Leonard Cohen

Canadian singer, songwriter and poet (1934–2016)

OverviewAI-generated

Leonard Norman Cohen (1934–2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, novelist, and street artist born in Montreal. He was educated at Westmount High School, McGill University, and Columbia University. Cohen spoke French and English and practiced Judaism and Buddhism. His musical career included work with Columbia Records, featuring genres such as folk rock, rock music, and spoken word. He played guitar, piano, and voice, possessing a bass-baritone and baritone vocal range.

His notable works include the albums *Songs from a Room*, *Various Positions*, *Old Ideas*, and *The Future*. Cohen received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Glenn Gould Prize, and the Princess of Asturias Literary Prize. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was recognized in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame collection. He was influenced by Federico García Lorca and had one child, Adam Cohen.

Synthesized by Vinony from 42 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Firecrawl, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

In the Vinony graph

Leonard Cohen is indexed among the 410 entries in Vinony's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame collection. It also appears in American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Within Vinony's link graph, Leonard Cohen is referenced by 2,875 other articles, and connects out to The Dave Clark Five, Order of Canada and Westmount.

It sits within the topics 1934 births, 2016 deaths and 20th-century Canadian male singers.

Its subject is documented across 109 Wikipedia language editions.

Person · Open Library

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

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

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

Official website

leonardcohen.com →

Link to the official site · not written by Vinony

Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: Eliezer
Family name: Cohen
Gender: male
Citizenship: Canada
Place of birth: Montreal
Place of death: Los Angeles
Occupation: draftsperson
Languages spoken: English language
Religion: Judaism
Notable work: Beautiful Losers
Field of work: poetry
Genre: blues
Instrument: voice
Record label: Columbia Records
Discography: Leonard Cohen discography
Official website: www.leonardcohen.com
Image: Leonard Cohen, 1988 01.jpg
Height: 1.75
Number of children: 2
Residence: Westmount
Voice type: baritone

Show 21 more facts

Commons category: Leonard Cohen
date of birth: 1934-09-21
topic's main category: Category:Leonard Cohen
Commons gallery: Leonard Cohen
member of: American Academy of Arts and Sciences
birth name: Leonard Norman Cohen
influenced by: Federico García Lorca
name in native language: Leonard Cohen
date of death: 2016-11-07
unmarried partner: Dominique Issermann
manner of death: natural causes
lifestyle: mysticism
start of work period: 1956-00-00
religious name: Eliezer ben Nissan Hacohen
copyright representative: Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada
Commons Creator page: Leonard Cohen
archives at: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
social media followers: 1450000
end of work period: 2016-00-00
topic has template: Template:Leonard Cohen
cause of death: falling

Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~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.