Ahead of Donald Trump’s rally kicking off the Great American State Fair on Wednesday night (June 24) to celebrate 250 years of the United States, the Leonard Cohen estate posted its objection to the planned use of the late singer/songwriter’s “Hallelujah” at the Washington, D.C., event.
Despite the objections, however, the song was still used at the rally.
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“The Leonard Cohen Estate has learned that the song ‘Hallelujah’ is to be performed at a Donald Trump rally on June 24,” a statement posted to Cohen’s Instagram account reads. “This use is not authorized, and the Estate does not support or approve of this or any similar usage.”
The statement ends with a tongue-in-cheek nod to one of Trump’s favorite social media sign-offs, simply stating: “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
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But it looks like no attention was paid: As shared in video from the event, Long Island opera singer Christopher Macchio joined forces with the Marine Band’s Master Gunnery Sgt. Kevin Bennear to perform the 1984 song, complete with a B-2 bomber flyover ahead of Trump hitting the stage.
This is hardly the first time Cohen’s beloved song has been covered. In fact, the Recording Industry Association of America says “Hallelujah” has been performed by more than 300 singers across multiple languages and decades, including high-profile versions by Jeff Buckley on his 1994 album Grace, Rufus Wainwright for the 2001 Shrek soundtrack, and Pentatonix putting a holiday spin on it for 2016’s A Pentatonix Christmas.
Before Cohen’s 2016 death, he had reacted to the song’s multitude of covers in a 2009 interview with The Guardian, saying, “I was reading a review of a movie called Watchmen that uses it, and the reviewer said, ‘Can we please have a moratorium on “Hallelujah” in movies and television shows?’ and I kind of feel the same way. I think it’s a good song, but too many people sing it.”
