Year after year, the X-Factor television series is splashed across our TV screens. But as each winner is crowned just before the christmas period, have we ever witnessed vocal talent at such a high standard from another contestant since 2006’s winner?
Early Life
Leona Louise Lewis was born on April 3rd 1985 in the borough of Islington; London. She became a worldwide success when she earned her place as the first female contestant to win the X-Factor competition back in 2006. Throughout her early life the singer had always expressed a passion and interest in music. She practiced her talents and enrolled in various singing schools including ‘The Sylvia Young Theatre School’, ‘The Ravenscoft Theatre School’ and the ‘Brit School’, where other singers such as the likes of ‘Adele’and ‘Amy Winehouse’ attended.
X-Factor
The singer years later found she had not broke into the music scene as she would have liked and auditioned in London’s X-facto rauditions singing Eva Cassidy’s ‘Over the rainbow’. Leona battled through all of the necessary stages of the show until she landed herself a place in Simon Cowell’s category of the ‘girls’ for the live shows. The singer was very much associated too all of the big singers of the last fifty years during the competition including the likes of ‘Mariah Carey’ and ‘Whitney Houston’, which of course is a phenomenal comparison for a singer of just twenty one at the time.
Waitressing at ‘Pizza hut’ and answering phones at a receptionist’s desk was the career that Leona had before she had decided to audition for the X-Factor. However her boyfriend at the time, an electrician called Lou Al Chamaa gave her the final push she needed to have the confidence to try and pursue her singing career once more through the show. During the live shows, Leona took on big songs each week, including ‘I will always love you’ and Celine Dion’s; ‘All by myself’, showing off her powerful and unfaultable vocal range. By the final show, judge at the time ‘Sharon Osbourne’ even told the singer live on television:
“It would be a travesty, If you didn’t win this competition”.
When Leona was crowned the X-Factor winner in December 2006, her life and career began to take off leading her to achievements she never thought possible. Her debut single ‘A moment like this’ was released on the 20th December and stayed at number one for four weeks making it a Christmas number one. After her first hit single success, Leona took a year out to work on her first debut album after signing a five album deal with Simon Cowell and Clive Davies. The two music mogul’s decided on this two part mentor agreement and vowed to make the singer a worldwide success.
The Success Of Bleeding Love
After a year away from showbiz Leona Lewis showcased her new single on the X-Factor 2007’s first live show. The song called ‘Bleeding love’ was co written for her by ‘Ryan Tedder’ from band ‘One Republic’ and by singer ‘Jesse McCartney’. The single went on to produce worldwide success and reached number one in over thirty countries. It became the best selling single of 2008 and Leona became the first singer to achieve a number one single in America in over twenty years. Leona Lewis sang the single on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ and was told by the show host that a ‘Star has been born’. The singer prior to this went onto to be nominated for a Grammy award and sang the single at Clive Davies’s pre Grammy awards party.
Spirit
Prior to her success Leona released her first album ‘Spirit’ in November 2007. The tracks for the album had been recorded during Leona’s year out in recording studios throughout London, Miami and LA. Likewise to her success with ‘Bleeding love’, the album was released in America in April 2008 and reached number one making Leona Lewis the first singer to reach the number one spot in America with a debut album. Leona released other songs off ‘Spirit’ throughout 2008 such as ‘Better in time’, ‘I will be’ and sports relief single co written by Simon Cowell, ‘Footprints in the sand’.
After the success of Leona’s first album, she recorded a cover of Snow Patrol’s hit ‘Run’. released only on itunes. The singer sang the song on Radio 1’s live lounge, however after demands from the public for this song to be released Leona sang the song live on X-Factor, reducing Xtra factor presenter at the time ‘Holly Willoughby’ to tears. The song went on to be released in the UK giving Leona Lewis another number one single to add to the list.
Echo
In November 2009, Leona’s second studio album ‘Echo’ was released, much to the wait of the general public. Similarly to the first album, Leona worked with ‘One Republic’ star ‘Ryan Tedder’ again as well as familiar faces such as ‘Justin Timberlake’. The album reached the number one top spot in the UK album charts and Leona released the first single ‘Happy’, which was co written by ‘Ryan Tedder’. The single was released on the 15th September 2009 and reached number two in the UK after the singer performed the song live on an X-Factor live show. Shortly after this the long awaited James Cameron film ‘Avatar’, was released and Leona had been selected by Cameron himself to sing the theme tune ‘I see you’ for the films soundtrack.
The Labyrinth
Throughout this whirlwind rise to fame Leona had kept her relationship with former electrician boyfriend ‘Lou Al Chamaa’ now a Sony music scout, private and strong. The pair had met during their teens and grown from childhood sweethearts into lovers. During Leona’s first ever UK solo tour she announced the couples split in June after over ten years together due to her hectic work schedule and the pressure of her preparing for her tour. Despite Leona’s heartbreak she embarked on her solo tour named ‘The Labyrinth’, which began on the 28th May 2010 in Sheffield. The tour received positive feedback and was inspired by the film ‘The Labyrinth’.
Collide Controversy
Shortly after Leona had finished her tour, she took time out to prepare for her third studio album ‘Glassheart’. During her time away Leona released a summer dance single called ‘Collide’. Despite the single doing well in the chart reaching number four, a lot of controversy occurred because of the single. Swedish DJ ‘Avicii’ filed a high court challenge against Leona Lewis and Simon Cowell claiming that the single plagiarized his track ‘Fade into darkness’. The two artists took to twitter to defend themselves over the matter however an agreement was eventually reached between both record labels that ‘Avicii’ would appear as a featured artist on the track.
Book Signing
Leona Lewis may come across to the public that she has had quite the lucky life since winning X-Factor 2006; however she has had her fair share of unfortunate moments. In 2011 a thought to be fan of the singer queued for five hours in London at Leona’s booking singing for her picture autobiography ‘Dreams’. As the fan approached after five hours of waiting, Leona was punched in the face. Five security guards pinned down the attacker, as Leona was rushed off to hospital with tears rolling down her face. Leona was extremely shaken after the attack and pressed charges on the attacker for his unprovoked attack against her.
Harrods
In October 2008 Leona was offered a seven figure sum of money from ‘Mohamed Al Fayed’ to open a sale at Harrods. However the strict vegetarian and animal lover singer declined the offer due the fact that Harrods is the only UK department store to stock real animal fur. The singer has never hidden the fact she is an animal lover, which would explain why she felt so strongly about this issue.
Leona is a passionate and keen horse rider and even has a poem about horses running down her spine.
Glassheart
Right now, Leona Lewis has her debut single ‘Trouble’ out which is the lead song from ‘Glassheart’. She is currently in busy works promoting the album around the country. The singer represents so much talent and has illustrated this well by her hard work since winning the X-Factor 2006. When tuning in each year to the latest series of the X-Factor it is so hard to not compare all of the fresh talent to that of Leona Lewis. This breath of fresh air singer has proved that it is possible to win a talent show based purely on your voice and not on gimmicks and stage dancers. She should go on to achieve even more great things and deserves her place as a celebrity based on her amazing vocal talent.
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