The Irish singer-songwriter and The Frames front man Glen Hansard has shared a new single and music video, “Take Heart.” The new song features Czech-Icelandic singer-songwriter Marketa Irglova, as well as three Ukranian refugees now based in Ireland.
This emotional offering from Hansard acts as a statement of hopefulness for a Ukrainian victory in Russia’s war against Ukraine. In the chorus of the track, the musician asks the people of Ukraine to “Take heart, It will get easier,” going on to sing “We’ll forge an alliance, Of lovers and friends, We are fighting to win.”
The video for the track shows Hansard and the three Ukranian refugees sitting in a small circle as the musician plays his guitar. The three refugees, identified as Anna, Alex and Olena, join Hansard to sing a chorus and verse in the second half of the song, all sung in Ukrainian. The video offers subtitles translating the English lyrics into Ukrainian and the Ukrainian lyrics into English. Watch the official music video for “Take Heart” via YouTube below,
Reflecting on the new song, Hansard has explained that “This song is a single flower placed at the foot of all this devastation, a candle lit among the millions placed helplessly at the doors of embassies or left burning in windows; it’s a prayer sent up into the great cloud of goodwill that circles the globe. It’s a thing that didn’t exist and now it does, an offering, thanks to Patti, Alex, Anna, Olena and Markéta who heard it as I was working on it and joined in to make it stronger. This is for them, and to all those who lost or are missing loved ones on every side of this brutal war.”
In 2020, The Frames, Glen Hansard’s first band, held its first tour in over decade. The duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova their first tour in a decade earlier this year.
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