Hozier connects Irish and Palestinian histories at sold-out New York concert
Hozier was both political and poetical at the first of four sold-out shows at New York's Forest Hills Stadium
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Jokes about the straight boyfriends of bisexual women attending Pride could just as easily apply to a Hozier concert, based on both the attendees and the rousing speech for inclusion and tolerance he made during his encore Tuesday night in Forest Hills, Queens. At the show, attended by The A.V. Club, LGBTQ+ rights were clearly top of mind; at one point the singer fastened a Pride flag to his mic stand. But Hozier (on tour for his 2023 album Unreal Unearth and the 2024 Unheard EP) used the subject as a jumping-off point to deliver an almost academic lecture about the history of protest movements in the United States and how they influenced similar movements in Ireland and around the world, ending with a call to end the genocide in Palestine.
Hozier spent the evening in New York casting a spell over the crowd, drawing in their attention and enthusiasm as the night wore on to achieve maximum impact for his climactic remarks. Surprisingly, he started the show with “Too Sweet,” his most recent hit, which he subsequently thanked fans for making the first number-one song of his career. He also became the first-ever artist to have four consecutive sold-out shows at New York’s historic Forest Hills Stadium. The sold-out crowd for his first show clearly enjoyed the signature songs (“Jackie & Wilson,” “Francesca”), but the relationship between artist and audience truly locked in when Hozier moved to a smaller stage to perform a perfectly-timed “Cherry Wine” solo at sunset, followed by a twilight rendition of “De Selby (Part 1).” (As the songwriter explained, the Irish Gaelic lyrics translate in part to “you come to me like nightfall.”) It should be noted that Hozier is a powerhouse vocalist with impressive range; throughout the entire set, his live vocals sounded exactly like his records, except for the moments where he went bigger and bolder.
Much has been made of the decline of concert etiquette in the post-COVID era, but this outdoor summer show was an example of a genuinely positive communal experience. Watching the general admission crowd follow the musician from one stage to another like moths to a flame or the flashlights flickering on up in the riser seats are bonuses to seeing a great performer. Even the frequent complaints about filming on phones didn’t seem like such a problem at all. It was more like seeing a group of people taking a picture of a great sunset or the full moon all at once—it’s a human instinct to try to capture something beautiful and special, even if it’s kind of ordinary. No matter if it happens during the next three nights in Forest Hills or throughout the rest of the year as Hozier continues his tour, hearing a chorus of 10,000-plus people tenderly singing along to “Cherry Wine” is singularly gorgeous, and not to be missed.
It was in this spirit of community that Hozier finished a rollicking set—multiple times naming and thanking his band members, as well as much of the crew (and even had everyone sing Happy Birthday to the head of his lighting crew)—and re-emerged for a powerful and political encore. He tracked the throughline from the fight for women’s rights to LGBTQ+ rights to the fight to end apartheid in South Africa, preaching that many civil rights movements required the global community to push back. The lengthy speech reached its peak when he condemned the violence in Rafah and called for an end to the genocide of Palestinians.
“No matter where you come from—whether you’re Palestinian, whether you’re an Israeli citizen, you’d want anybody to live in peace and security and safety. And that would mean seeing a Palestine free from occupation, a Palestine free from violence, and a Palestine free to pursue meaningful self-determination and statehood,” Hozier said, encouraging the crowd to reach out to their representatives about the issue. “As I said, I come from Ireland, Ireland has its own history with occupation, centuries and centuries now. And it was two communities coming together and saying, ‘You know what, peace is better,’ and looking at a political solution, a long-term political, peaceful solution. And that was a peace agreement that America was party to brokering as well, too, and it was a huge part of the American citizenship and the American administration was part of brokering that peace agreement, and as a result, I grew up in a peaceful Ireland.”
This was all a prologue to the Wasteland, Baby! track “Nina Cried Power,” which on that record features the singer and activist Mavis Staples. Hozier said Staples, who with her family band The Staple Singers became voices of the American civil rights movement, is an example of Irish revolutionary James Connelly’s quote that “no revolution was ever complete without its poetical expression.” Before concluding the night with his own poetical expression, he left the crowd with a call to action for “A revolution of love, a revolution of honest human witness, a revolution of kindness and radical inclusion that I think all of us would rather see in this world.”
