Leonard Cohen dies at 82

(Image credit: Frederic M. Brown/Getty Images)

published 11 November 2016

Leonard Cohen, the legendary singer and songwriter, has died. He was 82.

The news was shared on his official Facebook page, with a post reading in part: "We have lost one of music's most revered and prolific visionaries. A memorial will take place in Los Angeles at a later date. The family requests privacy during their time of grief." The post did not say when Cohen died or the cause.

Born in Quebec, Cohen's work spanned five decades, touching on love, depression, religion, war, and politics. He released his first album at the age of 33, and his final album, You Want It Darker, came out earlier this year. Many of his songs have been covered by other artists, but none so much as "Hallelujah," which has been performed by Jeff Buckley, Norah Jones, Rufus Wainwright, and Bono. In the 1990s, he became a Buddhist monk, and from 2008 to 2013, embarked on a major world tour, performing 387 times. Cohen is survived by his daughter, Lorca Cohen, and son Adam Cohen. Catherine Garcia

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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