LEONA LEWIS

Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer. She rose to fame as the winner of the third series of The X Factor, and became the first female winner of the show. Lewis has gone on to become a multi-platinum selling artist and three time Grammy Award nominee, who is worth £10 million as of May 2009. She signed a £1 million recording contract to Simon Cowell's record label, Syco Music and went on to sign a £5 million ($9.7 million) five album contract in the United States with Clive Davis's record label, J Records. Her debut single "A Moment Like This", went on to become the fastest selling UK single after it was downloaded over 50,000 times within thirty minutes of its release. Her second single, "Bleeding Love", was released worldwide and reached over thirty number one positions in charts around the world including the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Mexico, the Republic of Ireland, France, Italy, Germany and Russia. Her debut album Spirit, was released in the UK and Ireland, and went on to became the fastest-selling debut album and the biggest seller of 2007 in both countries. In early 2008 it was released throughout Europe and Asia. A revised edition of Spirit was released in North America in mid 2008, making its debut at number one on the United States' Billboard 200 album chart. Lewis is the first British solo artist to top the chart with a debut album. The album also reached number one in ten other countries wordwide. To date the album has sold over 6.5 million copies worldwide and has a 9× platinum certification in the UK. In November 2008 Lewis set a record in the UK for the fastest selling download-only release with her cover of the Snow Patrol song "Run" which sold 69,244 in just two days.