The dizzying success that reality TV stars experience is often short-lived. But English pop singer Leona Lewis hopes to defy this trend. After winning the 2006 series of the UK’s The X Factor, an Idol-esque talent show judged by acerbic-tongued Simon Cowell, Lewis went on to release the Grammy-nominated album Spirit and the staggeringly successful single Bleeding Love, which reached number one status in 34 countries, including New Zealand and Australia.
Despite her rapid ascent to fame and fortune, 24-year-old Lewis has retained her girl-next-door persona, evident in her sweet, almost childlike voice (tempered by a Hackney twang) and her penetratingly positive attitude.
Promoting her highly anticipated second album, Echo, Lewis chats to MiNDFOOD over the phone from London. When asked to describe what she likes most about her latest musical offering, Lewis, clearly on message, explains that Echo has “taken it up a level production-wise, vocal-wise, song-wise. I’m feeling all the vibes on there, from the big ballads to the up-tempo, high-energy stuff. I’m really pleased with it.”
The first single to be released from the album is Happy. With the lyrics “you can’t have everything” and “so what if it hurts me/so what if I break down”, the song is not the syrupy affair that its title suggests. Rather it’s about the pursuit of happiness, something Lewis experienced before fame came knocking at her door. These days, Lewis is at her happiest when she’s with her family and friends, who are “over the moon” with her success. “I’ve been doing music for a long time, so they’re so proud to see me going into a studio everyday and seeing that work pay off,” she says.
Family plays a major role in Lewis’s present and her past, and she relishes the memories of spending Christmases in Wales: “My mum’s Welsh, so Christmas would be celebrated with all of my Welsh family,” she recalls. “We’d all sit around eating far too much and playing games. It would always be a traditional meal, a roast, but I’d have the vegetarian option. I love my Christmas dinner,” she says. This year, Lewis will spend Christmas in the UK “chilled and relaxed”, either paying a visit to her relatives in Wales or hosting them down in London.
Lewis, who is also of Guyanese descent, quashes rumours that she is making a permanent life for herself in LA. She explains that she rents a property in the City of Angels but is based in London with her boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa, who she met when she was 10 years old and has been dating for seven years: “I couldn’t ask for someone more supportive [than Lou],” she gushes.
Early last year, Lewis visited South Africa with the UK charity Sport Relief. She believes the trip changed her life forever. “I went to Johannesburg and visited people who have been affected by HIV and AIDS ... the children I visited there were basically orphaned because their parents had passed away and they were either living with siblings or other relatives.”
During her visit, Lewis accompanied two children on a visit to their grandmother’s house. “They went back with a packed lunch, enough for one small child back home and that was four people’s meals for that day. It was just unbelievable to me. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, I didn’t think that that existed and to see it up close with my own eyes, people starving because they are so poor... ” she trails off.
“It changed my life because they’re so young,” Lewis says with a heavy sigh. “They just seemed so helpless, but they’ve just got so much spirit and strength. They just amazed me [with] their courage.” Another trip to Africa is on the cards for Lewis, who plans to visit different humanitarian projects as well as animal sanctuaries. “Any way I can help I want to,” she says.
While Lewis hopes to “make a difference” in the lives of others, she finds herself relying on the people around her to free her of her greatest weakness – self-doubt. “If I hear anything negative ... I really take it out on myself, I’m my biggest critic,” she laments. “I’ve learnt that I have to let it out and I have to express how I feel, usually to my friends and my family and they’re like, ‘oh shut up’. I let them bring me back down to earth and remind me that I am a human being and I do make mistakes. That’s what I’m slowly learning.”
When it comes to her peers, Lewis admires artists such as Alicia Keys and, somewhat surprisingly, US rock band Kings of Leon. “Alicia is very strong and powerful and there’s something fiery about her - I like that in a woman. Kings of Leon I love because they’re a band that has worked very hard, didn’t give up and make great music,” she says.
It has been three years since Lewis was deemed to possess the “X factor” that sets her apart from other pop starlets looking to catch a break. Having sold more than 6 million albums since then, surely she is feeling confident of her standing in the music industry? “I’d say I’m a little more confident,” she says with a nervous giggle. But her response doesn’t fool me - it’s obvious that Leona Lewis the “girl-next-door” is here to stay, at least until her third album, anyway.