44 Comments
I’m sure Hamas is right there onboard with the positive LGBTQ+ vibes, Hoze my man.
oh get fu©ked. Hamas’ anti LGBTQ+ stance is not, or ever will be, an excuse for the genocide of an innocent population. And you’re trying to use it as a justification by bringing it up here.
It’s Zod the Zionist – all that poor cunt has going for himself is that, thanks to a minor quirk of ethnicity, there’s a chance that he could move to a country where he’s not a massive loser – hence his hard-on for colonisation and genocide.
Not justifying anything. Merely pointing out the irony of drawing the line for the situation in Palestine using the battle for LGBTQ+ rights enroute to Hamas.
Absolutely justifying actions.
Zionists would rather talk about anything other than the war crimes being committed and the +30K civilians that have been murdered in the name of colonialism. So they will try to change the subject as quickly as possible.
How many Palestinian children would you like to see killed to punish Hamas? Wha’s the number? 20,000? 30,000? When the IDF drops tons and tons of bombs on crowded residential streets, on refugee camps, on ambulances… do you think the bombs somehow sense whether or not it’s killing someone who is LGBTQ or not? Do you know how transparently bigoted and stupid you sound with your WHAT ABOUT bullshit?
Like, say, what about: Ukraine? Where’s your outrage about those people who were killed, and continue to be killed? What about: Sudan?What about: Myanmar?What about: Uyghurs….China has killed how many?All war is horrible. The selective outrage however, is horseshit.
I’m Palestinian, you dumb motherfucker. I’m pissed about all the shit you listed, but I think I’m allowed to specifically be upset about ethnic cleansing and war crimes being committed against my people.Nice dodge by the way. How many dead kids would satisfy you? What’s the number?
First, hey, I’m sorry for everything you, your loved ones, and your friends are experiencing.Second, come on. Nobody wants dead kids. I don’t see an issue with someone not answering an obvious bad-faith question, because you’re either not seeing or pretending to not see that nobody is requiring “some number of dead kids to punish Hamas.” You can argue that Israel is specifically attempting to kill civilians as collective punishment…but if that was the case, I’d be expecting a hell of a lot more casualties than there are.
This is harder to talk about if we actually make an effort to understand and accurately describe other viewpoints, but surely that’s necessary to making any sort of societal headway akin to the accords that Hozier is referencing.Third, pre-emptively, I’m American and have no loved ones in war zones, so I completely understand and don’t take it personally if you’d rather I shove my views up my ass. I wish you the best.
No one wants dead kids? No one? What, exactly, do you think the goal is here for the IDF? To get hostages back? They killed 30,000 women and children to get 100 hostages back? They’re destroying farms and civilian infrastructure to capture and defeat Hamas? They’re blockading aid, why?“How many dead kids” is a fair question. It’s certainly far more pertinent to bring up than “what about LGBTQ rights” in this situation. Curious, were you going to reprimand OP for that as well, or did you keep your mouth shut? What about Palestinian LGBTQ being bombed to shit? What about infant mortality and deaths in childbirth in the camps? What about what about what about?I don’t need to be told you’re American. I know from your perspective you’re American. Palestinian lives do not matter to you, not as much as Western lives. You sincerely believe your perspective is reasonable but it is anything but. Before October 7th of last year, it was already the most lethal year for children in Gaza in history. Before October 7th. 20,000 civilians in Gaza had been over the past 20 years before October 7th. If you’re truly interested in another view, understand the IDF has been systematically perpetrating war crimes and an ethnic cleansing campaign for decades. It has been killing civilians, including children, for decades. “How many dead children” is a fair question of anyone seeking to justify a genocide.
Oh my god dude, fine, nobody sane wants dead kids. I am sure there are Isareli hard-liners who are crazy and obviously some folks on October 7 wanted dead kids very much, but the rank and file, average Israeli soldier is not getting all hopped up on the idea of murdering children and neither is the average Palestinian. I’m sorry that the conflict in the region has led to so much senseless loss of life. Anyway, again, I wish you the best.
