On his 90th birthday

Leonard Cohen: A timeless charismatic artist

Unforgotten and legendary: The great Leonard Cohen would be celebrating his 90th birthday today.

(Bild: Oliver Morris/Getty Images)

Canada's musical poet Leonard Cohen would have celebrated his 90th birthday today. A series and a documentary look at his unique life in different ways. To be seen this weekend on ARD and ARTE.

When Leonard Cohen released his first music album, he was already well into his thirties and had landed an international bestseller with the novel "Beautiful Losers". He wanted to become a kind of minstrel and asked himself the same questions in his music as he did in his poems. It was about love, death, friendship and his never-ending search for spirituality.

It starts on September 22nd
Today, the Canadian, considered by many to be the most complete songwriter of all, would have turned 90 - his art and popularity extend far beyond the earthly. To mark the anniversary, ARD is making the brand new drama series "So Long, Marianne - A Leonard Cohen Series" available in the media library on September 22, which will also be broadcast on linear television from October 2 (11.30 pm).

The project covers Cohen's pre-music years from 1960 to 1967 and tells the story of his love for Norwegian Marianne Ihlen. Director Øystein Karlsen and co-writer Jo Nesbø trace the stages of Cohen's life and enrich them with fictional narrative elements. A well-acted series that will not only interest Cohen fans.

Legendary cult song
The documentary "Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a life, a song" can be found in the ARTE media library, which tells the story of the artist's poetic existence from the perspective of his probably best-known and most misunderstood song. Cohen himself was only satisfied with it after five years and 150 verses - only to learn that his record company didn't want to release the song at all. The rest became music history ...