Wiki
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Release Date
16 September 2013
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Length
4 tracks
"Take Me to Church" is a song by Irish recording artist Hozier for his debut extended play Take Me to Church (2013), as well as his self-titled debut album (2014). The song was released as his debut single on 13 September 2013.
Hozier, a struggling musician at the time of its writing, wrote and recorded the song in the attic of his parent's home in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. A mid-tempo soul song, its lyrics detail Hozier's frustration with the Catholic Church and its stance on homosexuality.
It first caught the attention of independent label Rubyworks, where producer Rob Kirwan overdubbed the original demo with live instruments. Only two musicians feature on the track, Andrew Hozier-Byrne (Hozier) and drummer Fiachra Kinder.
The song's music video was primarily responsible for its widespread popularity.The clip, directed by Brendan Canty and Conal Thomson of the small production company "Feel Good Lost", follows the relationship between two men in a same-sex relationship and the subsequent violent homophobic backlash. Upon its YouTube release in September 2013, it quickly began to go viral, leading to Hozier's license with Columbia Records.
In 2014, the song achieved widespread global popularity, becoming a number-one hit in 12 countries, as well as a top 10 single in 21 other territories. In the United States, it was aided by music platform Shazam and Spotify to become a rock radio hit (where it has spent 21 consecutive weeks at the top of the Hot Rock Songs chart, the second-longest in its history), later crossing over to the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number two in December 2014. The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. The song has been certified triple platinum in the US.
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