Leona Lewis

25/09/2009

X Factor victor on pushing beyond the talent show and the birth pangs of a new album

by Helena Drakakis

Given the finely-tuned PR machine that surrounds former X Factor star Leona Lewis, one would be forgiven for suspecting that the recent leak of unreleased tracks on the internet from her forthcoming album was nothing but a clever promotional stunt.

Wherever the truth lies, the hackers who infiltrated Simon Cowell’s Syco record label’s computer systems and posted the songs on YouTube (a collaboration with Justin Timberlake and several tracks that haven’t made the final album, titled Echo) seem only to have handed the singer a golden platter of gloriously-free publicity.

Yet strangely, this is lost on the one person at the centre of the breach – Leona Lewis herself. “If I ever found out anyone had done it deliberately, I would be mortified,” she says, quietly incensed because the tracks were incomplete. “It’s so against everything I’m about. It’s like someone seeing a painter’s work when he hasn’t finished the colours. It takes away the integrity and the mystery of an album coming out.”

On paper, it sounds like a diva-has-artistic-strop moment. On the receiving end of a telephone, however, it is perhaps more about where Lewis has come from than the celebrity she has been propelled to. Unlike some of her predecessors, such as Whitney Houston, Lewis isn’t the product of a family who know the highs and lows of stardom and therefore she isn’t wise to the manipulations of the music industry.

Lewis has also moved beyond the giggly 21-year-old who flinched on stage amid an eruption of confetti, speechless as her name was announced as the 2006 X Factor winner. She is growing up and learning to do things on her own terms. “That’s the thing. When you get into this there are things you don’t expect to deal with. I just thought I’d be singing and doing shows and making an album,” her voice lilts melodically as if to say: “How naïve was I?”

“It’s definitely a journey for me, and I’m still adjusting. I’ve just learned to decipher the true, genuine people from the ones that want to know you for their own benefit along the way.” While her squeaky-clean image hasn’t afforded the paparazzi opportunity to snap her maudlin drunk or exiting a limo legs akimbo, she’s already ticking off the checklist of inaccuracies printed about her life. She’s moved her family into her (rented) LA mansion? No. Her relationship with childhood sweetheart Lou Al-Chamaa is at breaking point? No. They’re actually secretly married? No. We could be here for some time

“I just move forward and move on,” she tells me. And in many ways that’s been Lewis’ attitude from the start. Born in Islington, north London, before moving to nearby Hackney aged five, Lewis’ Welsh mother is a social worker and her father, of Afro-Guyanese descent, a youth offending officer.

She attributes much of her success to the support of her family and friends, and tends to play down her own talent. “I come from a very normal place with a normal family and I definitely stay true to that,” she says, although given that her first offering, Spirit, is the UK’s fastest-selling debut album of all time, it’s hard to believe she can.

“There are definitely some surreal experiences,” she laughs. “I’ve been all over Asia, Japan and Australia. I listen to Ne-Yo or Justin Timberlake on the radio and suddenly I’m working with them. There are moments when I’m like, ‘wow’, but at the end of the day you need a reality check, and mine is friends and family.”

Now 24, Lewis is a young woman with admirable self-control. Most in her position would surely have had a wobble by now and having come up the talent contest route, it wouldn’t have been a surprise. Despite the unparalleled platform The X Factor gave her, Lewis is confident she would have made it regardless.

“It was a stepping stone and it helped me. It allowed me to meet Simon Cowell and come over to America. I’d never want to rid myself of it because it’s an important part of what I’m doing now, but I hope I would have made it without it. I still had that self-belief,” she says. Coming to America also allowed the singer to meet legendary producer Clive Davis (Whitney Houston, Kelly Clarkson), who oversaw the no-expense-spared making of Spirit. Overflowing with soaring ballads and highly-polished melodies, critics described it as technically brilliant but lacking personality. Having sold six million-plus worldwide one can only assume the public didn’t agree.

During the last nine months Lewis has been as heavily involved in the making of the follow up, Echo, as she was with Spirit. “It’s the time it takes to have a baby,” she giggles. “I call this album my baby. I’m just really protective over my songs because I’ve worked so hard, I want everything to be the best it can be.”

Given her following, it must have been tempting to repeat the same chart-topping formula, but the singer is keen to progress musically. The big ballads are still present simply because she loves singing them, but her heart lies with great songs and great lyrics, whatever the genre. “I’m just evolving and hearing new sounds and seeing what comes out of it,” she says, reeling off a wish list of collaborators that includes Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder and David Bowie.

“I want to explore all different avenues in my music. I’m not closed off to anything.” Where her image is concerned, though, it has been a different story. Lewis, a committed vegetarian, has put her foot down, most notably when she turned down a reported £1m from Mohamed al-Fayed to open Harrods because the store stocks animal fur. “I am outspoken, especially if it’s to do with animal welfare,” she says.

“I got a lot of flak for the Harrods decision. There were people who said I should have done it and given the money to charity, but that would have been such a contradiction because doing it on one hand to give on the other is not helping anything.”

Striking a balance between ambassador and artist is never easy, and Lewis veers between steely and sentimental. In light of China’s record on human rights, she needed to be persuaded to perform at last summer’s Beijing Olympic closing ceremony. “I’d been very close to declining but I was convinced in the end because the handover didn’t really have anything to do with China’s politics,” she explains.

“It was about celebrating London and the jobs and opportunities that it will bring, especially for the borough of Hackney where I’m from.” She admits that arguments go on behind the scenes, and she is forced to remind her entourage that it’s her integrity at stake.

“People see my face and relate any decision to me. People tell me to do this and do that but I’ve learned I’ve had to make tough decisions. I’m not always going to make the right decision, but I’ll always learn from it.”

Lewis has also found, at times, that her image has been hijacked: her ethnicity exploited to portray her as Leona, the mascot for the mixed race community, or her success drawn upon as the guiding light for troubled youth. In 2006 even Hackney Council slapped her face on posters welcoming visitors into the borough. “I know!” she laughs. “But as long as I’m used in a positive way then I don’t really mind. I’d like people to think, ‘She’s done it. I can do it’.”

She gives careful consideration to who she will champion, and a recent trip to an impoverished Johannesburg township with Comic Relief has highlighted to her the importance of experiencing a problem before talking about it. “It just killed me,” she says of one family who were forced to share one meal between four people each day. “I couldn’t believe people actually live like that so close to a city that’s very rich.”

Upsettingly, the same could be said about parts of Hackney, she says. Being good at being a pop star is not enough for Lewis. “I definitely have moments when I come home and shut the door and think all I want to do is sing and for people to listen, but then I think, wait a minute – how are people going to hear my music? “The bottom line is if I can inspire, create awareness and help someone or an animal in any way, then it’s all been worth it.”

Echo (Syco) is released November 17