Three days after he collapsed onstage in eastern Spain, Leonard Cohen is scheduled to perform in Barcelona tonight. The 75-year-old singer was rushed to hospital on Friday, allegedly suffering from food poisoning.
Video of Cohen's concert at Velódromo Luis Puig in Valencia, shows the Canadian poet and performer at full strength, singing Bird on the Wire – and then suddenly not. The passionate performance, Cohen's fourth song of the night, is brought to an abrupt end part-way through the bridge. After kneeling several times through the course of the song, Cohen simply falls over during a saxophone solo. As shocked concertgoers look on, his accompanists immediately abandon their instruments and rush to Cohen's side.
An ambulance rushed the singer to Nueve de Octubre hospital, where he was reportedly released the next morning. Plans are now going ahead for the last date on Cohen's Spanish tour, tonight at the Palau Sant Jordi concert hall in north-eastern Barcelona.
Later this week, Cohen is scheduled to appear in a contentious concert at Tel Aviv's Ramat Gan football stadium. "The performance here will take place, and it will be excellent," Cohen's Israeli promoter assured the Jerusalem Post. "There's nothing to worry about."
Cohen had originally planned to perform in both Tel Aviv and the West Bank city of Ramallah. But, after Palestinian rights groups protested against both concerts, the Ramallah performance was cancelled and Amnesty International withdrew their support for the tour.