Leonard Cohen

Canadian singer, songwriter and poet (1934–2016)

OverviewAI-generated

Leonard Norman Cohen was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, street artist, and novelist born in Montreal. He was educated at McGill University, Columbia University, and Westmount High School. Cohen was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction, the Glenn Gould Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Literary Prize. His notable works include the albums *Songs from a Room*, *Various Positions*, *Old Ideas*, and *The Future*.

Cohen’s voice type was bass-baritone and baritone, and he spoke French and English. He was affiliated with Columbia Records and his music is categorized under genres such as blues rock, contemporary folk, and folk. He is recognized in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame collection. Cohen’s children include Adam Cohen, and his religious or worldview affiliations included Judaism and Buddhism.

Synthesized by Vinony from 47 facts across 10 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Wikiquote, Firecrawl, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 21 September 1934
Died: 7 November 2016
Works: 98

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Sound · Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Leonard Norman Cohen, CC GOQ (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer, songwriter, poet, novelist, and painter. His work mostly explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships.[2] Cohen was inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was a Companion of…

Known for

Proust Palimpsesto: Pastiches e Misturas — Self (archive footage) (uncredited)2026
Leonard Cohen: If It Be Your Will — Self2024
Leonard Cohen: The Bird on a Wire Concerts2024
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song — Self2022
Canadian Hits at the BBC — Self2021
Symphony Of The Invisible — Self (voice)2020
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love — Self (archive footage)2019
Tower of Song: A Memorial Tribute to Leonard Cohen — Self (archive)2018
Popular Voices at the BBC — Self (archive footage)2017
Omega — Self2016

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: Canada
Active from: 1934
Active to: 2016

blues rockcomposerscontemporary folkfictionfolkfolk rock

Discography

Official site Discogs Stream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 2,145,056
Total plays: 87,379,629

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

A power primer.
· 1992 · cited 41,582x
A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research
· 1985 · cited 35,648x
A Coefficient of Agreement for Nominal Scales
· 1960 · cited 31,970x
A Global Measure of Perceived Stress
· 1983 · cited 25,826x
Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation
· 1990 · cited 23,858x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“And you kissed me shy as though I'd never been your lover”
“Rust rust rust in the engines of love and time”
“Although only one man may be receiving the favors of a woman, all men in her presence are warmed. That's the great Generosity of women and the great generosity of the Creator who worked it out is that there are no unilateral agreements on sexuality.”
“God is alive. Magic is afoot. God is alive. Magic is afoot. God is afoot. Magic is alive. Alive is afoot. Magic never died. God never sickened. Many poor men lied. Many sick men lied. Magic never weakened. Magic never hid. Magic always ruled. God is afoot. God was ruler though his funeral lengthened. Though his mourners thickened Magic never fled...”
“It was only when you walked away I saw you had the perfect ass. Forgive me for not falling in love with your face or your conversation.”
“Only in Canada could somebody with a voice like mine win 'Vocalist of the Year'.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Official website

The Official Leonard Cohen Site

leonardcohen.com →

Link to the official site · 5,872 chars · not written by Vinony

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, social and political conflict, sexual and romantic love, desire, regret, and loss. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. In 2011, he received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize. In 2023, Rolling Stone named Cohen the 103rd-greatest singer of all time.

Cohen pursued a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s, and did not begin a music career until 1966. His first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), was followed by three more albums of folk music: Songs from a Room (1969), Songs of Love and Hate (1971) and New Skin for the Old Ceremony (1974). His 1977 record Death of a Ladies' Man, co-written and produced by Phil Spector, was a move away from Cohen's previous minimalist sound.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Leonard Cohen” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.