But with his sudden passing and my affection for him and his work, I wanted to briefly write about what his music taught me about loneliness and belonging. The film later became a Tony Award-winning musical which opened on Broadway in 2012 and introduced Hansard’s music to a much larger audience. By the end of the night, it no longer felt like thousands of strangers in an auditorium. Durkheim had a word for the feeling that runs through Once and much of Hansard’s music: anomie. 15 years later, thousands gather outside the Gaiety Theatre on Christmas Eve because one person came back.