View Full Version : Alexandra Burke - Hallelujah
tammyy2j
15-12-2008, 17:26
YouTube - Hallelujah - Alexandra Burke Official Single
X factor 2008 winner Alexandra Burke's debut single - will it be Christmas No. 1?
I prefer Jeff Buckley's version
DaVeyWaVey
15-12-2008, 17:28
I downloaded this yesterday :D I love it and cant stop listening to it. I have a feeling that it will be Christmas Number 1.. though it would be nice if something else was Christmas No1 for a change..
brilliant song. love it. alexandra for christmas number 1! :D
sindydoll
15-12-2008, 17:57
according to hmv its going to be number 1 because of the downloads its had plus pre orders
I love this song :D
I really dont mind and hope it gets number one now :p
Dr. Tangliss
15-12-2008, 18:59
Not a patch on Jeff Buckley's version!
StarsOfCCTV
15-12-2008, 19:03
I'm glad I'm not the only one!
The backing voices/choir & drums are unnecessary. Just a piano/guitar like other versions would have been fine but they made it too busy.
Bad Wolf
15-12-2008, 19:14
Not a patch on Jeff Buckley's version!
agreed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
X Factor winner Alexandra Burke's debut single is the fastest-selling download ever across Europe.
'Hallelujah' notched up more than 105,000 digital sales in the UK on Sunday, surpassing Leona Lewis's record of 82,000 for 2006 X Factor winner's song 'A Moment Like This'.
The single has also made it to the top of the HMV.com download chart, with spokesman Gennaro Castaldo saying: "We're seeing a phenomenal rush to download the 'Hallelujah' single from our website. It's both our fastest and biggest-ever selling download, and Alexandra already has the Christmas number one all wrapped up."
Castaldo added that sales will receive a boost on Wednesday when the physical CD is released. "It's now about how many copies Alexandra may go on to sell. HMV is ordering massive extra stock to keep up with the unprecedented demand," he said.
Burke won this year's X Factor before a TV audience of 14.6 million, beating Eoghan Quigg and boyband JLS.
Chloe O'brien
15-12-2008, 22:50
Very rarely do I prefer a re-release to an original song. And Alexandra has done an amazing cover version of this song, but Jeff Buckley's version is the best despite seeing Shrek and Donkey everytime I hear the song.
Bad Wolf
15-12-2008, 23:36
YouTube - Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
for those of you who dont kno who jeff buckley is (most of my firends as it turns out- i made myself look a right prat in the pub on saturday, because no one knew who i was on about),
this is his version
enjoy xx
It is good i have to admit, but i do prefer the version by Jeff Buckley
I love this song.. I think Alex does a great version of it.. I love Jeff Buckley version and the version on Shrek is done by Rufus Wainwright...
Jeff Buckely's version is awful, it's so depressing. I know it's a sad song but Alex's version is more uplifting and i prefer it that way.
tammyy2j
16-12-2008, 12:26
YouTube - Alexandra Burke- Hallelujah- OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO!
Brilliant.. amazing voice, amazing song
The stupid wailing and screeching are horrible and unnecisary. They ruin a delicate song like this. Would much rather listen to the old version of this song
megan999
16-12-2008, 19:07
The only part I like about this song is the chorus. I don't even understand the lyrics. Can someone explain what this song is about please? I cannot understand all the hype going on around Alex. Give me Leona anytime over Alex.:rolleyes: And I prefer Leona's singing to Alex's. :p
Alexandra Burke's hopes of a Christmas number one with Hallelujah are under threat from another cover version of the same song.
The X Factor winner's debut single can already boast being the fastest-selling download single ever in Europe.
But an internet campaign by anti-X Factor groups has seen demand for the late Jeff Buckley's version gather pace. It is third in the unofficial midweek charts.
A spokesman for HMV said chart rules meant he was unable to reveal the exact sales of each release, but that just 10,000 more sales were needed for Buckley to overtake Leona Lewis's version of Run, which is currently in second place.
If this happens Hallelujah will be in first and second place in the charts - the first time a song has done this.
But it seems unlikely Buckley will take the coveted number one place - the first single from X Factor winner Alexandra has already broken records for downloading, with the CD single not due to hit shop floors until tomorrow.
By 11.59pm on Monday, 149,548 copies of the single had been downloaded - the biggest week one download ever.
