Everyone's Mad at Donald Trump for Playing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" at the Republican National Convention

Just be thankful he didn't sing it
Everyone's Mad at Donald Trump for Playing Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' at the Republican National Convention
By Josiah Hughes
Published Aug 28, 2020
Everyone's always mad at Donald Trump for something, and one of the many reasons this week was his decision to play Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" not once but twice at the Republican National Convention last night.

The nightmarish media circus included many, many lowlights, but among them was not one but two versions of the iconic tune. 

Tori Kelly's version of the song played during the fireworks that followed Donald Trump's speech, belting out as pyrotechnics spelled out "TRUMP 2020" in the sky. Then, the song was performed in an operatic style by Christopher Macchio. 

That the song was performed at all — let alone twice — did not sit well with just about everyone online.

UPDATE (8/28, 10 p.m. ET): The estate of Leonard Cohen has now said it is "exploring" various legal options after "Hallelujah" was used at the Republican National Convention even though the it was not authorized to do so.

In a statement, Michelle L. Rice, a legal rep for the Cohen estate, said the following:

We are surprised and dismayed that the RNC would proceed knowing that the Cohen Estate had specifically declined the RNC's use request, and their rather brazen attempt to politicize and exploit in such an egregious manner "Hallelujah," one of the most important songs in the Cohen song catalogue. We are exploring our legal options. Had the RNC requested another song, "You Want it Darker," for which Leonard won a posthumous Grammy in 2017, we might have considered approval of that song.

You can read some reactions below.