Edit: sorry, I should address your direct questions. Saying “what about…” leads to an endless chain of “what abouts.” I am surrounded by Jews saying “what about October 7,” and then people yell at them “what about the Nakba” and then people yell at them “what about the Holocaust.” It is an awful, emotionally exhausting litany of pain, and it serves nobody.So no, I was going to ignore the dig about LBQT+ support in Palestine, and only address the assertion that one side of this conflict is consciously trying to murder children. For what it’s worth, I’ve had similar conversations with Jewish friends who just can’t understand why anyone would have any objection to IsRaEl DeFeNdInG iTsElF.
Wait, someone can’t mention Palestine without reciting a litany of other global issues? That’s ridiculous. If someone wants to discuss Ukraine, I don’t demand they discuss Uyghurs. Belief that discussing one topic at a time is invalid is crap. So I agree that selective outrage is bullshit; it’s a bullshit derailment tactic.
Ah come on , that is literally saying “oh you’re against genocide now , name all of them” and its a weak argument.
I mean…where’s *your* outrage about those things? Plus Palestine. You don’t seem to give a shit about any of it. Anyway, congrats on the username/comment synergy, though.
I can’t help but notice you never comment on anyon of those topics either.Is *your* selective outrage also horseshit.Or like everything… does consistency only matter for people you disagree with?
All those are bad but right now the only one that my government I actively directly funding is the genocide of the Palestinians. The difference is the majority of nations condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Chinese oppression of the Uyghurs. But many contries, including the US, are actively giving money to Israel and supporting them. And any criticism of Israel gets dismissed as antisemitism by many and ignored.
By your logic, protesting the Vietnam War was horseshit since they didn’t protest all the other wars going on at the same time. It should go without saying that protesting one war is reasonable. But your argument is one that Bill Maher makes so at least you’re not alone.
I tell ya, the funniest thing about this wall is watching you paw desperately for more and more hasbara as your last round of bullshit doesn’t get bought by those of us who aren’t genocidal fundamentalists.So, if you expect people to be as outraged as they are at Russians killing Ukrainians, or Chinese killing Uyghurs as they are at Israelis killing Palestinians…are you admitting that in Gaza occupation war that Israel is equivalent to China/Russia? It’s not the W you think it is. Well, if you’re Israeli – or, as I suspect it is in your case, an Israeli cosplayer – I suppose being compared to Russia is a point of pride. What with history being what it is, and where most of the Israelis come from. Maybe they should go back there. Oh, and if you’re looking to be outraged at a lack Ukraine, maybe check in with your handlers in Tel Aviv. After all, when Zelenskyy requested aid from Israel – you know, one Jewish leader seeking the aid of the national that proclaims itself to be the protector of all Jewish people – Bibi did nothing.
Does it not matter that Hamas is using those same children as human shields, hiding in tunnels beneath those same residential streets, as well as schools and hospitals? Does it not matter that Hamas is still holding hostages? Does it not matter that they’re still firing rockets into Israel, and have been for decades?
I find it all hopelessly depressing, but I wonder what else was Israel supposed to do? What would any other country on earth do if a coordinated force of hundreds of men invaded in order to rape and murder their way through the population for the better part of a day and kidnap hostages on their way out?
“Does it not matter that Hamas is using those same children as human shields”And the Netanyahu is happy to blast right through those human shields. No one is doing the right thing here.
“No one is doing the right thing here.”
Agreed. I don’t know that there IS a right thing here.
And we can all agree Netanyahu is undoubtedly making things worse, not better, and doing it for political and personal gain, in order to avoid his trial).
“I don’t know that there IS a right thing here.”Decolonize the land the Palestinians were driven out of. I’m not saying it’s not wholly unfortunate for the people who live there, the Israelis, but it was wrong to take it and it’s the right thing to do to give it back, or find some way to live together. Or at least let people out of fucking Gaza instead of keeping them imprisoned there.
I wonder what else was Israel supposed to do?They are supposed to be more civilized than the murderous terrorists that Hamas consists of, and make the effort to not kill children and refugees even when Hamas hides behind them. Israel has pissed away any sympathy that the world had for them in the weeks after Oct 7. Israel was once David, but now they’re Goliath.
