Leonard Cohen (1934-2016)

1993 Lifetime Artistic Achievement (Popular Music)

For over thirty years Leonard Cohen has travelled the world sharing his visions of the mysteries of our interior lives. In eight volumes of poetry, two novels and eleven record albums, his tales and images of "longing and loss and mercy and beauty and guilt and hurt and silence and dreams" have been spun out across the decades. They have earned him a following unlike any other Canadian popular artist.

His lyrics have been a seminal force for a diverse group of recording artists, from Neil Diamond and Diana Ross to Joan Baez, Rita Coolidge and Joe Cocker. His own creations are meticulous and painstakingly produced. His many accolades include the Order of Canada, honorary doctorates, literary awards and, in 1991, induction into the Juno Hall of Fame. At the 1992 Junos he won "Male Vocalist of the Year".

Today he continues, in the low-toned hypnotic voice which has become his trademark, to sing to us of our cultural malaise, our loss of soul, and yet, the seeds of our own regeneration which will "sprout from the weeds of our own decay."