Leonard Cohen posthumously awarded Grammy for best rock performance

Leonard Cohen's song 'You Want It Darker' received a Grammy for Best Rock Performance Sunday night in New York at the 60th annual Grammy Awards.

The song is taken from his album of the same name.

The song was recorded with the Shaar Hashomayim choir.

Cohen's father and great-grandfather were presidents of the Westmount synagogue where his family has worshipped for generations.

The choir's leader, Cantor Gideon Zelermyer, was in New York for the award ceremony.

He said he laughed and screamed like a school girl when Cohen's name was announced, but said he felt the recognition came too late.

"This entire year, year-and-a-half, from the time the record came out, to the time that Leonard passed away, to all of the tributes of the last year, the exhibit at the MAC, and the concert on the mountain, the concert at the Bell Centre. It's an amazing, loving, beautiful tribute to an amazing life in music and to think that it's such a bittersweet closure that the first solo acknowledgement of an artistic statement of his by the Academy and at the same time he's not around to enjoy it," said Zelermyer.

The Montreal-born singer, who died in November 2016, had never before won a Grammy for a song or an album although he was previously recognized by the industry with a lifetime achievement award in 2010.