Sing the Body Electric With k.d. lang’s Olympic Hallelujah (VIDEO), The Muppets & Adam Lambert

KD LANG: Are you following the Olympics? Are you obsessed with the kd lang cover of “Hallelujah?” Originally featured on her album Recollection (buy the original Hallelujah single from Amazon here or from itunes here. You can also get the special 2010 Winter Olympics version on itunes. It’s number 20 on the itunes charts today, Number one is obviously We are the We are the World 25 for Haiti, featuring every famous person ever.

Bisexual singer Nelly Furtado and openly gay fiddler Canadian Ashley MacIsaac also performed at the opening ceremonies. Alas there was no Tegan & Sara, but Sarah McLachlan (another favorite of the gays), did perform.
Did you cry when kd lang sang? Yeah us too. Queerty has made a video (these things keep disappearing from youtube, probs ’cause we’re gay):

Obviously Hallelujah, written and originally performed by Leonard Cohen, is one of the world’s most heartbreaking & beautiful songs ever; perhaps its most sorrowful version is Jeff Buckley’s (especially in retrospect because later he killed himself) [ETA: Okay, apparently he drowned and it was ruled an accident.] You probably have heard Rufus Wainwright’s cover. kd Lang also performed her cover at the 2005 Juno Awards. Justin Timberlake performed Hallelujah for the Hope for Haiti Album.

From disboards: “Hallelujah” is often used in television shows and movies during scenes involving death or heartbreak. It has been featured in movies as diverse as Basquiat, The Edukators (Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei), A Lot Like Love, Shrek (covered by John Cale in the movie and by Rufus Wainwright on the soundtrack), St. Ralph, Deliver Us from Evil, Kissed by Winter, Barfuss, Lord of War and When Night is Falling, and TV series such as Holby City, House, M.D., Falcon Beach, The L Word, The O.C. (twice by Jeff Buckley, once by Imogen Heap), Hollyoaks, The West Wing, Scrubs, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, ER, The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Crossing Jordan, Drama and Nicole, Rescue Me, LAX, Lost, Roswell, Ugly Betty, Numb3rs and Nearly Famous. It was also used in the Third Watch and Without a Trace episodes dealing with the 9/11 events. “Hallelujah” was played at the closing of NBC‘s Dateline on April 17, 2007, covering the Virginia Tech massacre. During the playing of the song, a montage of photographs regarding the events of the tragedy was displayed.

HOPE FOR HAITI: Speaking of the Haiti song, here’s that!

KISS-IN: A gay kiss-in took place in Paris France on Feb 14th:

“The “kiss-in” had originally been planned to take place in front of Notre Dame Cathedral but Christian Fundamentalist websites called in to “defend their faith against this provocation” using ‘aids bags’, ‘sodomites’ and other homophobic insults. The websites called for a violent response so the organizers decided to change the location to place Saint Michel in the nearby Latin Quarter, after the police strongly encouraged it, saying they could not protect them in case of trouble. The kiss in was held peacefully at St-Michel but some gays went to Notre Dame anyway and witnesses are saying 200 Christian activists were expecting them, and after they started kissing, they were attacked with motorbike helmets and kicked.”

CRAZY: Adam Lambert, Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta do ‘Crazy’ at the Rock My Town concert. If these three wanted to just like start their own rock band and make songs together I’m not sure I’d be entirely opposed to that idea. People never do bands anymore. It’s always like one person. I think bands are interesting. Like The Beatles. They were good.

MUPPETS! Florence Henderson & The Muppets do “Happy Together,” via @buzzfeed:

ELLEN: The NYT has finally figured out that Ellen is a total badass, and has written an article about how she is giving Oprah a run for her money in popularity. “Why? Because her hourlong show is upbeat and inspirational, two traits that appeal to daytime’s core female audience, according to the studies, which TV executives rely on as they make decisions. Equally important, the 52-year-old Ms. DeGeneres is seen as relaxed and relatable. Already, she is seen as more likable than Ms. Winfrey, according to the Q Scores Company, which measures consumer preferences.” We could have told them that. (@nytimes)

