10 Incredible Songs From Musicians Who Knew They Were Dying
3. You Want It Darker - Leonard Cohen
"Hineni, hineni. I'm ready, my Lord"
By no means a stranger to a calm-yet-dramatic approach to music, You Want it Darker is Leonard Cohen's religious exploration into death, a theme carried into the 2016 album of the same name.
A decorated musician since the late '60s, Cohen is known for incorporating religious themes into his music, including his most celebrated hit Hallelujah.
In Cohen's twilight years, it was later revealed that he was battling leukaemia.
With his illness and his advancing age, Cohen began work on what would be the final album of his lifetime. The title track from ...Darker has the aforementioned religious commentary, albeit in a slightly darker hue, exploring a paradoxical anomaly in highlighting an ever-loving God that has seemingly ignored some of history's most violent times, most notably the Holocaust. The repeated title of the song has been seen as both an accusation and resignation against God for the one million candles lit to represent the children lost during the Holocaust.
His resultant declining strength would lead to a fall and subsequent passing in November 2016. His death came as a massive shock to the world, with multiple tributes emanating from his hometown of Montreal, Canada as well as an additional service is Los Angeles.