HALLELUJAH
“Hallelujah” is a song written by Canadian recording artist Leonard Cohen, originally released on his album Various Positions (1984). Achieving little initial success, the song found greater popular acclaim through a cover by John Cale, which inspired a cover by Jeff Buckley. In 2004, k.d. lang recorded a version of “Hallelujah” on her album Hymns of the 49th Parallel. She has since sung it at several major events, such as at the Canadian Juno Awards of 2005, where it “brought the audience to its feet for a two-minute ovation”. Lang also sang it at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, before a claimed TV audience of three billion. (More from Wikipedia)
Over her career, k.d. lang has collaborated with many prominent musicians from Roy Orbison, to Dwight Yoakam, to Tony Bennett, to fellow Canadian artist Anne Murray. She first came to prominence during a performance at the closing ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary; in 2010, k.d. lang performed Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
(January 2014)