The previous record was 139,000 for Leona Lewis's X Factor winner's song A Moment Like This.
On Sunday, the first day Alexandra's version of the song went on sale, more than 105,000 copies were downloaded - smashing the previous record of 82,000 in one day for A Moment Like This.
A spokesman for Alexandra said she was 'overwhelmed' by the record breaking sales.
'She can't even take it on, these are incredible figures,' he said.
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HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said that the idea of Alexandra not taking the number one spot seemed 'unthinkable', although not impossible.
But he added: 'Just when it looked like the X Factor had taken all the unpredictability out of Christmas, the charts are coming back to prove they remain capable of throwing up a surprise.'
Buckley's version of the song previously topped the download chart in March this year after it was performed by Jason Castro on American Idol.
Buckley released the song on his debut, and only, studio album Grace in 1994Less than three years later he died in a tragic accident while swimming, at the age of just 30.
Following his death, he was nominated posthumously for a Grammy Award for his song Everybody Here Wants You in 1998.
His version of Hallelujah was deemed one of the 500 Greatest Songs ever by Rolling Stone magazine, who also gave Buckley a coveted spot in the 2008 list of the 100 Greatest Singers Of All Time.
Buckley fans mobilised support in the Facebook group Jeff Buckley for Xmas no. 1, which has nearly 60,000 members.
The group's mandate is: 'Following the rather depressing news that this year's X factor finalist will be covering Leonard Cohen's beautiful Hallelujah, I think everyone should download the Jeff Buckley version, instead of buying the inevitably soulless version churned out by Simon Cowell's Crimbo flash in the pan...
'We can make this work, and make a huge statement against the barrage of cynical manufactured pop dirtying up our charts. I am willing to download this version the week the X factor version comes out, and I know others will be too.'
Daily Mail
The only part I like about this song is the chorus. I don't even understand the lyrics. Can someone explain what this song is about please? I cannot understand all the hype going on around Alex. Give me Leona anytime over Alex.:rolleyes: And I prefer Leona's singing to Alex's. :p
The lyrics are as follows:
i heard there was a secret chord
that david played and it pleased the lord
but you don't really care for music, do you
well it goes like this the fourth, the fifth
the minor fall and the major lift
the baffled king composing hallelujah
hallelujah...
well your faith was strong but you needed proof
you saw her bathing on the roof
her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
she tied you to her kitchen chair
she broke your throne and she cut your hair
and from your lips she drew the hallelujah
hallelujah...
baby i've been here before
i've seen this room and i've walked this floor
i used to live alone before i knew you
i've seen your flag on the marble arch
but love is not a victory march
it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah
hallelujah...
well there was a time when you let me know
what's really going on below
but now you never show that to me do you
but remember when i moved in you
and the holy dove was moving too
and every breath we drew was hallelujah
well, maybe there's a god above
but all i've ever learned from love
was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
it's not a cry that you hear at night
it's not somebody who's seen the light
it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah
hallelujah...
Wikipedia explains the following:
The original recording is noted for containing biblical references in the lyrics, alluding to David's harp-playing used to soothe King Saul (1 Samuel 16:23), and his later affair with Bathsheba after watching her bathe from his roof (2 Samuel 11:2). The line "she broke your throne and she cut your hair" is a reference to the source of Samson's strength from the Book of Judges 16. The third verse mentions "the name" (Tetragrammaton). In these instances, the lyrics are overtly sexual. Jeff Buckley called his own rendition of the song a homage to "the hallelujah of the orgasm".
In 1994, Cohen released a substantially different version on the 1994 live album Cohen Live, retaining only the final verse from the original recording. In this version, the lyrics became more sexual, and the song's structure was slightly reworked. Since his original studio album version, live performances by Leonard Cohen almost invariably include the final song verses not performed by Cale and many others. Many cover artists mix lyrics from both versions, and occasionally make direct lyric changes such as Rufus Wainwright singing "holy dark" and Allison Crowe singing "Holy Ghost" rather than "holy dove". Although individual words do change among various versions, apart from such examples of clear revision by interpreters, any variation may be due to selection from Cohen's complete lyrics rather than alterations by the cover artist.
