For this 12 months’s replace of our ongoing Largest Pop Superstar by way of 12 months mission, Billboard will probably be counting down our editorial workforce selections for the highest 10 pop stars of 2024 all subsequent week. Earlier than that, we published our Honorable Mentions for 2024 on Tuesday — and now, we provide a salute to the artist with probably the most spectacular comeback this 12 months: Irish singer-songwriter Hozier, who took his slowly constructed cult stardom again overground with one of the most 12 months’s defining pop hits and his greatest 12 months of traveling and reside appearances but.
Hozier — sure, the man that despatched a soulful rock ballad a few romantic dating thriving within the face of non secular discrimination to No. 2 at the Sizzling 100 again in 2014 — will have made 2024 a richly deserved victory lap after losing a chart-topping album and embarking on a packed area excursion in 2023. As an alternative, he spent 2024 securing a business re-peak that he earned by way of spending the previous decade rising his cult fanbase, even with out additional post-“Church” crossover good fortune.
On the most sensible of the 12 months, all was once properly with Hozier and his fanatics. Unreal Unearth was once a smashing good fortune — topping 3 style charts (people, rock and selection), achieving No. 3 at the Billboard 200 and spawning his first Sizzling 100 access in just about a decade (“Consume Your Younger,” No. 67) — however there was once the pesky factor of the Grammys. He’s by no means been a Recording Academy darling (his sole nod was once in music of the 12 months for “Take Me to Church” again in 2015), however an entire shutout for Unreal Unearth and its singles regardless of ambitious business good fortune and important acclaim felt specifically painful.
Nevertheless, Hozier & Co. barreled onwards. After spending maximum of 2023 traveling the U.S. and Europe, Hozier added over 50 new displays throughout North The united states, along headlining slots at a number of tune fairs, together with Boston Calling, Hinterland, and Railbird. From the intimacy of his maximum heart-wrenching ballads (“Cherry Wine”) to the arena-rocking riffs of his maximum colourful bangers (each portions of “De Selby”), Hozier’s enticing degree display reminded longtime fanatics why they first fell in love with him and transformed legions of latest fanatics to his kingdom.
As his excursion captivated a couple of continents, pictures from his displays helped Hozier select up a loyal TikTok fan base who grew to become him into one thing of a heartthrob. They had been enamored by way of his vulnerability, lengthy flowing hair and signature “growl”; Hozier had entered his “Wooded area Daddy” technology, and the sector was once thirsty for no matter that entailed. His more recent TikTok target audience was once additionally interested in his emblem of folksy alt-rock that had a resurgence over the pandemic and the years straight away following, possibly highest exemplified by way of the breakout good fortune of Noah Kahan. On the finish of 2023, Hozier and Kahan joined forces for a duet model of the latter’s “Northern Angle,” incomes the Irish rocker his first most sensible 40 look since “Church” and environment the degree for his 2024 business comeback. That stage of fanbase-priming all helped end result within the eye-popping streaming and gross sales debut of “Too Candy,” the music that cemented Hozier’s mainstream business resurgence.
Hozier first teased Unheard as a standalone EP constructed from songs that didn’t make the overall Unreal Unearth tracklist. In his TikTok saying the mission, the Irish singer-songwriter used a snippet of “Too Candy,” environment the degree for the music’s reliable TikTok sound to assemble over 42,000 posts at the platform. “Too Candy” debuted at No. 5 at the Sizzling 100 (dated April 6), marking each Hozier’s first music to debut within the most sensible 10 and his first most sensible 10 hit since “Take Me to Church.” 3 weeks later — because of over 35.6 million reliable on-demand U.S. streams, consistent with Luminate – the sultry pop-rock music reached No. 1 at the Sizzling 100 (dated April 27), marking his first U.S. chart-topper. Although “Too Candy” best crowned the Sizzling 100 for one body, it controlled to take action in every week the place he was once competing with singles from longtime stars Beyoncé and Ariana Grande, in addition to historical pop breakthroughs for Chappell Roan and Sabrina Chippie, and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Track.”
