Leona Lewis - the X Factor star with more staying power
Former pizza waitress Leona Lewis is set to be the first X Factor star to make a big impact in the States
Click here to listen to a Leona Lewis podcast
Just like the sticker on her CD says, the wait is over. Forty minutes behind schedule, Leona Lewis ambles into the fifth floor room of a private members' club in East London and asks the waitress for a glass of “children's apple juice”. She sings like a diva and - bereft of context - these details alone might tell you that The X Factor's most successful gift to the pop world is beginning to act like one.
But the difference in juices is substantive. As the waitress explains, the adult juice is cloudy and greenish; the kids' version pink and sweeter. And if she's late, well... given that she was in Berlin five hours ago, and Italy the day before that, she's done well to get here at all. Last night she appeared on the German equivalent of the long-expired Matthew Kelly gameshow You Bet! “One of the contestants was this guy running backwards and jumping over hurdles,” she says. “I think it would have been funny if they had got me to jump over hurdles with my heels on.” Lewis peers up at where the thought bubble depicting such a thing might be and giggles. Within five minutes of meeting her it's already apparent that a newly sculpted snowman would feel a little grubby next to her.
And with good reason. Had she wanted to, Leona could have had a lie-in, but it's Mother's Day and she elected to wake at 3am because she promised her mum that they would do lunch together in town. You would have thought that West End shopping trips might have become problematic by now. But Lewis says that sometimes entire days go by without her being recognised. “People can be like, ‘Oh, can I get a little photo?' or ‘Well done' - and there'll be some people who shout your name from across the street.” Well, it's not that Leona doesn't like the latter - more that she doesn't quite know how to deal with them. “You're like, ‘OK, um... hi!'”
continue...
Click here to listen to a Leona Lewis podcast
Just like the sticker on her CD says, the wait is over. Forty minutes behind schedule, Leona Lewis ambles into the fifth floor room of a private members' club in East London and asks the waitress for a glass of “children's apple juice”. She sings like a diva and - bereft of context - these details alone might tell you that The X Factor's most successful gift to the pop world is beginning to act like one.
But the difference in juices is substantive. As the waitress explains, the adult juice is cloudy and greenish; the kids' version pink and sweeter. And if she's late, well... given that she was in Berlin five hours ago, and Italy the day before that, she's done well to get here at all. Last night she appeared on the German equivalent of the long-expired Matthew Kelly gameshow You Bet! “One of the contestants was this guy running backwards and jumping over hurdles,” she says. “I think it would have been funny if they had got me to jump over hurdles with my heels on.” Lewis peers up at where the thought bubble depicting such a thing might be and giggles. Within five minutes of meeting her it's already apparent that a newly sculpted snowman would feel a little grubby next to her.
And with good reason. Had she wanted to, Leona could have had a lie-in, but it's Mother's Day and she elected to wake at 3am because she promised her mum that they would do lunch together in town. You would have thought that West End shopping trips might have become problematic by now. But Lewis says that sometimes entire days go by without her being recognised. “People can be like, ‘Oh, can I get a little photo?' or ‘Well done' - and there'll be some people who shout your name from across the street.” Well, it's not that Leona doesn't like the latter - more that she doesn't quite know how to deal with them. “You're like, ‘OK, um... hi!'”
continue...
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