Spyder's Random Things: Leona Lewis is about to break all sorts of records

This girl is scrumtrulescent !!

Leona Lewis leaps from U.K. sensation to U.S. star

A couple of weeks ago, Leona Lewis had just finished her hit Bleeding Love on The Oprah Winfrey Show when the host exclaimed, "Wow! Talk about a star is born. You're the real deal, girl."

Winfrey isn't the only one convinced by the 22-year-old former X-Factor winner (American Idol's British cousin), who has drawn comparisons to Whitney Houston.

Simon Cowell, who judges both shows, and RCA Music Group chairman Clive Davis are overseeing her album, Spirit, which arrives April 8 in the USA and is already the biggest-selling debut in British history.

Bleeding Love, written by Jesse McCartney and OneRepub-lic's Ryan Tedder, is No. 1 on Nielsen SoundScan's digital songs chart. The song is rapidly gaining airplay at top 40 and rhythmic stations. The song spent seven weeks atop Britain's pop charts last year, and Spirit has sold 2.5 million copies worldwide since November.

That's good news for a music industry that's starving for new stars to break out, as Amy Winehouse did in 2007 with her multiplatinum, five-Grammy-winning Back to Black.

Cowell says singles by X-Factor contestants often do well, but the album's success was a surprise. What wasn't surprising was London-born Lewis' star appeal.

"It was obvious from the beginning," Cowell says. Before the show wrapped in 2006, "we were starting to get calls from America from people who wanted to work with her, win or lose."

The singer, who didn't think she'd survive the X-Factor auditions, found that her days as a receptionist and pizza-parlor waitress were over. "I kept getting further and further along. I was like, 'Omigosh.' "

Her cover of Kelly Clarkson's A Moment Like This became an instant U.K. sensation. Soon, she was on her way to the USA for a Davis-arranged showcase for such producers and songwriters as Dallas Austin, Ne-Yo, J.R. Rotem, Stargate, Walter Afanasieff, Salaam Remi and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis.

"Things came so quickly when I won," Lewis says. "Going from doing music part time to doing it on this big scale was a major change."

The U.S. version of Spirit, a blend of pop/R&B ballads and uptempo tracks, includes two new tracks —Forgive Me, written and produced by Akon, and Misses Glass, by producer/songwriters Madd Scientist and Rock City. There's also a haunting cover of Roberta Flack's First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

A former performing-arts school student, Lewis spent years polishing her craft, writing and recording songs and studying piano, guitars and voice. She says she struggled to find her way in the music industry before X-Factor gave her a platform.

"With a lot of these shows, people rush out an album after they win," Lewis says. "I told (Cowell) I didn't want to, and he was really supportive of that."

Comparisons to Houston, Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys are "just amazing," she says, "but I've got a lot of hard work to do."

Source [USA Today]

"Bleeding Love" official video WOW WOW WOW !!!!

"Bleeding Love" on Oprah

"I Have Nothing"

"I Will Always Love You"

"A Moment Like This"

"Summertime"

"All By Myself"

"Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word"

"Without You"

"Better In Time" (Official video)

X-Factor first edition - "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" snippet

X FACTOR sensation Leona Lewis has warbled her way to the world’s biggest solo music contract.

Rival US record bosses are ready to break the bank for her after she became the first Brit female to hit No.1 there for 21 years.

Sources say she will be rewarded with a mind-blowing album and live performance deal worth £50million.

It will easily shatter the previous record of £40million, set by Madonna last year when she left the Warner label to sign for Live Nation.

And Leona could get her hands on the gift of her dreams as early as Thursday, when she turns 23.

Senior label executives would like to present it to her officially at a glittering birthday party in New York.

A friend of the family gasped yesterday: “Everything’s happening so fast. She’s in a whirl.”

Londoner Leona, who won The X Factor in 2006, struck gold with Bleeding Love, her debut single over the pond.

It has now topped the charts in more than 20 countries.

Her new contract will rocket her straight to the top of Forbes Magazine’s list of the highest-earning female artists on the planet.

Already the first X Factor millionaire, she could even double the £50million with merchandising deals.

A Forbes spokesman said: “It looks like Leona’s heading straight to the top of the financial chart as well.

“She is an absolute overnight sensation and the rewards she will reap are phenomenal.”

Sources close to Clive Davis, boss of J Records – Leona’s label in America – say he is “thrilled” to tear up the £4.5million, five-album agreement she signed last year.

But he’s now facing stiff competition from other labels desperate to grab her. One insider told the Daily Star Sunday: “Nobody dreamed she would suddenly become the most in-demand singer invirtually every country“She is so hot that Clive will have to factor in US and world tours, future album sales that promise to be so huge they’re off the chart…and TV specials… and DVD spin-offs.

“Right now, her potential even dwarfs the sort of enormous sales stars like Madonna, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston could expect.

“The public has been aching for a new female idol since the demise of Britney Spears – and Leona’s it.”

The star’s family and her boyfriend, Lou Al-Chama, are flying to the Big Apple for the champagne birthday bash.

X Factor guru Simon Cowell, who has helped steer her career, is also expected to break off from American Idol rehearsals to put in an appearance.

Leona was in LA yesterday but she is due to fly to New York over the weekend.

The family friend told the Daily Star Sunday: “She’s longing to see her mum. But most of all she’s aching to spend some romantic time alone with Lou.

“She’s ecstatic about her instant fame in America but she can’t wait to share her joy with her man.”

The last Brit female No.1 in the US was Kim Wilde, with You Keep Me Hanging On, in 1987. Sheena Easton was top in 1981, four years before Leona was born.

Source [Daily Star]