Toni Cornell, Chris Cornell's daughter, appeared on Good Morning America Friday to pay tribute to her father and the late Chester Bennington. Joined by OneRepublic, the 12-year-old singer performed a powerful rendition of the 1984 Leonard Cohen classic "Hallelujah."
"Chester sang this at Chris' funeral, and this is arguably one of the greatest songs written in the last 50 years," OneRepublic singer Ryan Tedder explained before the tribute performance. "It's a very special song to us, and I think to most people and especially to Toni as well."
Bennington, 41, died by suicide July 20. The Linkin Park frontman was a close friend of Chris Cornell, who died by suicide May 18. Friends have pushed back against unfounded speculation that Cornell’s death directly inspired Bennington's. "It could be a part of it, but it's a small part of it," Ryan Shuck, who played guitar in Bennington's Dead by Sunrise side project, toldRolling Stone's Kory Grow in a must-read piece published Friday. "I think that it's just another horrible event that gets put in your subconscious. It's kindling, but the fire was already burning."
Billboardreported this week that Linkin Park had broken a chart record by landing 23 titles from their wildly successful catalog on the Hot Rock Songs chart. "Numb," "In the End," and other entries spanning the band's discography landed in the top 10. The band's most recent album, One More Light, was released in May and features collaborations with Pusha T and Kiiara.
