World Song Contest

THE WINNER

Country: United Kingdom
Artist(s): Leona Lewis
Song: Bleeding Love

Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is an English singer-songwriter and winner of the third series of the popular television talent show The X Factor. Her debut single, "A Moment like This", was released in December 2006, breaking a world record after it was downloaded fifty thousand times within thirty minutes. Her debut album, Spirit, was released in November 2007, and became the fastest selling debut album in both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It is claimed Lewis will be the first winner of a major television talent show in both the UK and U.S. to be given a major global launch with the release of the album. Lewis was born in the London district of Islington to parents Aural Josiah, an Afro-Caribbean youth worker, and Marie Lewis, a social worker of Anglo-Welsh descent. She is also of Italian and Irish descent on her mothers side.[citation needed] She is the middle child of three, with two brothers, Kyle, who is younger, and Bradley, who is older. They grew up in Highbury and went to school at Ambler Primary School in Finsbury Park. Lewis always wanted to get into music and at the age of five her parents sent her to the Sylvia Young Theatre School, despite fearing it would cripple them financially. She also attended performing arts academy Italia Conti in Goswell Road, Islington and the BRIT School. Lewis wrote her first song at the age of twelve, and at the age of thirteen she won the Lady D under-eighteen talent show at the Hackney Empire. In 2004 she won the Yates's Wannabe Talent Contest, singing Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby". After leaving school, Lewis took a number of jobs to pay to get into a recording studio. She worked in Pizza Hut as a waitress and as a receptionist for Metropolitan Mortgages in Median Road, Lower Clapton, Hackney. She was also a receptionist for Head & Short Chiropodists in Stoke Newington High Street. She recorded a number of songs including a demo album of her own songs called Twilight, but the album was never released. When she was fifteen years old she recorded a version of Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You" with music producer Marley J. Wills, after which Lewis and Wills were invited to the US by Sony. When her music career seemed to be going nowhere, she decided to give up, until her boyfriend persuaded her to enter The X Factor. In 2006, Lewis auditioned for the third series of The X Factor, singing "Over the Rainbow". She made it through to the final stages and was announced the winner on 16 December 2006, winning a £1 million recording contract. One million copies of the winner's single, a cover of Kelly Clarkson's first single "A Moment like This", were pre-ordered by stores, although at the time, the winner of the show had not been announced and it was unknown who would be releasing the single. "A Moment like This" was released on 20 December 2006, and was available as a digital download from midnight on 17 December. It broke a world record after it was downloaded fifty thousand times in thirty minutes. On 24 December, "A Moment like This" was crowned the 2006 UK Christmas number-one single, having sold 571,253 copies, beating Take That's single "Patience", and outselling the rest of the Top 40's sales combined. It has been reported that one chain was "shifting more than 100 of her CDs a minute". The single became the biggest downloaded song in 2006, beating Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy". The single stayed at number one for four weeks, and also stayed at the top spot in the Irish Singles Chart for six weeks. It went on to sell in the region of 1,000,000 copies. In February 2007, Lewis signed a £5 million ($9.7 million) contract in the United States with Clive Davis, founder of Arista Records. Davis has been responsible for the success of Whitney Houston. Lewis will now release five albums worldwide through Davis's label, J Records. A four-track download EP, "It's All for You", that she recorded before entering The X Factor went on sale online on 18 December 2006, however, the single did not chart. On 16 January 2007, Lewis's single "A Moment like This" was shortlisted for the British Single award at the 2007 BRIT Awards. It made it to the second round but was eliminated and did not make it to the final selection. In May it was awarded the prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Best Selling British Single. Her first album, Spirit, was released in the Republic of Ireland on 9 November 2007, where it entered the Irish Albums Chart at number one, being Ireland's fastest selling debut album of all time. It was released on 12 November 2007 in the United Kingdom, where it entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, and was also the UK's fastest selling debut album, and the fourth fastest selling album of all time.

Official website: http://www.leonalewismusic.co.uk/

Lyrics

55 countries took part in the last edition of 2007, which started in November to end in December. Once again so many kinds of music were represented. Something for every taste we could say. With so many songs, the results of the semi finals led to some disappointments. Even songs which received several 12 points didn't manage to qualify. Votes went, once again, in all directions.

The situation repeated itself in the final. If we except the winner, which received 77 votes more than the runner-up, only a few points decided which songs could reach the top 10. And the results of the semi finals were once again far from the results some songs achieved in the final. The Philippines came second in their heat but didn't reach the top 20 of the final. San Marino won its heat but couldn't do better than the 16th position in the final. On the other hand, Germany, which was used to do well in semi finals but not in final, received enough vote for a 5th position in the final, after a 3rd position in its heat.

The last winner of 2007 came from the United Kingdom. Despite sending songs from some of their biggest artists, the UK never managed to win the contest. It's finally a new talent which helped them to win the title. The song "Bleeding Love" took an early lead and, as the votes went on, there was no doubt it would be the final winner. USA took the second position, and took the first position in the Nations League Table as the best country of the World Song Contest, in term of top 10 positions. France completed the podium.

Gallery of Participants

Linda Kiraly

David Guetta

Digit-All-Love

Hans Zimmer

Diamondz

 Magyar Posse

Monsoon

Faye Wong