And let Hamas continue to kill Israeli children?Listen to the stories of that Oct 7th attack. Watch the videos, if you can stomach it— I can’t. Would any country be able to restrain itself in response to that kind of brutality?
I’m not saying how they’re going about this is right, but it does seem like Israel gets held to a different standard than any other nation on Earth would be.
I’m well aware of the atrocities Hamas committed, but that can never justify committing atrocities in return. All countries are held to this standard. While some would have approved of the US indiscriminately carpet bombing, or even nuking, Afghanistan post-9/11 in an effort to eliminate Al Qaeda, that would have been an atrocity as well.
Oh the poor Israelis what are they supposed to do, not kill kids???Why do you think Hamas even exists? They just woke up one day, with a hard-on for murder? And where do you think they’re coming from? Thin air? You have an open-air prison, the most densely populated place on earth, under blockade for 20 years, housing an oppressed population. The Gazans are all concentrated there, in, you know, a camp. Their land has been stolen from them. They can hardly feed themselves. Their access to the sea, freedom of transportation, access to energy, even their freedom to collect rainwater, is all controlled by a nuclear-armed military with the full backing of the United States. Any secular leaders were assassinated in the 70s and 80s, leaving a power vacuum for the craziest and most violent motherfuckers to take power. And that’s exactly what happened. And when one of the occupiers decides to work towards a peace process, he gets assassinated by his own people, so scratch that. And then you have a very public and transparent strategy on the part of the Israeli right wing, the “help Hamas to help Israel” strategy, because they know if they squeeze the vice tight enough, eventually those crazy violent motherfuckers will lash out and then you have the excuse you need to level the place. What was Israel supposed to do? There’s actually precedent for this. The 2008 Mumbai attacks, when terrorists, almost certainly backed by Pakistani intelligence services, killed 175 innocent people and injured another 300. The Indian government responded with… restraint. And avoided a potential nuclear war.Curious, what would you have the Palestinians do? The overwhelming majority of whom had no hand in October 7, what were they supposed to do? What are they supposed to do now, besides die?
What would I have the Palestinians do?
They could give up each and every one of the bastards that committed Oct 7, for a start. And then forget the idea that Israel is going to somehow disappear. It’s not.
If you want to say that the creation of Israel was imposed on the Palestinians by Europeans who fucked things up more than usual by doing so (which is saying a lot), I won’t argue with you. But it’s here now, so the pointless dream of erasing it needs to end.Nor would I argue that Israel is blameless, either in how they are going about this war or for the decades prior. There’s a lot they’ve done wrong with regards to settlements and treatment of Palestine in general. And I agree completely that you can lay a lot of that at the hands of some pretty awful factions of Israeli politics and government that IS oppressive, colonial, and cynically calculating.
Yet it’s also worth noting why Hamas did this— because Saudi Arabia was about to normalize relations with Israel. They WANTED an invasion which would kill civilians, in order to torpedo those talks.It is a hopeless fucking mess, has been for a long time, and the Gazan civilians are all caught in the middle.
And I wouldn’t argue that there isn’t a better solution possible- I just don’t know what it is, except maybe engaging in some sort of Munich on steroids, where they individually hunt down all the men who participated in Oct 7th. But that would take years, and would allow Hamas to continue operating and gathering strength within Gaza in the meantime.
Finally, re: India’s restraint— I think you’re discounting some of the psychology here (to say nothing of the very real deterrent you mention of nuclear war, which is a pretty big complicating factor). Israel has been under constant attack virtually since its creation. And compare 175 people out of one billion to 1000 out of nine million. If the Mumbai attacks had killed over 100,000 people, you have to imagine the response would have been very different.
