With glowing hearts

The 2010 Winter Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Oh man, what a disappointment. I mean, it’s not to say that it wasn’t a good show…it was. Except for the culminating moment. For months, all of the media and broadcasting companies have been making the biggest deal about the Olympics, following every inch of the Olympic flame’s journey across the country. It finally makes it to its destination in Vancouver—it makes it all the way into the stadium—and then, there, in front of millions of viewers, both in person and via television, they experience the worst technical difficultly at the worst possible moment, and we are forced to cringe through a three-quarters complete lighting of a limping hydraulic blunder, rather than gasp in awe at the beautiful, graceful lighting of an international symbol of friendship and fierce but friendly competition.

*sigh*

However. Like I said, it wasn’t a total cock-up. I didn’t watch the Opening Ceremonies in their entirety, but I heard that the rest of it went well. We’d been out for most of the night so when we got home, the Ceremonies were nearly at their high point (they were counting down the minutes until the Flame’s arrival). I caught a couple of speeches, the oaths, the moment of silence (that was really a tragedy). But the one thing that I DID catch (and afterwards watched three times over, thanks to the PVR) was KD Lang’s performance of Hallelujah.

I had shivers. I. Love. That. Song.

As much as I love that song, it didn’t hurt that I thought that KD Lang did a great job of performing it. Her vocals were amazing but effortless. Her presence was captivating. And I thought it was awesome that despite it being the Winter Olympics, she was barefoot. A Canadian-written song sung by a Canadian icon embodying the notion of global acceptance.

I have to admit though, as amazing as the performance by KD was, it was not my favourite performance of that song. There is no topping my favourite performance of that song.

It was at the ACC during a Jon Bon Jovi concert. Leonard Cohen was just that week being inducted into the Music Hall of Fame and in honour of that Canadian achievement, Mr. Bon Jovi selected to sing Hallelujah as his encore. It was beautifully haunting. Not only did he do a great job himself, but at the chorus, he took a break from singing and the crowd sang for him. The sound of 10,000 voices rose up and filled the entire stadium, “hallelujah, hallelujah.”

That was, and continues to be my favourite ever experience of that song.