"Take Me to Church" is a song by Irish singer-songwriter
Hozier. It was released as his debut single on 13 September 2013, originally featuring on his
extended play of the same name, before being featured as the opening track of his 2014 debut album Hozier. A struggling musician at the time of its composition, Hozier wrote and recorded the song in the attic of his parents' home in
County Wicklow. A mid-tempo
soul song, its lyrics use religious terminology to describe a romantic relationship in the face of Church discrimination. The song caught the attention of
Rubyworks Records, where producer
Rob Kirwan collaborated with Hozier on the final recording.
The accompanying music video premiered in September 2013, directed by Brendan Canty, Emmet O'Brien and Conal Thomson. It was shot in black-and-white and follows a
romantic relationship between two men and the
violent homophobic attack that followed.[4] Upon its YouTube release in September 2013, the video quickly went viral, leading to Hozier's subsequent license with
Columbia Records US and
Island Records UK. In 2014, the song achieved widespread global popularity, topping the charts in 12 countries and reaching the top 10 in 21 other territories. The song also received critical acclaim.
In 2013, Hozier was a struggling musician, often seen in
Dublin-area
open mic nights. During this period, he penned "Take Me to Church" at his parents' home in
Bray,
County Wicklow, Ireland, and recorded a rough demo in their attic with a programmed backing track.[4] He wrote the song after a bad breakup,[5] as he later remarked that "the vocals were recorded in my attic at 2 o'clock in the morning. So it's a real homemade job."[6] It took him three months to write the song; only two musicians feature on the track: Hozier and drummer Fiachra Kinder.[7] The demo caught the attention of independent label
Rubyworks, which paired him with producer Rob Kirwan. The song was overdubbed with live instrumentation, but the original demo vocals were kept because Kirwan found them "powerful" enough to remain.[4]
Lyrically, "Take Me to Church" is a metaphor, with the protagonist comparing his lover to religion. The song grew out of Hozier's frustration with the
Catholic Church which, as somebody raised in the
ProtestantQuaker faith, he saw as
dominating the social and political outlook of the Irish state.[8] "Growing up, I always saw the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church", Hozier said in an interview with Rolling Stone. "The history speaks for itself and I grew incredibly frustrated and angry. I essentially just put that into my words."[4]
In an interview with The Irish Times, Hozier stated that he "found the experience of falling in love or being in love was a death, a death of everything … you kind of watch yourself die in a wonderful way, and you experience for the briefest moment–if you see yourself for a moment through their eyes–everything you believed about yourself gone."[9] The song contains sexual undertones; Hozier elaborated that "an act of sex is one of the most human things ..but an organization like the church, say, through its doctrine, would undermine humanity by successfully teaching shame about sexual orientation … the song is about asserting yourself and reclaiming your humanity through an act of love.[10]
Sheet music for "Take Me to Church" shows the key of
E minor, with a slow
tempo of 63 beats per minute.[14]
Music video
The music video for "Take Me to Church" was made by Brendan Canty and Conal Thompson of Feel Good Lost, a small-scale Irish
production company hired by Rubyworks, and was released on 25 September 2013. The video was filmed primarily in the city of
Cork. According to Canty, the video was made on a budget of €1500 (equivalent to €1859 in 2023).[15][4] The story for the video came from Hozier himself, who wanted to bring attention to the repression and
persecution [
ru] faced by the
gay community in Russia.[15][16][17]
The video features two men (played by Emmet O’Riabhaigh and Daniel Coughlan)[15] in an intimate romantic
homosexual relationship. Later on, one of the men is kidnapped from his house, dragged into a forest, and violently kicked by a
lynch mob.[4][16][18]
Commercial performance
I never wrote music for the mainstream. I think I was incredibly fortunate that the song crossed over and people connected with it.
Spotify played a big role. It's a discovery platform and it's been invaluable to me over the past year.
The song rose in prominence alongside its viral music video, attracting A&R representatives from major labels in a bidding war to sign Hozier. He was signed by Justin Eshak of Columbia Records, who later opined that the song became a hit due to a shift on pop radio, spearheaded by
Sam Smith: "The music is connecting because when it gets on the air it's such a sharp juxtaposition to the existing material on top 40 radio."[4] The song first experienced chart success in his native Ireland, climbing the charts in October 2013 and eventually reached number two on
Irish Singles Chart.[5]
In May 2014, Hozier performed the song on the Late Show with David Letterman.[19] It was sent to US
modern rock radio on 24 June 2014 by
Columbia Records.[20] It eventually reached number two on the
Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks in December 2014 and January 2015, behind
Taylor Swift's "
Blank Space", while becoming his first top 10 single there.[21] As of July 2015, the song has sold 4,270,000 copies in the US.[22] The track has since reached top five in many other countries including peaking at number two in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. It topped the charts in numerous countries, including Austria, Belgium, Iceland, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.
The song initially attracted US attention in Nashville via an
adult album alternative radio station. From there, it became the top song for the area on music identification application
Shazam, which led to its appearance on a local top 40 station. "Take Me to Church" achieved widespread popularity in the United States between the summer and fall of 2014.[4]
Despite the song's popularity on YouTube, the song achieved more listens on Spotify,[23] becoming the service's most-streamed song of 2014, achieving 87 million listens.[24]
Matt McAndrew performed "Take Me to Church" on U.S. television program The Voice season 7 as his top 12 act. His cover peaked at number 5 on the
iTunes charts and at number 92 on the BillboardHot 100.
The song was used in season 14 of the documentary series Intervention.
The song was used in a commercial for
Beats by Dre which featured
LeBron James. The commercial showed James returning to his old high school in
Akron, Ohio.[30]
In 2015, Scottish rock band
Gun recorded a cover with a video, which later appeared on their 2019 best-of album R3loaded.[39][40]
The song was used as a central recurring theme in the third season of the teen series Druck (SKAM Germany), aired March through May 2019.
Sharon Irving performed the song in her audition on
Season 10 of America's Got Talent for which she received a golden buzzer from judge
Mel B and advanced to the semi-finals.[41]
Charts
Weekly charts
2014–2016 weekly chart performance for "Take Me to Church"
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. † Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.
Release history
Release history and formats for "Take Me to Church"
^"Take Me to Church (2-Track)". Amazon Germany. Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2015.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link)
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – RADIO – TOP 100 and insert 201504 into search. Retrieved 1 December 2014.
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – SINGLES DIGITAL – TOP 100 and insert 201450 into search. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
^Arvunescu, Victor (16 August 2016).
"Top Airplay 100 - Acele raman ascutite!" [Top Airplay 100 – The needles remain sharp!] (in Romanian). Un site de muzică. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert 201506 into search. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
^"
ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 201450 into search. Retrieved 8 December 2014.