Impromptu
Hozier's Surprise Subway Performance Blew The Crowd Away
His voice is so soulful and sounds even better live than it does on the radio!
Ryan Aliapoulios
06.03.19

One of the thrills (and inconveniences) of living in a major city is having to deal with public transit.

If you live in a city like LA, you know that public transport is so important to the life of the city—especially because public transportation in LA is so dismal.

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wikipedia.org

In NYC, on the other hand, there are plenty of subways and buses to take people wherever they need to go in the city… though they may or may not be on time or functioning when we need them. Aside from that, we’re bound to see some truly crazy things on the subway on any given day.

Still, sometimes we get good surprises that we can take with us.

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wikipedia.org

This story is an example of one of those good subway surprises!

For those who don’t know, Hozier is an Irish musician who released his hit single “Take Me To Church” in 2013. The single was enormously successful and catapulted him to the top of the charts around the world, cementing him as one of the great singer-songwriters of recent years.

wikipedia.org
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wikipedia.org

Still, Hozier isn’t the easiest person to be a fan of because of his mysterious and reclusive nature when it comes to releasing new music. He released his first self-titled album in 2014 and recently released a second, Wasteland, Baby!, in 2019.

In a lot of that in between time, though, he was nowhere to be found.

YouTube Screenshot
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YouTube Screenshot

Fortunately for some subway goers in march of 2019, he appeared again to surprise the world!

If you’ve ever seen Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, you probably know that he sometimes does these fake “surprise” subway performances with world famous artists like Miley Cyrus and Adam Levine. Still, Hozier’s performance isn’t part of any late night TV show or a stunt—it’s just him and a few musicians performing for the crowd!

Although things begin unremarkably, things escalate pretty quickly.

YouTube Screenshot
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YouTube Screenshot

As it starts off, a keyboardist starts playing a melody and Hozier starts singing.

Before long, it’s clear to see that it’s his hit single, “Take Me To Church.” In addition to the keyboards, he also brought along three to four back-up singers to do accompanying vocals.

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YouTube Screenshot

While it starts off slow, Hozier’s voice soars when he hits the chorus! After that, he sets into the second verse with an even stronger vocal performance than when he started.

For anyone that has heard him on the record, just know that his voice sounds even better live!

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YouTube Screenshot

Throughout the performance, Hozier proves just how talented he is and why he has been so successful.

At the very end of the performance, he does a few soulful vocal runs to round out his religion-inspired song. Still, that’s not the only song he sings for the crowd!

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YouTube Screenshot

After that one is over, he sets into one of his new singles called “Almost (Sweet Music,” this time with a guitar as well. Although he’s a great singer, he’s also a great guitar player. In the background, his performers clap out a complex rhythm to help him out. Needless to say, his performance is just amazing as the first one.

At the end of each song, the audience roars with applause.




For any big Hozier fans, it’s definitely worth checking out as many of these live songs as possible!

While we’re not sure it’s worth moving to NYC just to catch these spontaneous subway performances, it certainly has us considering it. On the other hand, we can always just hope that someone is there in the front row filming the performances so they can bring them to the world! Of all the live subway performances we’ve seen posted online over the years, this is definitely one of the best.

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YouTube Screenshot

Special thanks to Hozier for finally sharing some new music with the world! Check out the full clip below:

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