Leonard Cohen may become the first songwriter ever to occupy the top 2 spots of the singles chart in the UK with the same song.
Midweek charts are suggesting that Cohen’s own version of ‘Hallelujah’ and the more contemporary Jeff Buckley version could be the number one and number two songs in Britain next week.The phenomenon has occurred because the song was sung on the X Factor final last week. Alexandra Burke, who sang the song, is expected to win the contest.
Since last week’s show, the song has been downloaded in Britain more than 150,000 times.
74-year Cohen first released the song in 1984 for his ‘Various Positions’ album. Jeff Buckley’s cover version was on his 1994 album ‘Grace’.
Cohen’s song has been recorded by various artists including k.d. lang more than 170 times.
It took Cohen more than a year to write the song. He once said ‘I filled two notebooks and I remember being in the Royalton Hotel, on a carpet in my underwear, banging my head on the floor and saying ‘I can’t finish this song’.
‘Hallelujah’ is broadcast every Saturday night at exactly 2am by Israel Defence Force radio.
Meanwhile, a second Sydney show for Leonard Cohen was announced today. He will perform at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on January 29.
