A cold and broken Hallelujah

Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is to be the X Factor winner's song, ergo the UK Christmas number one. Actually, it's not so much Leonard Cohen's version, but more like Jason Castro's version of Rufus Wainwright's version of Jeff Buckley's version. You probably know all this already, and you've probably made up your mind. But here I am adding to the blogosphere chatter with my opinion on this crucial matter.

And my opinion is: MEH. Hallelujah is not just an amazing song, it's one of the best songs ever. So it's a canny choice for an X Factor winner's song, and I'm sure a lot of people will listen to the result and feel very affected by the song's beauty. But exactly what I find beautiful in the song will presumably be vomitted all over with vocal histrionics and ruined like so many other songs (see also: Yesterday, Over The Rainbow, Unchained Melody). Louis Walsh is probably insisting that a trucker driver's gear change be added to the final chorus.
To me, the choice suggests that Simon Cowell employs minions to trawl karaoke nights and YouTube to find out what songs the public are into. Except he probably doesn't use the word 'public', but 'proles'. It also suggests that Diana will probably be the winner. Not just because she hacked through the song at the X Factor boot camp/auditions but because the song wouldn't really suit any other contestants. Unless JLS have choreographed some smooth moves to it. I know what your (end) game is, Cowell!

Also, I fear we're a bit closer to the day when new songs stop being written and we just keep trawling through an ever decreasing canon of songs, until eventually we're only capable of humming the melody of Greensleeves. It could happen, people. Stay vigilant.