Leonard Cohen’s career had reached a low point when he wrote “Hallelujah.” It was 1984, and he had been out of the spotlight for quite a long time. The execs at the record company didn’t think “Hallelujah” to be anything special. Bob Dylan was one of the first to recognise its brilliance, playing it at a couple of shows in 1988, then Jeff Buckley covered it on his 1994 album, Grace. It was that version that eventually created a huge cult around the song, and it’s since been covered by everybody from Bono to Bon Jovi. It’s far and away Cohen’s most famous composition.

Cohen said of the meaning behind the words: “This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can… reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that’s what I mean by ‘Hallelujah’. The song explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value. It’s a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way but with enthusiasm, with emotion.”

It took five years for Cohen to write his most famous song. He declared that he spent the nights filling the notebook pages, desperate because he wasn’t able to finish it. He wrote about 70-80 stanzas.

Jesus surely would have sung this song, perhaps even on the cross had he the breath, for it is a glorious ‘Amen’ to life, despite of, or perhaps because of, all its ups and downs.

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