Right, before this goes any further, let me just say that I started this blog to write about music I like that people may not have heard of. I know that I get incensed about certain things and use this as a platform to exorcise my anger but that's not what this is about, not what I'm about.

So, in a remarkable U-turn, I've been thinking if I really have any right to complain about Hallelujah being used as the X factor winner's song this year. Many have seen this as an attack on one of those songs that is deemed untouchable. Like Sweet Home Alabama or Sweet Child O' Mine, there are songs that have been elevated above any others and are seen as artistically perfect. Now, one of the most wonderful things about music is that it is personal and that it evokes a different feeling in every single person. Music thrives on being able to create that hair-standing up feeling in as many people whilst deluding you to think that only you have connected with that song in that way. Songs that enthuse me will chill you in an instant and that is why I have a blog, did a degreee, even have a job in it to some extent.

So, X Factor, if you're listening, You have my permission to cover Hallelujah and do what you will to it. Music should be interpreted and expanded, experimented with to see if there are new ways of interpreting classic arrangements. If I don't like it, I will simply listen to the many cover versions of Hallelujah by so many credible artists that do an interesting an intimate song justice. I will not join a Facebook group saying "Let's put Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah at Xmas no1 to spite X Factor" as I don't think that will achieve anything. I will not complain about how it is destroying an untouchable song as no song should be untouchable.
Arguably more famous than Cohen's original, Buckley's version is of course a cover anyway. If it were about protecting a song, surely the campaign should be for Cohen to go to number one?

Ultimately, the argument is flawed. Covers should be embraced, artists should be allowed to interpret songs in their own way and produce material they want to. If it isn't any good, people will not listen and it will soon disappear into oblivion, like so many of the other covers of this song. The fact that Buckley's version is still so highly revered after so long shows the power of a good cover and X Factor may just surprise you.