This Fine British Sistah Can Sang! Period!!!
If Simon Cowell has his way, the U.K. sensation and winner of Britain's talent show ''The X Factor'' will be America's newest idol.
Leona Lewis' first album, Spirit, sold 375,000 copies in its first week, making it the new fastest-selling debut in British history
''You know, I'm really just a normal girl.'' Leona Lewis repeats variations on this mantra often during an hour-long interview in the back of her black SUV, but all evidence points to the contrary. Consider the recent appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show that catapulted her single ''Bleeding Love'' to the top of the Billboard Hot 100songs chart.
In the U.S., we have expectations of our golden-throated divas — a psychotic meltdown; a marriage to a much older, strange Svengali; or at least a tawdry reality show. However, Lewis, 23, isn't delivering any of that — just the pure vocal goods. ''I'm naturally shy as a person. It takes me a while to come out with people,'' she says. ''I'm not loud and lairy, you know?''
Well, if the songtress isn't going to sell herself, we'll do it for her. Her four-month X Factor transformation into a power-note diva prompted American Idol's Cowell and music legend Clive Davis to contemplate cutting her album together even before she took home the show's crown. ''I could just see the effect that she had on the audience,'' says Cowell. ''I thought, This girl's not just going to be big in England. This girl is going to be a hit all over the world.'' So far, so good. Her first U.K. single, a cover of Kelly Clarkson's ''A Moment Like This,'' bowed at No. 1 in December 2006. Spirit had its white-hot debut the following November, and it's since sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide.
To be clear, Lewis has been preparing for pop stardom since she was pretty much a baby. Born in Hackney, a rather rough neighborhood in East London, she began singing, she says, ''literally before I could speak.'' She attended the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School starting at age 6. At 9, she began taking private voice lessons; soon after, she was singing at Wembley Arena. (''It was a song called 'Grocer Jack.' It's about a greengrocer and he passes away,'' she laughs, revealing just a hint of a maudlin side.)
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
At 14, she enrolled in the arts-intensive BRIT School, where she began working in basic recording studios. By 17, she was cutting demos and playing gigs at local London clubs while working part-time jobs at a Pizza Hut and a mortgage brokerage. No, determination has not been a problem for Leona Lewis. ''She really impresses me,'' says Davis, who's presided over the careers of everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Alicia Keys. ''The major stars have that work ethic. They really have to work all year round, and they're willing to do it.''
"Thank God Leona loves being with her family," Cowell raves. "I've had no demands, no weird requests for strange-colored water or cushions."
By Adam B. Vary