Leonard Norman Cohen, (born 21 September 1934) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist. His work has explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships.
One of his notable novels, Beautiful Losers (1966) received a lot of attention from the Canadian press and stirred up controversy because of a number of sexually graphic passages.
Cohen's first album was Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967) followed by Songs from a Room (1969) (featuring the often-recorded "Bird on the Wire") and Songs of Love and Hate (1971). His 1977 record, Death of a Ladies' Man was co-written and produced by Phil Spector, which was a move away from Cohen's previous minimalist sound. In 1979, Cohen returned with the more traditional Recent Songs, which blended his acoustic style with jazz and Oriental and Mediterranean influences. "Hallelujah" was first released on Cohen's studio album Various Positions in 1984. I'm Your Man in 1988 marked Cohen's turn to synthesized productions and remains his most popular album. In 1992, Cohen released its follow-up, The Future, which had dark lyrics and references to political and social unrest. Cohen returned to music in 2001 with the release of Ten New Songs, which was a major hit in Canada and Europe. In 2006, Cohen produced and co-wrote Blue Alert, a collaboration with jazz chanteuse Anjani Thomas. After major success of his 2008-2013 world tours, Cohen released the highest charting album in his entire career, Old Ideas, to uniformly positive reviews. On September 22, 2014, one day after his 80th birthday, Cohen released his 13th studio album, Popular Problems, again to superlative reviews.