Leona Lewis

Leona Lewis was born in London on 3rd April 1985, to a Guyanese father, Joe, and a Welsh mother, Marie. She has two brothers and is very happily coupled up with her childhood sweetheart Lou Al-Chamaa. She first began dreaming of becoming a singer at the tender age of five, when her parents enrolled her into London’s Sylvia Young Theatre School. Lewis then attended the prestigious performing arts academy The BRIT School, where she honed her songwriting and production skills. Encouraged by winning several talent contests as a teen, she left school and took part-time jobs — including working in Pizza Hut as a waitress — to earn money to pay for studio time. “It was about doing my music,” she says. “It has always been my passion to be a singer and songwriter.” There were times when Leona came close to giving up on her dream, times when it seemed like it would never happen, and Leona was considering enrolling on a university course when her boyfriend Lou persuaded her to audition for the X Factor. She won a landslide victory in December 2006 and has never looked back. She signed a contract with Simon Cowell’s record label, Syco Music, and went on to sign a five-album deal in the United States with legendary music producer Clive Davis’s record label, J Records. Her second single, “Bleeding Love”, was released worldwide and reached number one in over 30 countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Mexico, the Republic of Ireland, France, Italy, Germany and Russia. She’s now a global superstar with record-breaking album sales, and performed to a TV audience of over three billion people at the Olympic handover ceremony in 2008. Her second album is due for release in November 2009, a month after her book, and it is set to be an even bigger hit than her incredible debut. She has worked with Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Ne-Yo, Will.i.am and Jay-Z and is happier than ever with her sound./