How Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ Became Unlikely to Be a Christmas Classic

If Leonard Cohen built a tower out of just one song, it was “Hallelujah” – the theme of the movie to be released in theaters in July, “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, Journey, Song.” This documentary is inspired by Alan Light’s critically acclaimed book, “The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & The Unlikely Ascent of” Hallelujah,” originally published in 2012 and re-released June 7 with substantial additions. Her Light brings the history of one of the most enduring songs of the twentieth century to its most influential years to date.

In this excerpt from then, exclusively for diverseLight explores some of the unexpected life the song “Hallelujah” has lived in recent years—from adapting it to a country song, focusing specifically on how it became a favorite choice for singers to include on their Christmas albums, as a holiday hymn… in stark contrast to The physical connotations that many associate with original words. (Pre-order the new edition of the Light book here.)

Our excerpt contains Light that captures the song’s story in the 2000s:

Hallelujah has continued to break into other musical genres. Country stars LeAnn Rimes, Brett Young, and Wynonna performed the song. The night after Leonard Cohen’s death was announced, Keith Urban played it alone, with his acoustic guitar, at a concert in Nashville. On his Facebook page, Urban posted the clip with the caption, “RIP Leonard. And thank you for being a vase of glory in the highest.” He repeated the song in “In Memoriam”—a variety style at his annual outdoor New Year’s Eve show in Nashville and posted another video of her playing alone in his living room.

Modern-day outlaw Eric Church—who won the Country Music Association’s 2020 Entertainment of the Year, won Album of the Year at both the CMA and Academy of Country Music Awards, and had seven country singles—was preparing for his 2016 Reed Runway debut. The legendary Rocks in Colorado when Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” appeared on his iPod. He decided he would take a chance to perform the song that night.

“I think it’s the most beautiful song ever written,” Church told filmmakers Dan Geller and Dina Goldfein. “I know some people find sexual undertones in it, but to me, it’s a soulful song. I think the great thing about the song, and what makes the song special, is your ability to attach so many different meanings from so many different people about the song. And they’re okay. No. None of them are wrong.”

Church describes his distinctive strong, emotional performance of song at Red Rocks—”I owned this place before I knew ya,” he exclaims—as one of the most memorable moments of his career. After this performance, he opened up the rest of the performances on the tour by playing an entire Buckley recording with a single spotlight on a microphone stand taking center stage. “Every night, the whole square sings the song,” he said. “I’ve never found anyone who said, ‘I just don’t understand the song’ or ‘I don’t think it applies to me.’ You can look at how many artists have covered the song, from all different genres, and you can quickly tell it’s just a timeless masterpiece.

“The thing about Hallelujah’s song is that every time you hear the song, you feel like something big has just happened. You don’t just hear the song and move on to the next. When you hear the word Hallelujah, you feel important.”

“Hallelujah” may not be the easiest for the country singer, but – given the genre’s relationship to storytelling, emotional expression, and even religious themes – it makes sense that he initially found his way into the canon.

Another tradition that somehow made room for the song is Christmas music. Although it was written, of course, by a Buddhist Jew, it is not the first time that a favorite music composer for a Christmas religion has come from a different religious tradition; Don’t forget that “White Christmas” was written by Irving Berlin. “Hallelujah”‘s first direct connection to Christmas came in 2010, when Susan Boyle included it on her holiday album “The Gift”, which reached number one on both the Billboard 200 and the UK’s official albums chart.

In 2015, violinist and singer Lindsey Stirling, who came to prominence on YouTube, released a version that reached number 81 on the Hot 100 and number 21 on the Holiday 100 (introduced in 2011) the following year; In the same year, German superstar Helen Fischer included the song on her popular album “Weihnachten”. (In 2014, a Christian rock band called Cloverton wrote some new words — opening with the lines “I heard about this little kid / Who came to earth to bring us joy” — and released the results as “A Hallelujah Christmas”; YouTube is filled with homemade covers of this version.)

Since 2016, however, the most popular version of “Hallelujah” on streaming services has come from Capella Superstar Pentatonix. Texas-based band Quintet won the NBC singing competition “The Sing-Off” and went on to win Grammys and release multiple albums certified gold and platinum. Their technically and emotionally flawless recording, which was included on the 2016 album “A Pentatonix Christmas,” has been broadcast 350 million times in the United States since its release, according to Nielsen Music. It reached number two on Billboard’s Holiday chart and returned to the chart in 2018 and 2019. “Hallelujah” also went to #1 on the Austrian pop charts and topped the top five in Germany and Hungary.

Christmas songs usually have some sort of reference to the actual holiday—or at least, in some way right next to Christmas, mentioning snow, winter, Santa Claus, or something that would specifically make the lyrics seasonal. Hallelujah doesn’t have any of these things. So why would a birthday song qualify or work at all? Billboard asked Scott Hoeing of Pentatonix about the song, and the most he could give was “when people hear it, they feel something.”

Hoying went on to present the lack of holiday content as an advantage. He said, “We were originally putting Christmas words into it, but we wanted to honor the poetic origin. It’s inclusive – people who don’t celebrate Christmas can enjoy it.”

And that’s certainly true, though it’s still strange that the lyrics of the mysterious and imagined song about sex and spirituality, “Hallelujah orgasm” by Jeff Buckley, resonate with anyone as synonymous with Christmas. (In a 2021 interview with the Dallas Morning News, Hoying admitted that I “don’t quite know what the words mean, but I’m pretty sure the song is about sex.”) In 2019, self-described Chris DeVille. “Christmas music lovers” responded to the ubiquitous pentatonics recording with a Stereogum.com slot titled “Hallelujah Not a Christmas Song.” Although he described the group as “hockey and saccharine the way only a cappella groups can be”, he acknowledged that they “are great at singing Christmas carols”. He noted that they had successfully introduced such “winter songs” as Fleet Foxes’ White Winter Hymn, Kanye West’s “Coldest Winter”, and Neighborhood’s “Sweater Weather” to their Christmas albums, but indicated their choices For the song Mariah Carey. / Whitney Houston duet “When You Believe,” frozenConquer the world “Let It Go” and especially “Imagine” as vacation choices.

In short, DeVille writes, “I can stick to some Pentatonix bullshit at Christmas reluctantly.” But their use of “Alleluia” is a step too far. He wrote, “Every time I listen to the Essential Christmas playlist on Apple Music, this is exactly what happens: I cruise along enjoying songs like Jingle Bell Rock,” “Santa Baby,” and “It’s Beginning to Look” a lot like Christmas ‘And ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’, this endlessly covered Leonard Cohen story of orgasm, heartbreak, and existential doubt comes to make me spit hot chocolate. . . .

It shares some reverent awe with some Christmas carols and poems, but constitutionally has nothing to do with Christmas. It exists on a different level.”

However, as we have seen time and time again, “Glory be to God” assumes the meanings that listeners find in it. There is no rationale for it to work as a Christmas carol. But the devotion and the strength that that choir represents, that melody, that feeling, somehow relates to the people in that context. If it happened once, maybe it was just a coincidence or a novelty, but the fact that he took on this role in the holidays speaks for itself over and over again. Like it or not, “Hallelujah” is also a Christmas song now.

From the book: Sacred or Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Improbable Rise of Alan Light’s ‘Hallelujah’. Copyright © 2012, 2022 by Alan Light, Published by Atria, imprint of Simon & Schuster. Reprinted with permission.

“Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song” screens as part of the Tribeca Film Festival on June 12, then opens to New York and LA concerts on July 1 before its wide release on July 8.

The newly expanded edition of “The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & Unlikely Ascent of” Hallelujah” arrived in libraries on June 7.