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Leonard Cohen resumes Spanish tour
2009-09-22
MADRID (AFP) - Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen marked his 75th birthday late on Monday by resuming his tour of Spain, three days after he collapsed on stage and was hospitalized with a suspected case of food poisoning. He received a standing ovation from the roughly 14,000 people at Barcelona's Palau Sant Jordi, one of the main venues of the 1992 Summer Olympics, when he walked on stage to give the final concert of his nine-concert tour of Spain. After singing several songs the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" and gave the legendary artist another standing ovation, Spanish media reported. "Thank you for your birthday wishes, I don't know when I will celebrate it like this again," he said. Cohen was in the middle of singing his song "Bird On The Wire" in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia on Friday when he fainted, prompting the band to stop playing and rush to help him. He was then taken by ambulance to hospital, from which he was discharged in the early hours of Saturday. The singer, who resumed touring last year after a lengthy break, had performed three songs, "Dance me to end of love", "The future" and "There ain't no cure for love" before he collapsed. After Spain, he is due to perform in Florida on 17 October. His music has inspired countless artists and more than 1,000 renditions of his work have been recorded by R.E.M., Elton John, Joe Cocker, Willie Nelson, k.d. Lang, Tory Amos, Nina Simone and Peter Gabriel. Cohen's songs have also has been used in dozens of movie soundtracks such as "Natural Born Killers" and "Shrek."
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