In his poetry and song, freedom often manifests as violence visited upon another, especially in a complicated romance. While demonstrating culturally liberal values, especially around sex, CohenвЂ™s work is also steeped in the simmering violence and stern order of Cold War liberalism. But what has never been fully appreciated is how the politics of CohenвЂ™s time shaped his sensibility. That CohenвЂ™s work makes frequent political references is clear from just a glance at his catalogue, with songs like вЂњThe PartisanвЂќ and вЂњDemocracy.вЂќ And Cohen has long served a semi-official state function in Canada, receiving every possible honour, it seems, from the Governor GeneralвЂ™s Award, to the Order of Canada, to a place on postage stamps. вЂњHallelujahвЂќ has become an anthem for the failure of the liberal order. This is undoubtedly consoling, but as a political performance-say when sung by a Hillary Clinton impersonator-it treats political failure as inevitable and even, because of the pleasure involved, righteous. One can make too much of the lyrics, but the use of вЂњHallelujah,вЂќ usually for public mourning, reinforces its message about turning a negative into a positive. The lyrics describe a love-struck singer who aspires to be like King David, but finds himself conquered instead: вЂњShe tied you to a kitchen chair / She broke your throne, and she cut your hair /And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah.вЂќ The songвЂ™s kinky logic turns pain into pleasure, a defeat into transcendence. MacleanвЂ™s praises the song as вЂњpop musicвЂ™s closest thing to a sacred text.вЂќ The song is also, if you pay attention, about sex and power. Leonard Cohen himself had died that election night.ДЄpart from its beautiful melody, the appeal of вЂњHallelujahвЂќ lies in its hymnal qualities that donвЂ™t stray too far from the secular. In what must be its weirdest cover ever, Kate McKinnon of Saturday Night Live sang вЂњHallelujahвЂќ costumed as Hillary Clinton the weekend after her loss in the 2016 presidential election. President Joe BidenвЂ™s inaugural ceremonies for victims of COVID-19. More recently, the song was performed at U.S. lang sang it to a global audience of three billion. At the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, k.d. In 2001, Jeff BuckleyвЂ™s cover played repeatedly on VH1 over images of the September 11 th attacks as a memorial. It also has become a go-to for sombre occasions. вЂњHallelujahвЂќ has been featured on television and film soundtracks from Shrek, to The X-Factor, to The Watchmen. CohenвЂ™s biographer Sylvie Simmons estimated in 2012 that the song had been covered by more than 300 artists, a number likely much higher now. Few songs become вЂњstandardsвЂќ these days, but Leonard CohenвЂ™s вЂњHallelujahвЂќ is one of them.

Second age total war