Get the latest gossip
For Leonard Cohen’s 90th Birthday, He Gets the Salute He Deserves: A Tribute Album From Cherished Singing Partner Perla Batalla
Perla Batalla, who sang with Leonard Cohen in the '80s and '90s, talks about keeping his songs alive with a new tribute album for his 90th birthday.
Cohen began his output in the mid-’60s adhering more to the expected musical formulas of the singer-songwriter or folk-rock milieus, but from the ’70s forward, he was enlisting the help of “angels” as a sort of heavenly Greek chorus thoughout his songs. Batalla spoke with Variety before taking to the stage of 54 Below in New York City for a tribute concert this weekend, a performance shared with Patrick Page, the star of Broadway’s “Hadestown,” whom fans of that show have remarked could nearly be Cohen’s vocal double. As a matter of fact, at his memorial, he had his manager read a letter to the band members that had toured with him the last couple of years, which said, “I’m really sorry that I wasn’t available to sit with you and dine with you and hang out.” We got the best of Leonard back in the day.
Or read this on Variety
