Conor Skehan: Now Hozier is at No 1 in the US, our soft power can get us to the top too

Bray’s Hozier is Number One on the US Billboard chart. Photo: Scott Legato

Conor Skehan

Ireland contains only 0.06pc of the total world population. This is smaller than tiny. In chemistry it might be regarded as a barely detectable “trace element”. How do we reconcile this with last week’s achievement of singer-songwriter Hozier’s song Too Sweet reaching number one on the US Billboard Chart? Is this a random fluke or is it part of a pattern?

Numbers put this achievement in context. Globally, on Spotify, there are more than 82 million songs from more than 11 million performers listened to by 574 million monthly active listeners. Nobody knows how many hopeful rock bands there are in garages across the US, though their annual market for guitars is in excess of 2.5 million instruments.