Xx-Vicky-xX
17-12-2008, 10:08
I don't like Alex for a start but i don't like these kind of songs either so i will not be helping it get to #1, i am almost tempted to buy Geraldine McQueen just to raise the chances of Alex not getting it, and that is saying something because that song is cack to but it is more my kind of thing than this (oh and i don't really like Peter Kay much either - but still better than Alex)
Alexandra Burke has broken another record with her debut single 'Hallelujah'.
The X Factor winner has sold more downloads of her debut single in two days than the previous record set by Leona Lewis in a week.
The song was downloaded a total of 149,546 times in its first two days of release compared with Leona Lewis's previous record, which saw 139,000 copies of 'A Moment Like This' snapped up in seven days.
"Alexandra Burke has got off to a quite spectacular start with her recording of 'Hallelujah'," said The Official Chart Company's Mark Talbot.
"Every year's X Factor winner is battling to live up to the huge expectations raised by previous winners, and this year Alexandra is close to surpassing all of those expectations.
The song previously had the fastest ever one-day downloads across Europe.
"After just two days, she has already set another new landmark - selling more downloads in a week than anyone else on history - and could be on her way to breaking more records."
Burke's winning single 'Hallelujah' will be available physically in record shops from today.
DaVeyWaVey
17-12-2008, 14:47
I love her version of this and I currently have it on loop. Brilliant news for Alexandra over the downloads - I really hope it's a sign of the kind of success she will have in the future.
StarsOfCCTV
19-12-2008, 22:46
The history of hallelujah (Didn't see much point in opening a new topic for it...?)
When Alexandra Burke sang 'Hallejujah' on Saturday's X Factor final, she joined an impressive list of artists who have covered Leonard Cohen's 1984 classic. Bon Jovi brought their overblown stadium rock sound to the song, Bono gave it a bizarre trip-hop reworking and The Velvet Underground's John Cale performed a moving rendition for a 1991 Cohen tribute record.
However, the most famous - and, according to Cohen, definitive - version of 'Hallelujah' is by the late Jeff Buckley. Appearing on his only complete studio album, Grace, it ditched Cohen's chintzy eighties production and replaced it with sparse, ethereal-sounding guitar work and Buckley's angelic, idiosyncratic vocals. It wasn't the American's finest moment, but it is his best-remembered.
Consequently, it wasn't surprising that followers of the Californian were up in arms when they heard Simon Cowell had picked the track for his latest X Factor victor. Although the line "you don't really care for music, do you?" may seem strangely appropriate for the reality show judge, many fans declared it musical blasphemy that the likes of Eoghan Quigg could end up releasing a song which Buckley believed to be about the "hallelujah of an orgasm".
Alexandra Burke, for her part, thinks the song is about "love" rather than "sexual positions". She may have trouble justifying that when she's singing the line about being tied "to her kitchen chair", but her rendition is nowhere near as awful as it could have been. Its choir-heavy crescendo may grate on those who prefer their ballads with a modicum of subtlety, but perhaps the reason the song has become uch a modern classic is its malleability. Whether you think it's about sex, romance, triumph, failure or something else entirely, the track's hymnal beauty remains constant.
While the Facebook campaigners and Buckley obsessives may not succeed in trumping Burke for the Christmas number one spot, they shouldn't consider their efforts a total failure. Cowell Towers may have won the chart battle, but it is Cohen and the late Buckley who are the real winners, with millions of young fans hearing a great song performed by a great singer for the very first time.
I love the Rufus Wainwright version of this, it is one of my all time favourites. Her version is pretty good though, although it loses some of the emotion i think.
ha ha. two fingers to all them Jerff Buckley supporters out there that tried to sabotage Alexandra's number 1.
So pleased she got to the top spot, well deserved!
:cheer: whoooo number 1 :D
StarsOfCCTV
22-12-2008, 15:38
Number 1 at Christmas for the next 123595000 years....X factor! :lol:
Well done on Jeff Buckley getting number 2!! :D
tammyy2j
22-12-2008, 22:45
X Factor champion Alexandra Burke has topped the Christmas singles chart with her version of 'Hallelujah'.
Burke's recording of the Leonard Cohen classic sold 576,000 copies last week, outselling the rest of the top 20 combined.
Its sales tally makes it the fastest-selling single by a female artist in UK chart history, beating the previous record held by Leona Lewis and 'A Moment Like This'.
"This is absolutely crazy, I can't believe it. It's been the best week of my life," Burke said. "Thank you so much to everyone that has supported me and bought the single. I'm bursting with excitement right now, it's incredible!"
