Leonard Cohen

1976: the opening concert

On 25 June 1976, Leonard Cohen made his Montreux debut by opening the festival’s 10th edition, at the Casino de Montreux. A concert of twenty-six songs, drawing on an already classic repertoire — “Bird on the Wire”, “Suzanne” — before an audience won over by that deep voice and those poet’s words.

Nine years later, on 9 July 1985, he returned to the Casino, between two albums, loyal to the festival that had revealed him to the Swiss public.

1984: a Golden Rose

Leonard Cohen’s bond with Montreux does not run through jazz alone. In 1984, his musical film “I Am a Hotel” won the Golden Rose there, the top prize of Montreux’s prestigious international television festival.

Filmed in 1983 at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto, this half-hour short stages, through song and dance, the romances of a hotel’s staff and guests, with Cohen himself as narrator. It features “Suzanne”, “Chelsea Hotel #2”, “The Guests” and “The Gypsy’s Wife”. Broadcast in Canada on 7 May 1984, it found its highest honour in Montreux.

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2008: the great comeback

On 8 July 2008, Leonard Cohen returned to Montreux after more than twenty years, at the Auditorium Stravinski, for the 42nd edition. He was seventy-three and had just taken to the road again after a long absence from the stage; his world tour, acclaimed everywhere, made this return one of the events of the musical year.

At Montreux as elsewhere, audiences found an artist at his peak: the precise diction, the quiet humour, and that way of kneeling on stage, the microphone held in both hands, as if in offering.

That evening the concert opened with “Dance Me to the End of Love” and unfolded over nearly three hours and twenty-five songs, carried by a band of nine musicians and backing singers, among them his faithful collaborator Sharon Robinson. He recited “A Thousand Kisses Deep” without music; before five thousand rapt listeners, the hall sang “Suzanne” along with him.

2013: the farewell

On 4 and 5 July 2013, Leonard Cohen returned one last time to the Auditorium Stravinski, two nights in a row, as part of the “Old Ideas World Tour”. As in 1976, he opened the festival: thirty-seven years separate those two openings, and the circle closed on the same Montreux stage.

Hat on his head, impeccable suit, he thanked his audience on his knees, taking the time to name each of his musicians. It would be his last visit: when he died on 7 November 2016, the festival paid tribute — “So long, Leonard” (swissinfo.ch).