Jason Castro's performance of "Hallelujah" on American Idol has led to a surge of popularity for the Jeff Buckley cover of the Leonard Cohen song in the iTunes Store, propelling it to the number-one spot on the iTunes singles chart. Buckley's version of the song sold 178,000 digital downloads in the week following Castro's performance, to debut at number one on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart. According to Billboard, this was the highest boost in digital sales a song had ever received after being performed by a contestant on American Idol. It was the first time Buckley's version of the song charted on a Billboard chart, as well as the first U.S. number-one song on any chart for Buckley, who died May 29, 1997, at age 30.
Castro's version of the song "Hallelujah" briefly appeared in the number-one spot on the iTunes chart before it was removed due to the producers of American Idol not wanting any contestant to be favored.
