Leona Lewis
Leona Lewis shot to fame as the winner of the 2006 season of Simon Cowell’s ITV show The X Factor. Since then she has become a global phenomenon, breaking records and proving herself to be one of the most talented vocalists of her generation. She has been compared to some of the greatest divas alive including Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston, and in the US is signed to the label owned by Houston’s mentor Clive Davis.
Lewis was born in lslington and attended both The Sylvia Young Theatre School and Italia Conti, before finishing her education at the prestigious BRIT school. It was while attending the BRIT school that she honed her song writing and producing skills and began writing songs for a demo album she would record after leaving school. Although her monumental talent was obvious even at this early stage, she never managed to secure a record deal and was considering giving up music to go to university when her boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa persuaded her to audition for the X Factor.
Lewis’s potential was immediately spotted by producers and she sailed through to the live finals with Simon Cowell commenting that she was ‘one of the best singers we’ve seen in this country for a long, long time.’ She won the show with a huge majority of the public vote and her debut single ‘A Moment in Time’ went on to break records when it was downloaded 50,000 times in just 30 minutes.
Breaking with X Factor tradition, Lewis then took the rest of the year out of the spotlight while she was recording her debut album Spirit. Having been signed simultaneously to Clive Davis’s J Records and Simon Cowell’s Syco label, the two music moguls teamed up for the first time in music history to ensure she worked with some of the most successful and talented songwriters and producers in the business. The plan worked and Lewis’s debut album Spirit again broke world records. She appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, prompting the legendary host to comment that she was ‘the real deal’ ensuring that her success in the US was pretty much written in stone.
The debut single from the album entitled ‘Bleeding Love’ was co-written and produced by One Republic front man Ryan Tedder and was to top the UK singles charts for 7 weeks. 2008 was Leona Lewis’s year. Bleeding Love was nominated for both a Grammy and a Brit Award and Lewis herself was to be named Top New Artist by the US Billboard magazine, while in the UK was nominated in the Best British Female and Best Breakthrough Act at the Brit Awards. Controversially, she went home empty handed on the night but was recognised at the Mobos where she won awards for both Spirit and Bleeding Love.
Leona lives in Hackney with her long time boyfriend Lou and despite her incredible success remains one of the most down to earth pop stars in the business.
