Thinking of Leonard Cohen always makes me think of his best-known song, “Hallelujah”. And thinking of “Hallelujah” always makes me think of the one performance of it that didn’t raise the hairs on the back of my neck.
It was on the TV singing competition The X Factor a few years ago, and the performer was a young girl, 13 years old, with a beautiful clear voice. I loved her voice, and I love the song – but I didn’t love them together.
“Hallelujah” is not a song for the beautiful, clear voice of a young girl. It needs to rasp and burr and crack, to be a cold and, above all, a broken hallelujah. Its beauty is in its imperfection and its difficulty.
There are moments for perfect, clear, lyrical beauty, and there are moments to rasp and burr and crack.
This is what Leonard Cohen and that young woman taught me.
Originally shared by Writers Write
Songwriter and singer, Leonard Cohen