Jeff Buckley's interpretation of 'Hallelujah' - taken from the late singer's 1994 album Grace - sold 81,000 copies to chart in second place, while Leona Lewis sold 72,000 copies of 'Run' to claim third position.
I'm glad I'm not the only one!
The backing voices/choir & drums are unnecessary. Just a piano/guitar like other versions would have been fine but they made it too busy.
They're awful in my opinion. I hate it, parts of it are slightly annoying and that's as good as it gets. I think this song's like Marmite; you either love it or you hate it.
Il Divo are singing a version of this in Spanish and I think it is absolutelty fab :cheer: I like all versions though, to be honest. :confused:
still number 1 - 2 weeks running, and the biggest selling single of 2008. Well done Alexandra!!! :D
sindydoll
31-12-2008, 09:56
this song is starting to do my head in now :thumbsdow
Yeah its starting to get on my nerves too :lol:
she must be sick of singing it by now!!!
sindydoll
01-01-2009, 16:01
she must be sick of singing it by now!!!thats the downside of winng x factor:lol:
.:SpIcYsPy:.
02-01-2009, 00:18
I never really liked the song THAT MUCH to start with, been avoiding the radio's :lol:
CrazyLea
02-01-2009, 00:20
See I'm the opp of what other people think :lol: I didn't like it THAT much to start with :p but now I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can't stop listening to it!
sindydoll
02-01-2009, 22:29
my daughter keeps playing it and i try and explain that its caving my head in now and she says but mum its just starting to grow on me :wall: ....she's only 13 bless
DaVeyWaVey
03-01-2009, 12:20
I'm still liking it, don't play it as often as I did the first week I downloaded it though.
Alexandra Burke has sold over a million copies of her debut single 'Hallelujah'.
The X Factor winner is the first British female solo artist to top one million sales with a single.
The singer's debut is now likely to become the best-selling single by a female of any nationality this decade, overtaking the current record by Kylie Minogue, who shifted 1.05 million copies of her 2001 single 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head'.
The Leonard Cohen cover was previously named the biggest-selling single of 2008 and became the fastest-selling download ever.
Burke is currently holidaying with fellow X Factor star Ruth Lorenzo in Mauritius.
sindydoll
10-01-2009, 11:30
when is her album out?
It will we a while yet I would think
Chris_2k11
11-01-2009, 18:43
when is her album out?Months away! usually about October time i think :hmm:
Hallelujah down to #3 this week
New research by Churchill Insurance* shows that Alexandra Burke's version of 'Hallelujah' comes tenth on the list of worst cover versions of all time, behind some more established pop names:
The Churchill Insurance worst cover versions top ten:
1. Lucy in the sky with diamonds - William Shatner
2. I love rock 'n' roll - Britney Spears
3. Spirit in the sky - Gareth Gates
4. Papa don't preach - Kelly Osbourne
5. The floral dance - Terry Wogan
6. American pie - Madonna
7. Unchained melody - Gareth Gates
8. Stairway to heaven - Rolf Harris
9. I will always love you - Rik Waller
10. Hallelujah - Alexandra Burke
Matt Owen, spokesperson for Churchill, says:
"Cover versions can provoke huge debate and what are considered to be bad covers for some, may be great versions for others. Even many of our so-called worst cover versions ever, and the people fronting them, have had great success."
"It's interesting to see that half of the worst cover versions have been sung by budding popstars coming through on reality TV programmes."
Churchill Insurance commissioned the research to mark the launch of a new TV advertisement featuring Rolf Harris and the iconic nodding dog.
:eek: I dont think it was that bad
Alexandra Burke has reportedly turned down the chance to tour the US with Lionel Richie.
Simon Cowell advised the X Factor winner to reject the offer, according to the Daily Star.
A source said: "Lionel made it clear he wanted Alexandra to join his tour and is very disappointed.
"Touring with Lionel would have been a massive opportunity, but it's a lot of work and stressful preparation for that sort of thing. Plus at the moment Alex doesn't have any real songs of her own."
The source added that Cowell hopes to replicate Leona Lewis's success by concentrating on recording a "brilliant album" with Burke before attempting to break America.
Burke recently promised an "absolutely amazing" show on the X Factor live tour, saying that it will be full of "fun" and "attitude".
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