It's great news that this year's X Factor winner will release a version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. It's perfect for Diana, the best remaining contestant in this year's series, and as well as being a tremendous tune it'll make perfect sense as a Christmas number one, particularly with a ridiculous, glossy production and some choirs a-wailin' for the big final chorus. Simple.
Except it's not really that simple, unfortunately, because already people are banging on about the whole thing being deeply inappropriate, lacking in respect (at least one of the people who has sung this song in the past is dead. It's very sad) and just, like, totally cheap and commercial, man.
If you have somehow not yet found yourself grooving along to this dancefloor smash on a night out and are wondering what all the fuss is about, here's a crash course in the song.
1. Laughing Boy Cohen pens the tune in the 80s. He writes some of the song in his pants. (Form an orderly queue please ladies etc.)
2. John Cale covers it.
3. Jeff Buckley has a go.
4. Rufus Wainwright throws his hat in the ring.
5. After Cale and Wainwright both find their versions associated with the Shrek franchise (long story), Jason Castro, an American Idol contestant, decides to warble the tune live on television, prompting Buckley's version to sell hundreds of thousands of downloads on iTunes, storming into the Billboard chart for the first time.
The last point's the most important, in terms of today's news. Like Austin Drage's recent version of American Idol contestant David Cook's version of Chris Cornell's version of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, the choice of Hallelujah as a UK single follows a successful dry run in the US.
One suspects that a posse of wailing "Proper Music Fans" and independent record store owners are already preparing to march on X Factor HQ, but if anyone is to blame for what will happen in the upper reaches of the top 10 next month it's Leonard Cohen.
Let's face facts: if you write a song so incredible and timeless that it becomes a modern standard, it's going to be covered. If people are that upset about it (and I'd imagine Snow Patrol have some thoughts on this, with Leona Lewis's cover of Run expected to become her next number one single) here's the harsh truth: if you don't want your songs being covered by X Factor finalists, don't write songs that are perfect for X Factor finalists.
