40 Fun Facts About Take Me to Church

In which part of his parents' County Wicklow home did Hozier record the vocals for Take Me to Church?

The attic doubled as his makeshift studio, and he sang the take at two in the morning. Those demo vocals were strong enough to stay on the finished single.

The Take Me to Church music video, which follows two men in love, was shot entirely in which style?

Black-and-white footage gives the story of a homophobic attack its starkness. The video quickly went viral after its release on YouTube in September 2013.

The Take Me to Church video was meant to highlight the persecution of gay people in which country?

Russia was on Hozier's mind: the video echoes organised attacks on gay youths there, which far-right gangs filmed. It shows a couple torn apart when a mob drags one man into a forest.

Which 2024 Hozier single reached number one in the US, a spot Take Me to Church missed by one place?

Too Sweet climbed to the top three weeks after its debut, making Hozier the first Irish act to lead the Billboard Hot 100 since Sinéad O'Connor in 1990.

Take Me to Church earned Hozier a 2015 Grammy nomination in which of the four general categories?

Song of the Year is a songwriter's award, so the nomination went to Hozier alone as the track's only writer. He did not win, but he performed at the ceremony.

Which Scottish singer joined Hozier on stage to perform Take Me to Church at the 2015 Grammy Awards?

Annie Lennox turned the duet into a medley, following his hit with a cover of I Put a Spell on You.

Which English actor and comedian shared the Take Me to Church video online, helping it go viral in 2013?

Stephen Fry gave the clip the push that turned it into a viral hit. Major labels were soon in a bidding war to sign the little-known Hozier.

Which ballet star danced to Hozier's Take Me to Church in a 2015 video that became a viral hit?

Sergei Polunin meant the piece as his farewell to ballet. Its online success found him a new audience and helped persuade him to keep dancing.

On which streaming service was Hozier's Take Me to Church named the most viral song of 2014?

Spotify named it the most shared track of 2014 and made Hozier its breakout star of the year. He has said the service played a big role in listeners discovering the song.

In which Irish city was most of the music video for Hozier's Take Me to Church filmed?

Cork was the main location for Feel Good Lost, the small Irish production company behind the clip, with Emmet O'Riabhaigh and Daniel Coughlan playing the couple.

After a famous fan shared the Take Me to Church video, it reached the front page of which website?

Reddit's front page gave the clip a huge new audience, and the viral surge won Hozier major-label deals on both sides of the Atlantic.

Which American photographer directed the viral 2015 ballet video set to Hozier's Take Me to Church?

David LaChapelle shot the dance for a documentary film, then leaked it online himself before the film had its premiere.

Which producer kept Hozier's original demo vocals when finishing the recording of Take Me to Church?

Rob Kirwan found the home-recorded singing too powerful to redo, so he overdubbed live instruments around it. He had begun as an assistant engineer on U2's Zooropa.

Which independent label signed Hozier on the strength of his rough home demo of Take Me to Church?

Rubyworks, a Dublin independent founded in 2001, heard the rough recording and paired Hozier with a producer to finish it.

After the Take Me to Church video went viral, which major label won the race to sign Hozier in the US?

Columbia Records' Justin Eshak signed him after a bidding war. He put the hit down to how sharply it stood out from everything else on top 40 radio.

On which app did Take Me to Church become Nashville's top song, helping Hozier reach US top 40 radio?

Shazam ranked it the area's most-identified song after an adult alternative station played it, which led a local top 40 station to pick it up.

Take Me to Church tied which Imagine Dragons hit's record 23 weeks atop Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart?

Radioactive had the longest stay at number one in the chart's history until Hozier's debut single equalled it, then crossed over to pop radio.

On which US television show did Hozier perform Take Me to Church and Angel of Small Death in October 2014?

Saturday Night Live had Bill Hader hosting that night, and his Skeleton Twins co-star Kristen Wiig introduced Hozier's second song.

Hozier performed Take Me to Church at which fashion brand's London runway show in December 2014?

Victoria's Secret held that year's show in London, where Hozier shared the bill with Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Ariana Grande.

Which British-American author and critic of religion did Hozier cite as an influence on Take Me to Church?

Christopher Hitchens' ideas fed a song Hozier wrote after breaking up with his first girlfriend: a love song that is also a meditation on the idea of sin.

Hozier, the agnostic writer of Take Me to Church, was raised in which Protestant faith?

