"Hallelujah" is a song written by Canadian singer Leonard Cohen, originally released on his album Various Positions (1984). Achieving little initial success, Many other arrangements have been performed in recordings and in concert, with more than 300 versions known as of 2008. The song has been used in film and television soundtracks and televised talent contests. "Hallelujah" experienced renewed interest following Cohen's death in November 2016 and re-appeared on international singles charts, including entering the American Billboard Hot 100 for the first time. In a writing session in New York's Royalton Hotel, Cohen is famously said to have been reduced to sitting on the floor in his underwear, filling notebooks, banging his head on the floor. Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, creators of the 2022 documentary film Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, said that Cohen took about five years to write the song, and reconfigured it numerous times for performances.
Unlike some other songs that became anthems, "Hallelujah" initially was on an album that was rejected by Columbia Records, was largely ignored after an independent label released it, was not widely Reflecting on the song's initial rejection, Cohen related that Columbia told him that "we know you are great, but don't know if you are any good".
Following his original 1984 studio-album version, Cohen performed the original song on his world tour in 1985, but live performances during his 1988 and 1993 tours almost invariably contained a quite different set of lyrics. Numerous singers mix lyrics from both versions, and occasionally make direct lyric changes; for example, in place of Cohen's "holy dove", Canadian-American singer Rufus Wainwright substituted "holy dark", while Canadian singer-songwriter Allison Crowe sang "holy ghost".
Musical composition and lyrical interpretation
"Hallelujah", in its original version, is in time, which evokes both early rock and roll and gospel music. Written in the key of C major, the chord progression of C, F, G, A minor, F matches those referenced in the song's famous first verse.
When at age 50 Cohen first recorded the song, he described it as "rather joyous", and said that it came from "a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way, but with enthusiasm, with emotion." Journalist Larry Sloman, who knew Cohen well and interviewed him often, citing an unidentified critic saying that Cohen was most interested in "holiness and horniness".
Cohen's lyrical poetry and his view that "many different hallelujahs exist" is reflected in wide-ranging covers with very different intents or tones, allowing the song to be "melancholic, fragile, uplifting [or] joyous" depending on the performer: Crowe interpreted the song as a "very sexual" composition that discussed relationships;
Canadian singer k.d. lang said in an interview shortly after Cohen's death that she considered the song to be about "the struggle between having human desire and searching for spiritual wisdom. It's being caught between those two places." Former Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page, who sang the song at Canadian politician Jack Layton's funeral, described the song as being "about disappointing [other] people".
The song was the subject of a 2012 book, The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of 'Hallelujah; author Alan Light said that Cohen's "approach to language and craft feel unlike the work of anybody else. They sound rooted in poetry and literature because he studied as a poet and a novelist first."
Charts
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{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="text-align:center"
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!Chart (1985–2016)
!Peak<br />position
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! scope="row"| Australia (ARIA)
| 59
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! scope="row"| France (SNEP)
| 1
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! scope="row"| Italy (FIMI)
| 66
|-
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! scope="row"| New Zealand Heatseekers (RMNZ)
| 1
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
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! scope="row"| US Billboard Hot 100
| 59
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|}