Leona Lewis

It is now two years since Leona Lewis was politely asked to step on the X and take her tentative first audition steps at a TV talent show. Her spine-tingling vocal delivery and classy posture immediately separated her from the hundreds of thousands of wannabes that have assumed the same position for the last five years.

With no gimmicks necessary, within two weeks of the live show, Leona Lewis had become the new thermometer by which the temperature of all the talents that have splayed themselves in front of Simon Cowell, on both sides of the Atlantic have since been measured. She has been used adjectivally to render the TV talent show something more than first class Saturday night entertainment. She has made it important to the music business itself; to the hopes and dreams of young singers itching to get the break; to the idea of British talent operating at an international standard, period. Behind her coy smile, Leona Lewis is something very special.

Leona performed her stunning version of ‘Run’, for the first time ever on TV, on The X Factor on Saturday 15th November. ‘Run’ is taken from the new deluxe edition of ‘Spirit’, which was released on Monday 17th November and features 3 brand new tracks and a bonus DVD. Leona recently shot a beautiful video for the track in South Africa.

Leona first performed ‘Run’ late last year when she was invited to perform for Jo Whiley in Radio 1’s infamous Live Lounge. The performance soon became one of the most talked about Live Lounge performances, with Jo herself saying, ‘Her voice was phenomenal.’ The amazing reaction from fans was what prompted Leona to include the track on this deluxe edition of ‘Spirit’.

Some Leona statistics to mull over for a second. Her debut single, ‘A Moment Like This’, was downloaded 50,000 times in the first half hour preceding her benchmark X Factor triumph in December 2006. Sales of its follow up, ‘Bleeding Love’, now stand at a staggering 2.9 million. It has been number one in almost every country you have ever heard of (go on, try naming more than 35 off the top of your head!). ‘Spirit’ has cleared 4 and a half million till receipts worldwide, including over 1 million in the UK and 2 in the US. With all due respect to the lads from Sheffield, it effortlessly outstripped the Arctic Monkeys debut album to become the fastest selling debut of all time in her homeland. It has been certified Platinum in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia, 6 x Platinum in Ireland and has been certified Gold in Japan, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Belgium and Hong Kong. It is and she is a phenomenon.

Statistically, emotionally, dramatically and with an apparent ease that masks the deeper machinations of Leona’s fundamental talent, 2008 has been hers. With Leona this still feels like the beginning of a story that will continue to beguile her millions of admirers and bemuse the received wisdom of how the star story ought to progress for a long time into the future.

Some select dates from the Leona Lewis Diary, 2008...
January: Leona eases into her year with a cool four Brit Awards nominations.
February: Leona is the invited guest to play at Clive Davis LA Grammy Awards party to a room that includes, amongst illustrious, glittering others, her idol Whitney Houston.
March: The most powerful woman in America, Oprah Winfrey says of Leona ‘a star is born’ as she thrills America with her number one single ‘Bleeding Love’, becoming the first UK female artist to take pole position with a debut since Sheena Easton did it in 1982.
April: Leona repeats the astronomical British success of her ‘Spirit’ album by becoming the first UK artist ever, regardless of gender, to debut at number 1 on the Billboard US album charts.
May: Leona performs to the biggest television audience of her entire career, somewhere over the rainbow of 30million awestruck faces, when she replays the gift of her discovery to Simon Cowell, by appearing on his smash hit US variant, American Idol. Ryan Seacrest duly dazzled!

June: Leona performs for and meets Nelson Mandela at his 90th birthday concert. Surely nobody needs spelling out the significance of this one for a mixed race girl from Hackney?
July: To lend her some stone-cold clout in terms of extra-curricular international relations, Leona is appointed at a ceremony in Tokyo as Goodwill Ambassador for the UK-Japan 2008 campaign. It is a role that will see Leona represent the contemporary aspects of UK creativity as part of the celebrations marking the 150th year of UK-Japan diplomatic relations.
August: Leona Lewis closes the Beijing Olympics with Jimmy Page of Led Zepellin and the most famous sportsman on the planet, Mr Beckham.
September: Leona will be the guest of couturier, impresario and visionary Roberto Cavalli at his Milan Fashion Week show.
October: Leona will join the rarefied company of Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani and, if the rumour mill is to be believed, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, when the buzz and clip of her Akon-produced brand new single ‘Forgive Me’ cuts loose.
Next step is a reissued and repackaged ‘Spirit’, featuring the bonus cuts ‘Forgive me’, ‘Misses Glass’, and ‘Run’. Introducing this new bespoke edition is ‘Forgive Me’.
Rumours abound of the great, the good and the hallowed that are queuing up to work with her on her second suite. That can be left to conjecture for now. Can we just quietly anoint Leona Lewis as 2008’s pop royalty and cheer her along for step 2? A fact about Leona Lewis in 2008. She still lives in Hackney next door to her mum and dad.
ENDS