Leona Lewis on fame, Oprah and The X Factor
After passing most of her young life training, preparing and yearning for it, Leona Lewis is finally living the dream. Just as an athlete will dedicate themselves to hoped-for future excellence in their chosen sport, so Lewis has dedicated herself to the idea of one day being both accomplished and lucky enough to follow Whitney, Mariah and Céline into a certain stratosphere of musical superstardom. It’s a slightly old-fashioned dream, given those specifics, rather more Nineties than Now, but having been a child in the commercial heyday of that then ubiquitous trinity of balladeering pop-soul divas, it’s one that she’s grown up with and has cherished. Stage school sign-up aged five. Brit School entrant at 14. The X Factor winner by 21. This latter achievement could have been a poisoned chalice, for few talent-show winners achieve genuine, lasting fame. Lewis, though, is different. She is exceptional, world class.
Here is someone who would have found success in her own time, with or without the Simon Cowell conceived and driven juggernaut that is now an annual tabloid event (last year’s final drew in 12.7 million viewers, while this year’s auditions are claimed to have attracted 180,000-plus hopefuls) and a staple of water-cooler conversation in all but the most high-minded offices. Lewis may have benefited massively from the exposure she gained on The X Factor, but the show is in debt to her, too. The two previous victors, Steve Brookstein and Shayne Ward, can hardly be said to be troubling the national consciousness. Thanks to her subsequent success, anyone anywhere in the UK can at least continue to entertain the notion that they too might have a chance of making it in the music world. Thanks to her example, it’s still possible to believe that a TV show can significantly and permanently change a life, bringing fame, riches, acclaim – the sexy, shiny package that so much of the nation’s youth avidly desires.
But who is she, Leona Lewis? Well, were it not for that rich and thrilling singing voice and the supreme confidence with which she uses it, then you might define her (and in the best possible way) as the most ordinary of girls. She has no discernible attitude, airs or graces. At the centre of her life are her family, her mates and a long-term boyfriend, Lou, an electrician working for his dad’s firm. She loves animals and is a committed vegetarian. She talks with the same sing-songish, everything-sounds-exclamatory cadences and uses the same core vocabulary (lots of greats, amazings and lovelys) as a million other young women whose conversations you catch by chance here, there and everywhere around the capital. But actually, she’s much nicer (it’s the appropriate word) than most of her peers would be if they suddenly found themselves standing in her (always non-leather) shoes.
I say this because clearly she is so utterly, resolutely determined to remain unchanged by all that has happened to her. When I ask if, since suddenly becoming world-renowned, she has caught herself having the occasional diva moment, she sounds genuinely appalled. “It’s just not me. I always remember who I am and where I come from. At the end of the day, all of this [she gestures vaguely above her head, which I take to mean her current multimillion dollar status in the music industry] could be gone tomorrow. Then where would I be left if I’d allowed myself to become a bad person? It’s just not in my nature to be like that. I’m the same me now as I always was.” Which means no mansion in Hampstead, let alone in Hollywood. Lewis says she and Lou are happy still to be living in Hackney. “I like being near my family and his. I like staying in that area. It’s what I know.”
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Here is someone who would have found success in her own time, with or without the Simon Cowell conceived and driven juggernaut that is now an annual tabloid event (last year’s final drew in 12.7 million viewers, while this year’s auditions are claimed to have attracted 180,000-plus hopefuls) and a staple of water-cooler conversation in all but the most high-minded offices. Lewis may have benefited massively from the exposure she gained on The X Factor, but the show is in debt to her, too. The two previous victors, Steve Brookstein and Shayne Ward, can hardly be said to be troubling the national consciousness. Thanks to her subsequent success, anyone anywhere in the UK can at least continue to entertain the notion that they too might have a chance of making it in the music world. Thanks to her example, it’s still possible to believe that a TV show can significantly and permanently change a life, bringing fame, riches, acclaim – the sexy, shiny package that so much of the nation’s youth avidly desires.
But who is she, Leona Lewis? Well, were it not for that rich and thrilling singing voice and the supreme confidence with which she uses it, then you might define her (and in the best possible way) as the most ordinary of girls. She has no discernible attitude, airs or graces. At the centre of her life are her family, her mates and a long-term boyfriend, Lou, an electrician working for his dad’s firm. She loves animals and is a committed vegetarian. She talks with the same sing-songish, everything-sounds-exclamatory cadences and uses the same core vocabulary (lots of greats, amazings and lovelys) as a million other young women whose conversations you catch by chance here, there and everywhere around the capital. But actually, she’s much nicer (it’s the appropriate word) than most of her peers would be if they suddenly found themselves standing in her (always non-leather) shoes.
I say this because clearly she is so utterly, resolutely determined to remain unchanged by all that has happened to her. When I ask if, since suddenly becoming world-renowned, she has caught herself having the occasional diva moment, she sounds genuinely appalled. “It’s just not me. I always remember who I am and where I come from. At the end of the day, all of this [she gestures vaguely above her head, which I take to mean her current multimillion dollar status in the music industry] could be gone tomorrow. Then where would I be left if I’d allowed myself to become a bad person? It’s just not in my nature to be like that. I’m the same me now as I always was.” Which means no mansion in Hampstead, let alone in Hollywood. Lewis says she and Lou are happy still to be living in Hackney. “I like being near my family and his. I like staying in that area. It’s what I know.”
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