Hozier’s “Candy” good fortune wasn’t only a richly deserved celebratory second following his tough 2023, it was once additionally a feat that culturally situated him as one of the most sonic forefathers of Best 40’s better alt-rock resurgence in 2024. Notes of Hozier’s emblem of big-voiced, guitar-backed rock anthems with a pop edge may also be present in numerous 2024 Sizzling 100 hits, together with Teddy Swims’ “Lose Regulate” (No. 1), Benson Boone’s “Stunning Issues” (No. 2), Myles Smith’s “Stargazing” (No. 20) and Michael Marcagi’s “Scared to Get started” (No. 54), and, in fact, Kahan’s “Stick Season” (No. 9). All of the ones artists made their Sizzling 100 debuts this decade, however Hozier has been using this components to hits for a decade now – it was once best proper he in spite of everything were given a chart-topper of his personal.
Now his longest-running Sizzling 100 hit in the back of “Church” (37 weeks), “Too Candy” crowned 3 Billboard airplay ratings (pop, rock and grownup pop) and become his first music to most sensible Streaming Songs and the all-genre Radio Songs chart. What’s maximum outstanding about “Too Candy,” is how little in-your-face promotion the music required to hook up with customers: All Hozier in reality wanted was once a just right music and a TikTok submit – no dance development or star-studded remix or virality-seeking tune video vital.
A couple of months after “Too Candy” hit the Sizzling 100’s summit, Hozier headlined the primary night time of Lollapalooza 2024 (Aug. 1). All through his set – by which he debuted “No person’s Soldier” – the mechanically outspoken artist known as for “peace and security and safety for everyone within the Heart East… which in fact would imply seeing Palestine loose from profession and loose from violence.” In an technology the place lots of tune’s greatest stars have reputedly forgotten or undervalue the edifying, unifying and freeing facets of the artform, it was once extremely refreshing to listen to Hozier wax poetic in regards to the innate interconnectedness of worldwide liberation actions at his displays all over the world.
Unaired arrived a little bit over two weeks after Hozier’s headlining set (Aug. 16), with “No person’s Soldier” serving as the focal point monitor. Following the uptempo blueprint of “Too Candy,” “Soldier” neglected the Sizzling 100 totally, however nonetheless controlled to transform Hozier’s 5th consecutive No. 1 unmarried at Grownup Selection Airplay (AAA). With “Soldier,” “Candy” and his Kahan-assisted “Northern Angle,” Hozier become the primary soloist in historical past to attain 3 new AAA No. 1s in one 12 months – and he’s only one music clear of tying U2 for the best-ever document of maximum consecutive AAA chart-toppers (six).
Through the top of the 12 months, Hozier mixed his two new EPs into one sprawling deluxe album titled Unreal Unearth: Never-ending. To cap off his 2024, Hozier will carry out because the musical visitor for the impending Dec. 21 episode of Saturday Night time Reside – his first look at the display since post-“Church” in 2014.
It’s now not continuously that an plain business resurgence happens along a revival in cultural prominence, however Hozier pulled it off this 12 months. With “Too Candy” Hozier positioned himself on the middle of 1 2024’s defining musical types and returned to the awards dialog, selecting up his first two MTV Video Song Awards nods in 10 years – even though that Grammy stays out of succeed in, as he was once close out once more within the 2025 nominations. No longer best did he most sensible the pop charts with new solo tune, however he additionally re-established himself as a bona fide celebrity. Whether or not he was once flexing onstage banter or talking fact to energy, other people hung directly to his each and every phrase – particularly the non-musical ones.
Few will have predicted that Hozier would ranking a No. 1 unmarried a decade after his “Take Me to Church” leap forward, however, alternatively, few anticipated “Church” to be as large because it was once a decade in the past. If ever there was once a shining fresh instance of a mainstream musician constantly serving and nurturing their fan base, and reaping good-looking (if long-delayed) returns for the ones efforts, it’s Hozier.
Test Billboard later as of late for the divulge of our 2024 Rookie of the 12 months, and are available again subsequent week as we commence the countdown of our most sensible 10 Largest Pop Stars of 2024!
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