Are you sure you’re responding to the right comment? I never said anything about “erasing” Israel. No sane person is under the illusion that Israel is going to disappear. “Does Israel have a right to exist/Does Israel have a right to defend itself” is a disingenuous red herring to toss into any conversation when trying to justify ethnic cleansing. And yes, Hamas’ current motivations are crystal clear. Self-preservation and power. Fuck Hamas (and fuck the Saudis while we’re at it). Everything I am putting out here is from the perspective of/in defense of the civilian population of Gaza — a population that, given how young it is, did not vote Hamas into power almost 20 years ago and was trending towards disapproval of the Hamas regime leading up to October 7th. Innocent Palestinians are indeed caught in the middle of two ethnofascist regimes, one of which has purposely allowed the other to flourish. You say Palestinian civilians should hunt down Hamas. How? With what weapons? With what resources?
And by the way, why is the onus on the Palestinians? Should the Israeli population hunt down their own war hawks? The ones that have committed war crimes? Take matters into their own hands and dismantle illegal settlements in the West Bank? The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu — should Israelis perform a citizen’s arrest? The Palestinian people are continually asked to bend over backwards to rectify problems 1) they did not cause and 2) have next to no power of solving, while nothing is asked of the Israelis, who have all the power in the scenario. The solution is crystal fucking clear:Israel cede the land it seized during the 1967 invasion Dismantle the illegal settlements in the West BankTry war criminals on both sides of the conflict in the international court of law and hold them accountable Pour in aid and development to erase the poverty and powerlessness that has allowed thugs like Hamas to take control I will say the same thing I told another commenter who believed themselves to be reasonable and balanced in their perspective: your unconscious bias is showing. You cannot help it, we all have them, I have them. But know and be aware of it. Go back and read your own words: Israel has been under constant attack virtually since its creation. Apply that to the Palestinians. Palestine has been under constant attack since the creation of Israel. One side has nuclear weapons and the full backing of the US military. One has stones. Who has the power and by extension responsibility to fix this scenario? Who has the moral obligation? Who has the ability?
I find it all hopelessly depressing, but I wonder what else was Israel supposed to do?Not be a bunch of entitled Karens for the last century and an half would’ve helped. Does it not matter that Hamas is using those same children as human shields, hiding in tunnels beneath those same residential streets, as well as schools and hospitals?Define “human shields”. Because it’s not like the Palestinians have anywhere else to go – so, yeah, of course Palestinian civilians are gonna be within the blast radius of the 2000kg bombs Israel is using to remove suspected Hamas motorbikes or whatever. Dunno if you’re aware, but Gaza is less than half the size of Canberra, but with more than five times the amount of people in it.At any rate, it doesn’t matter, human shields or no, because the IDF will just drop bombs on designated refugee camps, anyway. Guess the US won’t fund building shower blocks and mixing up some Zyklon B. Does it not matter that Hamas is still holding hostages? Not to Netanyahu, no. Well, it does, in the fact that he’s willing to trade a hundred odd Israeli lives for his lifelong dream of genociding the Palestinians. He’s on the record for saying that, by the way. As with all authoritarians, his people are just their to be used him as he sees fit, and disposed as best serves his power.Most of them have been killed by Israel, by the way. Remember those three hostages who got away from the captors and walked out into the street, in their underwear, waving a white flag, shouting “Help” in Hebrew?
