Naomi Bristow’s Beautiful Version of Hallelujah

Naomi Bristow’s version of Hallelujah went viral as it reached its 11 million views on Facebook. The song, originally written and recorded by Leonard Cohen in 1984, is a world-famous song because of how well it sounds and its message.

Naomi Bristow did a fantastic job in capturing the essence of the song.

Naomi Bristow as an Artist

Naomi is a proud Canadian. She fell in love with country music at a very young age. She does love traditional country music and that is what led her to incorporate yodeling in her performances.

On her Youtube account, she does a lot of cover songs from Dolly Parton‘s “Jolene” to Buck Owen’s “Santa Looked a Lot like Daddy.” But, her true passion is with gospel music. Her strong faith led her to cover this amazing song and made some major changes to suit the Christian theme.

In her performance of the song, she let her talent speak for itself. She just sat in a room with her guitar and cowboy hat. Without auto tunes and other technical editing, her version proved to be very beautiful and simplistic.

Behind the Song “Hallelujah”

Before dying, Leonard explained why he chose the lyrics in the song.

“Hallelujah is a Hebrew word which means ‘Glory to the Lord.’ The song explains that many kinds of Hallelujahs do exist. I say: All the perfect and broken Hallelujahs have an equal value. It’s a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way but with enthusiasm, with emotion.”

The song was Leonard’s defining moment as an artist. But, this was not an easy task for the singer. He shared that it took him years in finishing the song. The mere line “I and I” took him 15 minutes to decide on. 

That just proves that he wanted the song to be perfect. He wanted every lyrics to be a symbol of his belief. And so, this was loved by people even up to this day.

In fact, these are some of the people who covered it: Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, John Cale, Willie Nelson, Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris, Brandi Carlile and Jake Shimabukuro.

You can add Naomi Bristow on that list because she really did an amazing job.

Watch the cover here: