The Best Covers Of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah Ranked

People have been arguing about the meaning of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" since it was first released in 1984. As noted in Rolling Stone, with it's slow melody and a prayer-like structure, the song somehow brilliantly mixes Bible references and religious imagery, sexual innuendo, and a literal description of its own chord structure. The song morphs in real-time as you listen to it. One moment it's a spiritual exploration, the next it's a song about tragically lost love, and then it suddenly becomes a sharp, sarcastic takedown of faith.

Written and released when Cohen's career was at a low ebb (his previous two albums had not been successful, and his record label considered not even releasing the album "Various Positions"), "Hallelujah" didn't make much of a splash upon release. In fact, it took four years for the song to get some attention. Unsurprisingly, it was another brilliant songwriter who rescued "Hallelujah" from obscurity — Bob Dylan began covering the song on his 1988 tour. Eventually other musicians took a swing at this modern classic, and in 1994 the late, great Jeff Buckley released a version that has become definitive — in part because it has served as the template for countless reality singing show performances ever since.

All those cover versions made "Hallelujah" into the pop culture fixture it is today. There are literally hundreds of cover versions of the song out today — but some are clearly better than others. Here are the best covers of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," ranked.

Ed Sheeran has never recorded a studio version of "Hallelujah," but that just makes his performance of the song at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg in 2011 more remarkable. It appears to be a song he performs simply because he loves it, and because it fit the mood of the performance. As noted by The Detroit Free Press, there's a lot of serendipity in this performance, including a mic echo that enhances Sheeran's cracking, emotional vocal. And Consequence reports that the venue was a lot more intimate than Ed Sheeran is used to these days: There were fewer than 1,000 people in the crowd when he took the stage, making this an ideal moment for a touching, emotional moment.

Sheeran's arrangement is slow and simple, with just a guitar for accompaniment. The tone is sad and emotional. But what makes this performance one of the best covers of "Hallelujah" is Sheeran himself— he's such a charming and unaffected singer that he disappears into the emotion of the song, lost for those four minutes in Leonard Cohen's brilliance. According to The Wrap, this has become one of Sheeran's most popular cover songs, and it's easy to see why people have embraced the performance so passionately.

On the surface, Neil Diamond doesn't do anything special with his cover of "Hallelujah." The arrangement is fairly traditional, and he doesn't put any obvious twists or innovations into his vocal. Sure, Diamond is a legend and any vocal performance is going to be great, but there's no trick here. He just lays down a faithful cover version.

But as The Forward notes, Diamond has always been a bit of a showy singer, and his restraint on this cover is what makes it so intense. Newsweek gets to the core of what makes this cover version so powerful despite its lack of innovation: Diamond's age. Leonard Cohen was 50 years old when he wrote "Hallelujah," and the song is infused with a world-weary sense of loss that only someone with some years under their belt can really convey. Diamond was 69 when he released this song, and his vocal is gravel-filled and weighed down by years, making it a perfect match for Cohen's smart, mature lyrics. We've gotten used to hearing fresh-faced kids on reality shows sing this banger, but Diamond's willingness to let his voice sound his age on this version gives it a lot more power.

These days, seeing a contestant on a singing competition perform "Hallelujah" is nothing new — in fact, it's pretty much a cliché at this point. But back in 2008 when Jason Castro performed the song on "American Idol" it wasn't yet the most obvious of moves. In fact, as noted by Sputnik Music, Castro's performance pushed Jeff Buckley's all-time classic cover version of the song to the top of the iTunes charts — a huge deal at the time, and clear evidence of both "Idol's" power and the subdued greatness of Castro's version. According to USA Today, Castro's performance pushed sales of Buckley's version from 2,500 copies the week before to 178,000 copies.

In fact, Castro made such an impression with the song the phenomenon of reality contestants performing the song can basically be traced to his simple, stripped-down cover. As noted by International Business Times, the success of Castro's performance led an "Idol" judge to encourage contestants on all his music-related shows to choose the song.

It's easy to see why this performance had so much impact. Not only was "American Idol" still a powerhouse back in those days, but according to EW, Castro's cover is "heartfelt" and "gorgeous." What really made it stand out was the contrast to the usual reality show performance, which tended to be loud and dramatic. Castro's decision to be quiet and thoughtful was a risk at the time — and it paid off.

Rufus Wainwright's original performance of "Hallelujah" is a conscious and deliberate attempt to mimic John Cale's influential version of the song. As reported by Spinditty, Cale's version of the song was used in the film "Shrek" in 2001, but contractual difficulties prevented that version from appearing on the film's soundtrack recording. Producers asked Wainwright to record a very similar version to fill the gap, and he agreed. The Forward notes that this wasn't a totally successful gambit: Many fans of the film purchased the soundtrack looking for Cale's version and were outraged to find Wainwright's instead.

Wainwright's version on the "Shrek" soundtrack is fine — but as noted by NME it's the version he performed with Choir! Choir! Choir! in 2016 that is truly remarkable. Performing a stripped-down acoustic version of the song and backed by 1,500 singers — yes, 1,500 — this version is uniquely powerful and undeniably epic. There is simply no other cover version that comes close to its sound and power. 

Newsweek notes the impact of Wainwright's version goes beyond the artistic — its inclusion on a soundtrack aimed at younger audiences introduced the song to them just as singing reality show contestants began to adopt it as their own, creating a feedback loop that transformed the song that crossed across generations.

k.d. lang recorded "Hallelujah" for her 2004 album "Hymns of the 49th Parallel," and it's a beautiful rendition of the song. As Happy Mag notes, lang leans into the swaying rhythms of the song more than any other singer has. The result is a powerful emotional effect. Where most covers of the song are muted and tragic, lang sings it like someone finally letting all their emotions after years of keeping them bottled up, which is a terrific way to interpret Cohen's lyrics. As Newsweek notes, lang's version of the song owes a lot to John Cale's arrangement — but the vocal performance that "is smooth and fluid as it slides up and down the scales, but never soulless" is what makes it so incredible.

But as great as lang's studio version is, it's the rendition she gave at Cohen's induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame that truly stands out. The Forward reports that lang's passionate performance wowed Leonard Cohen himself, as well as his partner and musical collaborator Anjani Thomas. Thomas was quoted as saying "We looked at each other and said ... 'it's been done to its ultimate blissful state of perfection.'" When Leonard Cohen himself thinks you've perfected his song, the cover cannot be ignored.

Jeff Buckley's 1994 cover of "Hallelujah" is an all-time classic. It's not just a gorgeous rendition of a terrific song; it's also one of the rare covers that re-introduced a song to the public. Before Buckley's version, the song was beloved by a small population of fans. After Buckley's version, the song became the pop standard that everyone knows.

Buckley owes a debt to John Cale's version, which Cale recorded for his 1991 album "I'm Your Fan." As noted by USA Today, Cale's album didn't sell particularly well, but a copy was purchased by a woman living in Brooklyn — who hired an unknown Jeff Buckley to house-sit for her, exposing him to Cale's version, which inspired his own classic take. Cale had already stripped the song down to its passionate core, giving Buckley the room to transform it into the aching, staggered dirge on his album.

Newsweek gets to the core of what makes this cover so amazing. Buckley "deconstructs" the song, crafting an arrangement that's sparse even compared to other sparse arrangements. It takes the song almost a minute to firm up and coalesce as his guitar swirls about in the beginning, and his vocal trembles with emotion. It's an unforgettable performance that builds on the covers that came before to finally bring the song to near perfection.