So the X Factor winner has claimed the Christmas number one for the fourth year in a row. No surprises there. And no surprises either that the choice of song, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, has provoked outrage among large numbers of 'serious' music fans.

I can sort of understand it. Hallelujah is a bleak, highly complex meditation on love, sex, spirituality, and transcendence. In other words, it's not a song for a 20 year-old TV talent show singer for whom the lyrics mean next to nothing.

It doesn't even suit her voice.

This isn't to be disrespectful to Alexandra Burke. She didn't choose to sing it and, frankly, nobody in their right mind would have picked it for her.

However, two very good things have come out of this one extremely poor decision.

As you may well have heard, a campaign to get the definitive Jeff Buckley version to number one might have failed (come on, that was never going to happen), but it has succeeded in getting it to number two.

Perhaps even more remarkably, the Leonard Cohen original has entered the lower reaches of the Top 40 as well.

Not only is this a small step for musical good taste, it's a giant leap for the spirit of Christmas.

How so? Well, as you may or may not be aware, old Leonard Cohen's been in dire need of a cash injection since suing his former manager for 'misappropriating' $5million from his retirement fund a few years ago.

Indeed, his acclaimed performance at this summer's Glastonbury only came about because he needed the money.

So, whatever you think of X Factor, Simon Cowell, Alexandra Burke, and all the rest of it, you can bet your life Leonard Cohen himself isn't complaining.