Vancouver, Canada — The 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremony was a spectacle of sight, sound, emotion and celebration. Canadian singer K.D. Lang brought the ceremony to a standstill, when, surrounded by gold lights, she gave a heartfelt, sublime rendition of Hallelujah. Because the full video is copyrighted, footage of Lang singing Hallelujah is hard to find, but this video (which might be taken down any minute) is so far the only one available.
Written and released back in 1984 by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, Lang's version of Cohen's haunting Hallelujah is amazing, with Cohen himself admitting that her version is the song's "ultimate blissful state of perfection."
The song enjoyed a revival recently when Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris recently performed the song to on "Hope for Haiti Now."
Here is Lang singing Hallelujah, not at the Olympics Opening Ceremony but, well, you can kind of get the picture. Get your Olympic Odds with Bodog.
K.D. Lang may have stolen the show with her heartfelt rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. She was absolutely amazing. Wayne Gretzky was revealed as the final torch carrier and official cauldron lighter. Even with one of the four crystal pillars malfunctioning, the opening ceremony was a resounding success, which culminated in Gretzky riding in the back of a truck (or a convertible?) through the streets of downtown Vancouver, and finally lighting the cauldron to officially kick off the 2010 Winter Olympic Odds .
Aboriginal youth from across the country – Inuit, Metis, and the First Nations of the Prairies, the North and the East – welcomed the athletes to Vancouver by dancing around a massive drum. When Olympian athletes emerged waving their flags of the 82 countries represented, there was a standing ovation for Georgia, who had 10 athletes – all donning black scarves and black armbands in remembrance of their teammate Nodar Kumaritashvili who was tragically killed earlier on Friday in Whistler during his final practice.
Highlights of the night included Canadian superstar singers Bryan Adams and Nelly Furtado, who performed together. With an audience of 60,000, who were at Vancouver's BC Place to celebrate the Olympic festivities, the eyes of the world watched as northern lights, polar bear and a pod of orcas, who magically appeared when the floor appeared to crack like ice, transforming to ocean, became a spectacle to behold. Famous Canadian fiddler Ashley MacIsaac and singer Sarah McLachlan also performed.
