ballad about an instant, emotional connection between two strangers. “Take this sinking boat and point it home/ We’ve still got time/ Raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice/ You’ll make it now” they sing in perfect harmony on the emotional chorus. The film was then turned into a hit Broadway musical in 2012, which was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, winning eight, including best musical and best book of a musical. Hansard did not appear in the stage adaptation but did join the cast for a surprise curtain call song marking the show’s 1,000th performance and shared a Grammy Award for best musical theater album in 2013 for his songwriting for the original film.

Swell Season released their second album, Strict Joy, in 2009, but were effectively over when the couple broke up; they unexpectedly reunited in 2023 for their first album in 16 years, Forward. Hansard continued to release albums with The Frames through 2006’s The Cost, before focusing on his solo material, beginning with his first true solo album, 2012’s Rhythm and Repose.

Hansard reached a wider audience with his cover of Bob Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” for the experimental biographical 2007 film I’m Not There, as well as when his song “Take the Heartland” appeared on the soundtrack to the hit 2012 adaptation of The Hunger Games. The singer struck up a friendship with Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder, opening for the rocker on his 2011 solo tour and joining Vedder’s solo band Earthlings. He also made a voice cameo on The Simpsons and appeared in a 2012 episode of the TV series Parenthood.

He released four more solo albums in the 2000s, including 2015’s Didn’t He Ramble, 2018’s Between Two Shores, 2019’s This Wild Willing and 2023’s All That Was East Is West of Me Now, as well as a pair of live albums earlier this year called Don’t Settle that were recorded over two nights in 2025 featuring songs from throughout his career.

He earned four Grammy nominations during his career, including best pop performance by a duo or group with vocals for The Commitments soundtrack, best compilation soundtrack for visual media for Once (2008), best song written for visual media for “Falling Slowly” (2008) and best contemporary folk album for Didn’t He Ramble (2016).