Quaker by upbringing, Hozier has said his best-known song is about asserting yourself and reclaiming your humanity through an act of love.

Hozier, the Irish voice of Take Me to Church, was born in 1990 on the date of which annual celebration?

St Patrick's Day, 17 March 1990, was the day he arrived. His father was a banker who played jazz and blues by night, and the family's record collection shaped his sound.

What is the first name of Hozier, the Take Me to Church singer who performs under part of his surname?

Andrew Hozier-Byrne trimmed his full name down to a single word for the stage. It is pronounced HOH-zee-er, in three syllables.

Which relative of Hozier painted the cover art for his debut album and its single Take Me to Church?

His mother, Raine Hozier-Byrne, painted the album cover and the artwork for its singles. She worked as an artist at home while he was growing up.

Which closing track of Hozier's Take Me to Church EP later featured in Zach Braff's film Wish I Was Here?

Cherry Wine was recorded live at five in the morning in an abandoned hotel with a caved-in roof and walls covered in graffiti.

Which Irish actress starred in a 2016 Hozier music video made to raise awareness of domestic violence?

Saoirse Ronan plays a woman who wipes off her make-up to reveal a black eye in the video, which premiered on Valentine's Day. Download proceeds went to domestic abuse charities.

Which Sam Smith ballad beat Hozier's Take Me to Church to its Grammy category at the 2015 ceremony?

Stay with Me helped Sam Smith to four Grammys that night. The executive who signed Hozier in the US credited Smith with leading the shift on pop radio that let Hozier's song break through.

Only two musicians play on Take Me to Church: Hozier and Fiachra Kinder, who plays which instrument?

Drums and percussion were Kinder's part. Hozier sang every vocal line and played the guitar, piano and organ himself.

At a 2015 VH1 awards show, Hozier and Tori Kelly performed Take Me to Church and which Beatles song?

Blackbird was the pair's choice on the night Hozier collected VH1's fan-voted Artist of the Year award, in November 2015.

Roughly what budget did co-director Brendan Canty say the viral Take Me to Church video was made on?

€1,500 covered the whole shoot, and the finished video came out twelve days after the single, on 25 September 2013.

Before Take Me to Church took off, Hozier was a struggling musician often seen at what kind of Dublin gig?

Open mic nights were his regular stage in 2013, although he had already played Ireland's Oxegen festival twice, in 2009 and 2010.

Hozier dropped out of a music degree at which university before Take Me to Church made his name?

Trinity College Dublin refused him a year's deferral after he missed exams to record demos for a label, so he left to pursue his own songwriting.

Which 2019 album gave Hozier his first US number one, five years after Take Me to Church?

Wasteland, Baby! debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 in March 2019, with songs built around his vision of the apocalypse, romance and redemption.

In 2021, Hozier, the singer of Take Me to Church, was honoured in Ireland with which tribute?

A postage stamp celebrating Hozier was issued by An Post, the Irish postal service, on 15 July 2021.

Which late-night host gave Hozier a US television slot to perform Take Me to Church in May 2014?

David Letterman's Late Show booking came weeks before the single was even sent to US rock radio, in late June 2014.

Sheet music for Hozier's Take Me to Church sets the song at a slow 63 beats per minute in which key?

E minor is the key on the published sheet music. Critics describe the result as a mid-tempo, gospel-inflected song with sweeping choruses.

Before Take Me to Church, Hozier toured internationally as a member of which Irish choral ensemble?

Anúna, the choir that sang in the original Riverdance, counted Hozier as a member until 2012, and he sings a solo on one of its later albums.

The viral ballet video set to Hozier's Take Me to Church was commissioned for which 2016 documentary film?

Dancer, directed by Steven Cantor, follows the ballet star as he weighs his future in the profession; the video was leaked online before the film's premiere.

Hozier's Take Me to Church borrows an idea from Chorus Sacerdotum, a poem by which Elizabethan writer?

Fulke Greville, a poet and statesman who served two English monarchs, wrote of mankind being made flawed yet ordered to be whole, an idea Hozier reworked.

In 2012, the year before Take Me to Church, Hozier appeared as a backup singer for which pop veteran?

Billy Ocean had the unknown Hozier singing behind him in 2012. A year earlier, Hozier had been the opening act at a Dublin show by Alex Winston.