First Lulu, now Leona: the British R'N'B sensation who has conquered america
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She has succeeded where the likes of like Oasis and Robbie Williams have failed -- R'n'B star Leona Lewis has cracked America, becoming the first female British artist to top the charts across the pond in two decades. Madonna, watch your back!
The 23-year-old Londoner has enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom since winning the third series of TV talent show The X-Factor in the UK in 2006.
Lewis' debut single, A Moment Like This, released in December 2006, broke a world record after it was downloaded 50,000 times within 30 minutes.
Then last year, Spirit became the fastest-selling debut album in both Ireland and the UK, easily eclipsing the achievements of previous TV pop idols such as Will Young and Michelle McManus. But it is her success across the Atlantic that has really put in her in another league to her rivals.
Lewis' single Bleeding Love -- the biggest-selling single in Ireland last year -- this week became the first by a British female vocalist to top the Billboard Hot 100 in the US since Kim Wilde in 1987 -- an achievement which puts her in an elite Gang of Six, which includes Petula Clark, Lulu, Sheena Easton, Bonnie Tyler and Wilde.
So what is it about Lewis that won over music lovers across the Atlantic when so many of her peers have failed?
The Simon Cowell factor cannot be ignored. The industry bigwig has taken her under his wing since her X Factor triumph, mentoring a worldwide deal with Sony Records and appearing alongside her on Oprah Winfrey's couch last month. Indeed, America's favourite talk-show host raved about her performance, declaring "a real star is born". The importance of such a celebrity endorsement for Lewis cannot be overestimated, given the huge ratings the show routinely pulls in across America.
She is already being hailed as the next Whitney Houston or Celine Dion, two of the highest-grossing divas of the last 20 years. But will she able to keep on the ground? The signs are good -- Lewis still lives in the less-than-salubrious London suburb of Hackney with her childhood sweetheart, an electrician named Lou, whom she plans to marry.
Whether she can consolidate her early success in the US remains to be seen -- but planning has already started on a €20 million world tour in 2010, and a second album is due in 2009.
But not everybody is impressed. Mariah Carey, with whom she has also been compared, had a choice put-down to her would-be rival: "They've been comparing people to me for longer than I can remember. I'm just like, 'Whatever.' If they're the new me can they come and do my interviews for me or get in the studio and write one of my songs?"
Ouch. But Mariah aside, it seems Leona Lewis really does have that X factor.
- Kevin Burke
