Today we wake up to the news that Canadian singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen has sadly died, aged 82, making him the latest in an increasingly long line of legendary musicians we've lost over the past year, inlcuding Prince and David Bowie.
Announced in the early hours of this morning on his Facebook page, Cohen passed away peacefully at his home in Los Angeles - and that the city will play host to a memorial service in the near future. His famously devoted fans are already laying flowers and lighting memorial candles outside Cohen's home in his native Montreal in Canada.
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was one of the first world figures to release a statement in tribute to Cohen.
"It is with deep sorrow that I learned today of the death of the legendary Leonard Cohen," Mr Trudeau said. "He will be fondly remembered for his gruff vocals, his self-deprecating humour and the haunting lyrics that made his songs the perennial favourite of so many generations.
While Cohen released his first studio album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, in 1967, the singer/songwriter started out as a poet during his formative years at McGill University in Montreal - a medium he continued to experiment with throughout his career as a musician.
However, he will perhaps be best remembered for writing the song "Hallelujah", which has become one of the most covered tracks in history. Released on his 1984 album Various Positions, estimates suggest that over 300 different versions of the song have been recorded in various languages with different combinations of the original 80 verses Cohen penned. Perhaps the most famous versions are those by Jeff Buckley (1994) and Rufus Wainwright (2003), but there have been many others. In the three decades since its original release, varied artists such as Regina Spektor, Willie Nelson, Susan Boyle, Tim Minchin, Bono, Bon Jovi, Alexandra Burke and Bob Dylan have all sung the song during their careers either as singles, album tracks or during live performances - proving that Cohen has enduring appeal that will surely continue even though the man himself might be gone.