The IDF soldiers just shot them. Gotta have their martyrs, right? Can’t have Hamas seem even slightly reasonable by releasing hostages.Or, more likely, some 19-year-old chode from London who was doing his (or her) conscription believed he’d been ordained by God to do whatever they liked.By the way, Israel holds approximately 3600 Palestinians as de facto hostages in “administrative detention” – this is detainment without trial or charges; it’s just because Israel feels like it. It might be because some woman didn’t produce her identity documents quickly enough for an Israeli cop. It might be because some brother tried to defend his sister from getting gang-raped by a bunch of Michael Rapaports in IDF uniform. It might be because an old Bedouin shephard didn’t move out of the house that’s already been earmarked for a white family from Connecticut. Who knows? What would any other country on earth do if a coordinated force of hundreds of men invaded in order to rape and murder their way through the population for the better part of a day and kidnap hostages on their way out?Only a day? My, the Israelis got off lightly. The Palestinians have been going through that for over a century. Irgun, the Naqbas, decades of Apartheid. You should see what’s going on in Gaza now. See, a non-genocidal country that wasn’t run by a man who was raised from birth to ethnically cleanse non-Ashkenazim (they really don’t like Mizrahi, Sephardic, and Ethiopan Jews) from the land they stole, a civilised country, wouldn’t have pissed off those other people in the first place. I know Israel has hasbara’d this pretty long and hard, trying to get everyone to think that Palestine (and the West Bank) is Schroedinger’s Country: under Israeli control when they want to rape and pillage it (so everyone should shut up), but not under Israeli control when they have to take responsibility for it.See, despite what you think, what Israel is doing isn’t self-defence, in the same way that the FBI putting down Waco wasn’t self-defence: you can’t defend yourself from…yourself. Palestine and the West Bank are wholly and solely under Israeli occupation……which means Israel is 100% responsible for anything that happens in it, to it, or is done by it. The UN’s said so. Granted, Israel just shredded the UN charter on the floor of the UN, but still. Fact of the matter is, the same “right” Israel exercises when it arbitrarily declares 300 hectares in the West Bank Israeli state land (as it just did so yesterday, by the way) also means that they have responsibility for it. And the people in it.In short, every rocket that gets fired into Israel, every victim of October 7th, every poor widdle ex-Manhattan housewife who’s Tel Aviv yoga classes were interrupted by a siren? That’s 100% the fault of Israel. Do try to find news on the matter from non-American sources.
Not be a bunch of entitled Karens for the last century and an half would’ve helped.
Not sure how a country that has existed for less than 80 years can do anything for 150 years, but…Define “human shields”Setting up operations in schools and hospitals. The IDF didn’t force them to do that.
it’s not like the Palestinians have anywhere else to goYes, which is exactly why Hamas provoked the war. To have the massive humanitarian crisis that would result, and thus scuttle the talks with Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel.
Re: Bibi- I take absolutely no issue with calling him a war criminal, and I won’t argue his ideology either. He is prolonging this to avoid prosecution that’s already underway, and he has done just as much to scuttle peace in the country as anyone else even before Oct 7th.
Re: Israel’s control (or lack thereof). You have a better handle on the details of the situation than I do- but even with all of those things being true, a country cannot tolerate attacks like Oct 7th and continue to call themselves a country. Maybe you think Israel should cease to exist (the frankly disgusting Zyklon B reference makes me think it’s a distinct possibility you do believe that), but it’s not a realistic possibility.As I said in another comment, if you’re looking for someone who thinks Israel is blameless, now or for the last 20-30 years, it’s not me. ElectricSheep said it simply: No one is doing the right thing here.
Eh, give Bibi and his Torah Taliban mates time. They’re rather busy ethnically-cleansing at the moment. Don’t worry, after they obtain the Final Solution to the Arab question, I’m sure they’ll go after the gays and you’ll be even happier.
Disingenuous comment is disingenuous.You don’t care about LGBTQ people. You know we can see your comment history, right?
Zod speaks the inconvenient truth.
Nah
I mean no they dont , but also , maybe dont murder kids and bomb hospitals on the pretence that they’re hiding terrorists either.
As someone from Ireland as well I can tell you ‘whataboutery’ does nobody any good. And While Hamas are evil bastards the solution isn’t just ‘kill every Palestinian , and let God sort it out’ either , which is what the Israeli Gov seem to be doing.
I’m sure all the LGBTQ folks in Gaza are just loving what Israel is doing to ‘save’ them.
“We can never call for peace bc some people dont want it” is so blazing fucking stupid. Very on brand for you.
Yo, AVCLUB was actually at something and now there’s an article about it? Is it 2014?
I still remember the time they took a trip to Patton Oswalt’s house and pretended it was a new feature
Is it 2014?Well it’s an article about Hozier, so… yes! Hurry, we still have time to stop “Uptown Funk” !!
Hey, let’s just celebrate it and give credit where due. This is a good article!
Wow, sounds like a great show! Great write-up, too.
As a gay man I cannot tell you how offensive I find this. Palestinians murder gay people, and yet they are supporting them. This is going to hurt the gay movement. And the fact that Hozier is holding a concert supporting the same people who parachuted into a concerts to butcher hundreds of innocent people is disgusting.