Hallelujah
 

This week I find myself interested in the singles chart for the first time since I was about 12. For those who arent aware, or for those who are outside of the UK the Leonard Cohen song 'Hallelujah' was chosen last week for this years X Factor finalists winners song. The X Factor is the standard God awful reality tv show we get every year, much like American Idol and pretty much guarantee's a Christmas #1 regardless of what song is chosen or who it is that wins it. However due to the winners song chosen this year there are now three versions of it in the top 40. The widweek charts place Alexandra Burke at #1 but Jeff Buckley at #3 and even Leonard Cohen at #34. I cant help but be slightly perplexed at having Leonard Cohen and Jeff Buckley in the Christmas chart, even if 90% of the rest of it is utter **** as always.

Surely this has never happened before? Has anyone heard this chicks version of this song? If i close my eyes I can almost hear Mariah Carey having a go at it she belts it out so loud. It sends shivers down my spine, and certainly not in a good way!

I have so far managed to avoid hearing it and i plan to keep it that way. It says a lot about our society that every year these idiots reach no1 at christmas

She sounds nothing like Carey.

Cohen sings it with feeling.
Buckley barely sings it with any feeling whatsoever.
Burke sings it with heart and soul. And vocally this is the best version there is.

Now I hate myself.

I think the song is over rated in the first place personally.

You just know this song is suddenly going to miraculously appear in those best songs of all time lists in rubbish magazines from now on.

Hallelujah! :(

The Buckley version already does, especially in the likes of Rolling Stone and Q etc

What I mean is the style in which she sings it. It just sounds far too big and too powerful. X factor bias aside for a moment it is the opposite of the reason I like the song to begin with. It always sounded best when done in a very intimate way to me. The smaller the better.

A bigger voice is better as far as these shows go.

I haven't heard it but while i like Jeff Buckley i'm not big on Hallelujah. Too overplayed i think.

Its frustrating as a Jeff Buckley fan to have his most well known (only well known?) song be a cover that has been covered by 17,000 other artists too but I still love it.

well I think Jeff Buckley's live performance on "Live at Sin-e" is the best version. but as mentioned before in this threat, it is a shame that it's his most well known song, cause he honestly has better songs, which he also wrote, and it's also a shame that the songwriter Leonard Cohen doesn't get the credit he deserves.

Personally I dont like the original. I like a few of the covers of it though. But do you really think he doesnt get the credit he deserves? Jeff Buckleys version is so popular that I'm sure there are people out there who dont know its a cover but I've never met a Buckley fan who didn't know that.

It's not exactly one of my favourite songs. Even Cohen's original (which I think is the best version) isn't exactly one of his best.

Cohen's is the most memorable, if not the best version. Buckley's is mostly forgettable and I like him the most between these 3 artists.
I've already said that Burke sings it best in my opinion, despite what the X-Factor knockers say.
But when I hear this song, even after hearing Burke on the radio for instance...in my mind I always hear Cohen singing it.
Thankfully, it's the only thing that stops it getting on my nerves through overplay.

I totally agree. Cohen has a lot of far better songs. And honestly, considering who wrote it, the lyrics really aren't that great. I don't know why people seem so obsessed with covering it.

Completely agree with you there. Buckley's is a bit of a throwaway (no idea why so many people idolise it). As for Burke's, I'm a bit of an X-Factor knocker myself, but she does sing it with a lot of heart and passion, so I'll give her that. Cohen's original is the only version I've heard which sounds like a properly-formed and thought-out song, and is a lot better for it.

Bit weird eh. I'd have thought a song like Suzanne or Story Of Isaac would suit being covered by countless artists a lot better.

i prefer halleluhwah

ba-da-boom

I think it's because people love to get all melodramatic with it. It's so easy to close your eyes and bellow out the crescendo of each and every verse. Even I've been guilty of that.