The Singer King Charles Once Named as His Favorite Musician
England produced some of the best classic rock artists of all time. Queen Elizabeth knighted several musicians before she died, and many more received the country’s highest honor. But King Charles’ favorite musician didn’t come from England.
King Charles once said Leonard Cohen was his favorite musician: ‘It’s terrific stuff’
Charles watched The Beatles take over the world, The Rolling Stones cement themselves as one of the finest rock bands anywhere, and Led Zeppelin rewrote the heavy rock playbook.
Yet none of those English bands compared to Leonard Cohen.
During a 2006 interview celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Prince’s Trust, the future king admitted he found it hard to keep up with the onslaught of new bands. He then named Canadian singer-songwriter Cohen as his favorite musician.
“I’ll tell you who I think is wonderful is a chap named Leonard Cohen,” Charles said (via YouTube). “The orchestration is fantastic, and the lyrics and everything – he’s a remarkable man. He has this incredibly laid-back, gravelly voice. Terrific stuff.”
We agree with Charles’ assessment of Cohen’s fantastic lyrics and laid-back voice (the gravelly part came later). It wasn’t the last time Charles sang Cohen’s praises.
During a BBC Radio 3 interview in 2018, King Charles again named Cohen, who died in 2016, as his favorite modern musician.
“I’ve always loved Leonard Cohen’s voice and his whole approach to the way he sang,” he said of the Cohen song “Take This Waltz” (via The Guardian). “He was obviously incredibly sophisticated in the way he sang, but also [how he] wrote. I find it very moving, the words are so extraordinary, sort of Salvador Dalí-like, they lead you into this remarkable Dalí-like world.”
The king played cello (though not as well as Princess Diana played piano) and seemingly had a soft spot for Cohen’s brand of musical orchestration.
Cohen earned several notable awards and achievements in his career
Charles didn’t get to knight Cohen during the singer’s lifetime, but he did see the Canadian songsmith earn a prestigious award. Cohen was awarded the Canadian version of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.
It wasn’t the only achievement for the musician.
Cohen had four top-10 albums in England. Songs From a Room and Songs of Love and Hate climbed inside the top five in 1969 and 1971, respectively. Old Ideas (2012) and Popular Problems (2014) pulled the same trick decades later. You Want It Darker and Thanks for the Dance were posthumous top-10 albums for Cohen, per the Official Charts Company. The Canadian cracked the Billboard top 10 with Old Ideas and You Want It Darker.
One of Cohen’s two Grammys also came after he died. He won for best rock performance in 2017 for “You Want It Darker.” He also won album of the year a decade earlier for his contribution to Herbie Hancock’s Joni Mitchell tribute album River: The Joni Letters.
His Bible-based song “Hallelujah” was his only hit song in either England or the United States.
The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted Cohen in 2010, where he resides next to Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and Elton John. Those three were knighted by English royalty, but none of them have the title of being King Charles’ favorite musician as Cohen does.
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