Which Version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah Do You Like Best?

One of the best-known covers of "Hallelujah" was recorded by the American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley for his 1994 album, Grace. Jeff Buckley's version is a sparse production of vocals and guitar, influenced by John Cale's earlier cover of "Hallelujah" which appeared on the 1991 Leonard Cohen tribute album I'm Your Fan and on his 1992 live album Fragments of a Rainy Season.

John Cale's version was featured in the 2001 animated film Shrek.[6] Rufus Wainwright covered the song as well, and his version appears on the film's soundtrack album rather than Cale's. This is apparently because Wainwright is signed with Dreamworks SKG and Cale is not.[citation needed] The film version excludes the more sexually suggestive verses,, and it chops off the line "maybe there's a god above" from the beginning of the last verse.

Among the other musicians who have recorded covers of this song released on CD are: Italian singer Elisa from her album "Lotus", Maxwell Murder of Saturday's Car Ride Home, Rea Garvey of Reamonn, Alex Lloyd, Sephira, Adam Nikkel, Keren Ann, Willie Nelson, Beefy, Bono, Bon Jovi, Blake, Bret Darby, Clare Bowditch, Fred Eaglesmith, Steve Acho, Allison Crowe, Patricia O'Callaghan, Jackie Greene, Julie Felix, Damien Leith, Anthony Michael Hall [2], Bettie Serveert, Kenny Zhao, John Owen-Jones, Custard, k d lang, Kevin Max, Gord Downie, Simple Plan, Gov't Mule, Steffen Brandt/Tina Dickow (in Danish translation), K's Choice, Enrique Morente (flamenco version, translated to Spanish), Street to Nowhere, Wayne Whittaker, the Prayerbabies, Kevin Christy, Kathryn Williams, Lucky Jim, Over the Rhine, Pat Terlizzi, Myrra Malmberg, Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, Michael Wolff, The Brown Derbies, Imogen Heap, Popa Chubby, Jimm Zombie, Joe Wilson, Kristian Meurman (in Finnish), Hilary Scott, The Choir of Hard Knocks and Kate Voegele.

Counting live performances, the list of artists who have performed "Hallelujah" includes: Glen Hansard of The Frames, k.d. Lang, Spoon, Joel Sprayberry Band, The Teamakers, Nick Hrenchuk, Myles Kennedy of Alter Bridge, Kate Voegele, RRRadio Gee, Ari Hest, Chris Frank, Betty Buckley, Brandi Carlile, Bob Dylan, Connie Champagne, Caamora, Doug Parmenter, Howie Day, Gavin DeGraw, Dave Dobbyn, The Dresden Dolls, Chris Clonts, Amanda Jensen, Damien Rice, David Ford, Peter Mulvey, Jay Clifford, Mike Winger, Tim Minchin, Regina Spektor, Starsailor, Donna Lynne Champlin, Rodney Harris, Todd Carey, Pain of Salvation, Sheryl Crow, Tristin Roberts, James Yarsky, Jeff Waters, at17, Jeff Martin of The Tea Party, David Bazan (of Pedro the Lion), Zach Condon (of Beirut), Emily Johnson, and Thierry Amiel.[7]. Bon Jovi covered the song as part of the encore at their June 27th 2008 gig at Twickenham Stadium, London.

Fall Out Boy sampled the song on their 2007 album Infinity on High, on the track "Hum Hallelujah". The West did a cover of the song on the "4 Song EP" entitling it "Song for Leonard". The website SadKermit.com posted a cover of Sad Kermit covering the song in Buckley's style. Another published cover can be found on the single "Tausend Tränen Tief" (1999) by the German band Blumfeld. Chris Botti recorded an instrumental version of the song for the album December. Susanna and The Magical Orchestra performed their take on the song at the London Jazz festival; broadcast by BBC Radio 3 on the 13 December 2004. An a cappella version by Clemson University's "TakeNote" is included on the "Best of College A Cappella 2006" CD. k.d. Lang did a version in an episode of Later (UK live music TV show hosted by Jools Holland), which made it onto DVD. The University of Oregon a cappella group, On the Rocks also does a version on their album, Full Coverage. Danish a cappella ensemble Vocal Line recorded the song for their 2006 album, "Vocal Stories". Bono and the Edge (from U2) performed the song at one of their concerts out of respect for Jeff Buckley just after his death. Australian comedian and musician Tim Minchin performed the song as a duet with Geraldine Quinn at a live show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005.

A Norwegian group including Espen Lind, Kurt Nilsen, Alejandro Fuentes and Askil Holm performed the song under the name Lind,Nilsen, Fuentes & Holm. A parody version of them and the song was made under the name Hallelujah-kameratene (including Espen Beranek Holm, Marit Voldsæter, Ole Morten Aagenæs and Kai Taule under the Norwegian award show Komiprisen on the Norwegian TV-channel NRK and later on another award show named Gullruten which runs on the TV-channel TV2.

Welsh group Brigyn have covered the song and changed the lyrics to festive Welsh lyrics. An Arabic version dedicated to Allah has been performed by Mohammad al Husayan [8].

Reflecting a broadening populist appreciation of the song, reaching mass numbers since Shrek, in recent years the song has been performed by contestants on Australian Idol, Swedish Idol, French Nouvelle Star and Canadian Idol. Most recently, in 2008's Season 7 of American Idol, Jason Castro performed a rendition of "Hallelujah" and received positive reviews by the judges for his performance. Soon after Castro's performance, Jeff Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah" became the #1 most downloaded song on iTunes. [9] Subsequently, on the Billboard charts dated March 22, 2008, Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" debuted at #1 on the Hot Digital Songs chart. [10] The song was certified Gold and Platinum as a single on April 22, 2008.[11]