See Rufus Wainwright’s Stunning Cover of ‘Hallelujah’ Backed by 1,500 Singers

In June, Rufus Wainwright and an army of 1,500 singers teamed to perform Leonard Cohen‘s classic “Hallelujah” at the Toronto’s Luminato Festival. Weeks later, the official video for the unique performance has been unveiled, with Wainwright leading the 1,500-strong Choir!Choir!Choir! members through a stunning rendition of the Various Positions track in the cavernous Hearn Generating Station.

“Singing Hallelujah with 1,500 @choirchoirchoir members was pretty unreal,” Wainwright tweeted of the performance. For the event, Choir!Choir!Choir!’s Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman taught the massive vocal section the back up parts to Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” and after some practice, Wainwright walked out onstage to guide the choir.

“You guys sounded so good, so great. And we should do this again some time, what do you think?,” Wainwright told his backup singers after the rendition, which even garnered a share of approval from Leonard Cohen’s official Facebook.