Homophobia protest song is ‘most streamed’ in 2014
Hozier performs onstage at the 2015 iHeartRadio Music Festival at MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 19, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Kevin Winter/Getty)
Spotify has revealed that a song written as a protest against religious homophobia was the most-streamed single in 2014.
Irish singer Hozier’s song Take Me To Church has topped the music streaming service’s list of viral hits, with over 87 million streams.
The video for the song portrays a violent homophobic attack – and Hozier revealed earlier this year that it was written to protest religious homophobia.
He said: “The song is about loving somebody, and the video is about people who would undermine what it is to love somebody.
“I’d been following what was going on in Russia, where far-Right groups were doing these organised attacks, filming them and putting them on social media.
“The damage done by the Church to the people of Ireland is completely irreparable, and the reparations are all too few. There’s still a lack of will to turn around and say, ‘This is not OK’.
“Why is it an organisation that is considered to have any moral standing at all? The track record is just appalling.
“It’s important to remember that it can happen anywhere. It’s very easy for a society to fall into hatefulness, to scapegoat people, especially when times get tough.”
The platform also named Hozier as its Spotlight Breakout Star of 2014. The song’s video, meanwhile, has amassed over 40 million views on YouTube.
Watch the clip below:
