Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen was born on 21st September 1934 Montreal, Canada.

For over 60 years he has been known for his works across the creative spectrum across music, poetry, English literature and songwriting.

After winning the McNaughton Prize in creative writing in 1955, Leonard Cohen wrote the novels “The Favourite Game” and “Beautiful Losers” before he found himself involved in performing and recording folk music.

His first album Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967) was received well, but subsequently after signing to Columbia Records in 1968, Leonard Cohen went onto produce a number of albums which were not as successful.

During the ‘80s, Leonard Cohen wrote the rock musical rock film Night Magic and performed at various festivals and appeared in the series Miami Vice. In 1987 his friend and American diva somewhat revived Cohen’s career by releasing a cover album of Cohen tracks, “Famous Blue Raincoat”.

In the ‘90s, other well known stars such as REM, Nick Cave and Lloyd Cole helped to revive the love of Cohen’s songs with other covers.

In 2008, Leonard Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and throughout the 2000s he remained mainly out of the public’s eye. An extremely private person, Leonard Cohen also spent many years at a Zen Buddhist monastery which was reflected in his music.

One of his most well known hits is the spiritual “Hallelujah” track which has been covered many times since it was first made.