Legendary songwriter Leonard Cohen won his first Grammy posthumously on Sunday for You Want It Darker, the meditative title song off his final album that presaged his death.
Cohen, while a major figure in pop culture and literature, had few hits in the traditional sense and throughout his life was shut out of the Grammys, the premier gala of the US-based music industry.
The Canadian poet and singer won for Best Rock Performance for You Want It Darker in a field that included another late artist, Chris Cornell.
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The album You Want It Darker came out just three weeks before Cohen died at age 82 in November in Los Angeles.
On the title track, the singer - whose music was full of metaphysical reflections - appeared to come to terms with his own mortality.
Hineni, hinemi, Cohen sang, using the Hebrew for "I am here," before adding, "I'm ready, My Lord." Over a steady bass line, the song builds with chants from the choir of his Shaar Hashomayim synagogue in his native Montreal.
While he never won a Grammy on his own, Cohen - whose best-known songs included Hallelujah and So Long, Marianne - earned a lifetime achievement award in 2010.
Cohen also appeared on a tribute album to fellow Canadian songwriter Joni Mitchell led by jazz legend Herbie Hancock, which won Album of the Year in 2008.
