“Falling Slowly” captured the magic of a cinematic storyline and a real-life romance all at once. The song, written and recorded by singer/songwriters Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, transcended the story behind its creation to become a romantic ballad for the ages, candid in its assessments on love’s pitfalls while hopeful for its potential to lift souls.
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The song, released in 2007, underwent a somewhat odd buildup before it finally received the mass exposure it deserved. Here is the story of how “Falling Slowly” captured our imaginations and our hearts in one fell swoop.
Once Upon a Time
Before John Carney made movies as a writer and director, he plied his trade as a bassist for the Irish rock group The Flames. It was then he made the acquaintance of Glen Hansard, the band’s lead singer and songwriter. And it was to Hansard that Carney turned when he underwent a filmmaking crisis.
The movie Carney was developing in mid-aughts centered on a street musician. Cillian Murphy, the Irish actor initially tabbed to play the part, changed his mind about appearing in the film. That’s when Carney thought of Hansard, who had acted in the music-based comedy-drama The Commitments many years before.
Carney’s film Once focused on the romance between this busker and an amateur teenage musician. Markéta Irglová, cast as the female lead, worked with Hansard on a few of the songs that would be featured in the film, including “Falling Slowly.” Before the movie came out, Hansard and Irglová formed an act they called The Swell Season, who also did a version of “Falling Slowly.”
None of this would have mattered if Once, which was filmed on a nothing budget and featured two relatively unknown leads who weren’t really actors by trade, faded into obscurity as one might have expected based on those hindrances. Instead, the movie became an immediate festival favorite. Hansard and Irglová began a romantic relationship in real life as well.
In a touching postscript to this tale, “Falling Slowly” stunned everyone by winning the Best Song award at the Oscars in 2008. Hansard spoke first in accepting the award, but before Irglová had her chance, the orchestra played over her as the show cut to commercial. Jon Stewart, hosting the show that year, began the next segment by bringing Irglová back out so she could give her remarks to rousing applause.
The Meaning Behind “Falling Slowly”
The music of “Falling Slowly” very much captures the nature of a slow-building relationship, starting quietly before progressing to fever-pitch harmonies by Hansard and Irglová . I don’t know you, but I want you / All the more for that, they sing, nailing the thrill of immediate attraction to a stranger and the possibilities inherent in that experience.
The two reach out for each other with impassioned abandon: Take this sinking boat and point it home / We’ve still got time / Raise your hopeful voice, you have a choice / You’ve made it now. The lyrics hint at a connection that’s preordained in some way: Falling slowly, eyes that know me / And I can’t go back.
A kind of innate empathy transpires between these two lost souls, as they strive to fill in each other’s missing pieces: Well, you have suffered enough / And warred with yourself / It’s time that you won. The song ends with a wish fittingly tied to the music that’s never far from the hearts of these two characters: Falling slowly, sing your melody / I’ll sing it now.
Hansard and Irglová eventually went their separate ways as a couple, but they continued to work together on occasion in future years. In any case, “Falling Slowly” was never about endings. It was all about beginnings, in all their redemptive, glorious promise.
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Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images
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