Lady Gaga in Alexander McQueen

CHAT ROULETTE:Our most popular new online tools—Google, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Digg—were designed to help us tame the web’s wildness, to tag its outer limits and set up user-friendly taxonomies. ChatRoulette is, in this sense, a blast from the Internet past. It’s the anti-Facebook, pure social-media shuffle – Is ChatRoulette the Future of the Internet or Its Distant Past? (@nymag)

JOHN MAYER: Are you tired of hearing about John Mayer yet? Did you know that he, um, made out with Perez Hilton? “The only man I’ve kissed is Perez Hilton. It was New Year’s Eve and I decided to go out and destroy myself. I was dating Jessica [Simpson] at the time, and I remember seeing Perez Hilton flitting about this club and acting as though he had just invented homosexuality. All of a sudden I thought, I can outgay this guy right now. I grabbed him and gave him the dirtiest, tongue-iest kiss I have ever put on anybody—almost as if I hated fags. I don’t think my mouth was even touching when I was tongue kissing him, that’s how disgusting this kiss was.” Um, yeah! Apparently GLAAD is taking issue with this and wants an apology. Raise your hand if you do not know how to feel right now! (@queersunited)(@digitalspy)

MCQUEEN: Stars from Madonna to Sarah Jessica Parker to Lady Gaga are expressing their sadness in the wake of Alexander McQueen’s suicide. Lady Gaga has tweeted a favorite photo of herself with her friend as a tribute. (@mtv)

POLAROID: Speaking of Gaga, remember how awhile ago it was announced that she would be Polaroid’s new creative director? We finally get to see her work! The camera comes in this sweet vintage style or a silver blobby one, and is equipped with flash, red-eye reduction and a selftimer. (@ohnotheydidnt)

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AMAZING RACE: Carol and Brandy from LA are hoping to be the first lesbian couple to win Amazing Race – they say they’re going to prove that they’re “every bit as good as men,” (b/c they’re better at asking for directions!) and “hopefully change some hearts and minds” w/r/t gay women. (@metroweekly)

BIG GAY OUT: The annual Big Gay Out saw drag queens, the Prime Minister and supporters of the gay and lesbian community converge on Auckland’s Coyle Park. (@tvnz)

SORZ: Taylor Swift is one of the worst singers of all time. (@jamshowbiz)

TOOLS: The guilty-pleasure Vh1 show “Tool Academy” will now feature a lesbian couple, Cheron and her apparently tool-ish girlfriend Courtney. This is either a step forward for progress or two steps back for dignity. Or both. Anyways, this is what they look like! Cheron’s in the corner. (@afterellen)

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ALICE: The soundtrack for the upcoming Alice in Wonderland film has leaked, and ONTD has helpfully compiled all the songs for you! It has Grace Potter, Kerli, Motion City Soundtrack and Wolfmother on it! (@ohnotheydidnt)

SILENT BOB: Nobody puts Kevin Smith in the corner. WTF Southwest, kicking the man off your airplane. (@jezebel)

POETRY: Trying to think of some romantic stuff at the last minute? Robert Pinsky at Slate has your back! He talks about some love poems, and don’t worry, there’s defo some Sappho in there. (@slate)

DOLPHIN: Happy Valentine’s Day from Jezebel and also us! Here’s a dolphin. (@jezebel)

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Rachel

Originally from Boston, MA, Rachel now lives in the Midwest. Topics dear to her heart include bisexuality, The X-Files and tacos. Her favorite Ciara video is probably "Ride," but if you're only going to watch one, she recommends "Like A Boy." You can follow her on twitter and instagram.

Rachel has written 1142 articles for us.

35 Comments

  1. did anyone else think that there was a conspicuous lack of close-ups for K.D. Lang in comparison to other performers? homophobic? sizeist? maybe I’m just looking too hard because of my crush on her since, oh,… sixth grade?

    • Probably because they knew everyone had their eyes closed already, fantasizing about having sex with k.d. lang’s voice.

    • OMG I was complaining about the lack of closeups on KD Lang too!!!!!

      I mean they zoomed in on the aerial snowboarders and the mountains and rollerbladers when that was supposed to be seen far away because you were supposed to be able to see what they all made together– the city.

