Hallelujah on UK X-Factor (all threads merged here)

[Paula]

Dharma - I agree with you and if the winner is a female I agree even more. I have not been watching X-Factor I watched it for the first time on Saturday and I thought only two of them were any good and one of the ones I liked was voted off.

I don't like the idea of an X-Factor singing the song but more to the point it sticks in my throat that Leonard will not be getting any money from it.

[John Etherington]

I think that Leonard's promoters should rush out a four track "maxi-single" CD featuring the best live recording of "Hallelujah" that they have from the present tour, the original version from "Various Positions", the version from "Cohen Live" plus bonus track "Silent Night" from Brighton in 1970 something. This should hopefully attract more than a little attention!

All good things, John E

[margaret]

I think that Leonard's promoters should rush out a four track "maxi-single" CD featuring the best live recording of "Hallelujah" that they have from the present tour, the original version from "Various Positions", the version from "Cohen Live" plus bonus track "Silent Night" from Brighton in 1970 something. This should hopefully attract more than a little attention!

All good things, John E

What a great idea! I hope there is time to release something like this to counteract the X Factor version.

Margaret

[Paula]

Good idea John. Especially if they included Silent Night.

Jarkko it is that time of year again.

[subtle]

On the Word Magazine's website:
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/c ... action-now
People debating one person's suggestion that everyone download Leonard's version so that THAT goes to number 1 instead!

If you're not familiar with it, The Word is a very fine magazine for music fans, especially those of us over "a certain age".

I subscribe, despite living on the other side of the planet.

Their weekly free podcast, which is on iTunes, last week included praiseful discussion of last week's London concert.

Nick

This is a great idea - I know the chavtastic X- factor plebiscite will probably carry the day for their candidate but at least it would create a buzz around Leonard and if coming in at number two turns a few more people onto him that would be great.

Does anyone know if Leonard will make anything from the royalties of Hallelujah - or is that another area where he was robbed by his ex-manager?

[sebmelmoth2003]

on saturday or sunday evening at 23.40 hours onwards clive bull led a discussion about the x-factor x-mas record.

clive said he'd never heard of hallelujah.

subsequent listeners enlightened him - some saying it was a "beautiful song by jeff buckley which would be ruined by diana"; others saying it was a favourite song from the Bible - Saul. a listener from maryland phoned in to sing her rendition.someone else said it was "beautifully sad" and it had been sung in the movie SHREK 1 during a marriage scene.

unfortunately anyone wanting to hear the discussion will have to pay :

podcast "There's a squirrel in my roof, what am I gonna do?- 1 Dec 08"

http://lbc.audioagain.com/

http://www.lbcradiorocks.com/clive-bull.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek_(film_series)

[scorp]

gr8 story here, just published:

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/feature ... 4750049.jp

[osmachar]

I don't watch the X-Factor, but I can't imagine this singer to do the song any worse than the existing (awful) cover versions.

If anyone hears it and becomes interested in the 'real thing' it's not so bad, is it.

[osmachar]

oooops...just watched her on You Tube - she was B A D.

But hey, I guess everyone can murder the songs they choose.

[Actaion]

I don't like the idea of an X-Factor singing the song but more to the point it sticks in my throat that Leonard will not be getting any money from it.

why not? Did he sell the rights?

[somewhat_nifty]

I think it's horrible that the X Factor is releasing this as the winner's song. After seeing Leonard perform it amazingly a couple of weeks back it's depressing that the next time I'll hear it sung, it will have been bowdlerised and be performed by a teenager (assuming one of the two favourites wins) It would be fantastic if they released one of Leonard's versions from the tour, there's currently all sorts of campaigns to get Jeff Buckley's version to number one - I don't even like that one, but anything's better than the X Factor - but Leonard's version being successful would be ideal.

[Tony]

Do I detect a faint trace of musical snobbery here?

[osmachar]

How do we know who will win though? It's not finished yet, is it.

[Paula]

Hi Actiaon - I think, and someone will correct me if I am wrong, the only royalties he gets are from Ten New Songs onwards.

The sole reason for him going back on tour was to replenish his pension fund. His ex manager managed to sell, behind his back, all the copyrights to songs prior to that and that would include Hallelujah.

I don't know about the technicalities but someone said he had retained the performing rights.

[MarieM]

X Factor Hallelujah: Simon Cowell takes on Leonard Cohen
Posted By: Neil McCormick at Dec 1, 2008 at 14:50:43 [General]


Can a great song survive anything? We may be about to find out, as Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' is put to the ultimate test: to be covered by the X Factor winner (whoever they may be) as the nation's likely Christmas number one.

Leonard Cohen and the X Factor is not an obvious union. For one thing, if Cohen himself had ever auditioned, he clearly wouldn't have got past the first round. One can only imagine Simon Cowell's withering contempt for Cohen's bassy, fragile and idiosyncratic vocal style. The fact that he is acknowledged as one of the greatest and most poetic songwriters of all time would be no defence. Can he sing an ABBA medley, that is far more to the point.

'Hallelujah' is such a beautiful and rich song it has been recorded and performed by over 100 different artists in a dozen different languages, including versions by Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Bono, Bon Jovi, John Cale, KD Lang, Rufus Wainwright, Damien Rice, Regina Spektor, Imogen Heap and, most famously, tragic guitarist Jeff Buckley, who described his swooning, operatic take as "the hallelujah of the orgasm". Just the thing for hormonally charged 15-year-old Eoghan Quigg then. Perhaps they should bring Cohen in as an adviser in a special session to illuminate the lyric for the finalists. "This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled," Cohen once explained. "But there are moments when we can transcend the dualistic system and embrace the whole mess and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah'." Cohen does, however, have a simpler theory for its universal appeal. "It's got a good chorus."

Strangely, this gospel tinged ballad of desire and rejection, love and sex, God and man, failure and transcendence, the struggle of life, inevitability of death and triumph of the spirit against the greatest odds actually appears to be something of a Cowell favourite. Not only has it turned up in performance by contestants on American Idol, his poperatic quartet Il Divo have also recorded their own version on their new album, 'The Promise'. Has the X Factor svengali got hidden depths? Or is there a more prosaic answer? Perhaps Cowell actually thinks the song is about him. After all, a key line is "you don't really care for music, do ya?"

Maybe it really is a perfect match.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/neil_mccor ... nard_cohen