      It was very frustrating. Also notice that the commentators talked too much and that they were all men!!! I just don’t like NBC’s boycott in general so they tick me off.

      Maybe they just couldn’t handle the hot dyke-ness.

  2. That polaroid camera is beautiful.

    I love Kris, Adam, and Allison together. But mostly just Kris & Adam together because it is adorable.

    Funny you posted that dolphin picture. My weekend has been spent researching them for a gigantic-ass paper. They are invading my life!

    That John Mayer tidbit is strange. He is such an odd man. I don’t know how I feel about Tool Academy. I think you described it best, haha. Hm.

  3. Also, I just watched the Hope For Haiti video and was not expecting that hip hop/rap bit to kick in. That was kind of badass.

  4. Hallelujah has been stalking me. I already knew all the words/had about 5 versions on my iTunes. Then Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris played it on the Haiti telethon & I decided to look for more versions. Then my friend learned it on the uke and I started to learn it on the uke. I now have over 40 versions of the song. In conclusion, the song is stalking me. And I need to get out more.

    When kd lang started singing and they finally showed her on the tv my little brother was like, oh, it’s a man. I had to have a little chat with him about how people don’t have to look super girly or boyish just because they are girls or boys.

    • justin timberlake sang hallelujah?! i don’t know if i could handle that. it’s like the crying and the dancing part of me being forced to meet, and i’m not sure if i’m ready for that jelly yet.

  5. Well shit. That was some music. kd lang. rock. also, I dug the rap interlude on the Haiti song, but the growing use of autotune as the song went on made me giggle.

    And then I watched the video of tay swift’s performance at the Grammy’s and oh my dear god. I felt so embarrassed for Stevie Nicks.

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  7. Oh man, I love “Hallelujah”. kd lang rocked that shit. Basically I cry to Rufus Wainwright’s version whenever I’m sad. Also, I would lovelovelove to see a video of Sarah Mclachlan ’cause I missed her performance.

    • Meh. Sarah sounded great, but NBC shot her from a crummy angle and all you could see was the top 2/3 of her face that was sticking up over her piano whenever she was on screen…which is just a damned shame.

  8. I’m so glad that the depressing thing that happened in Paris was followed up by a video of singing Muppets. THANKS AUTOSTRADDLE

    In other news, the only place I’ve ever been kicked out of for showing affection to my girlfriend was in Paris.

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  10. My Dad loved KD Lang, when he died we played her version of Hallelujah at his funeral. I can’t listen to it now, any of the versions, I always have to run over and turn off whatever is playing it.
    Yay Dad supported the gays :D

  11. Oh no, a leztool. This won’t be good for you. You know it won’t.

    DOLPHIN.
    AS was my valentine, whether you like it or not.

  12. I’M A STRAIGHT FEMALE, BUT IF K. D. LANG WOULD SING FOR ME, SHE CAN HAVE ME ! SHE IS INCREDIBLE ! AND, GAY MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO ME , AND MY DEVOTION TO ADAM LAMBERT. LIKE HE SAYS—–SEXY IS SEXY ! AND, HE HAS A HEAVEN-SENT VOICE THAT CAN ROCK, OR PUT TEARS IN YOUR EYES. AND, HE IS SOOO BEAUTIFUL ! I LOVE THEM BOTH !!

  13. Furtado isn’t bisexual. She admitted that in a later interview.

    Lang is a unattractive fat dyke who should not be on tv reinforcing lesbian stereotypes.

    • agree. i hate it when people watch stuff like this and then think we’re all fantastic performers, or have great haircuts, or look sexy in suits, or represent america. what is her problem, honestly.

  14. K D Lang has a voice that is so beautiful and anyone hearing her has to be affected by it somehow in a good way, When you put her down you only hurt your own image.

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  16. We like KD but he does too many breaks in his voice in this number – it gets tiring.

    ALso, is this a site for Lesbyterians? We (HEART) all TRUE genuine Lesbyterians because the more active Lesbyterians there are out there , the more men (aka “Str8 guys”) there will be available for us sisters!

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