by Sarah Afshar

Created on: April 06, 2008

Leona Lewis is currently one of the highest selling female artists in the United Kingdom and one of the best acts to come from England. I have always been highly impressed with Leona Lewis for quite a few reasons, however; what makes her more interesting is the fact she gained fame on the popular reality series X-Factor. On that wavelength alone, I find is very real in comparison to those that have been born into fame. I absolutely love her hit single song "Bleeding Love" and believe that was her ticket to ultimate success. Some of my other favorite songs by Leona Lewis include: Homeless, Here I Am, You Bring Me Down, I'm You, and more. I also really enjoy Leona's covers (I Will Always Love You, Without You, and more) of songs, because she is not only an amazingly versatile singer, but flexible and extremely great with adaption. Leona is the first black woman from the United Kingdom to make it to number one on the Billboard chart and for that, she deserves to be extremely commended. With the essence of Mariah Carey and the vocal ability of Barbra Streisand, Leona proves that she can handle just about any song and make it her own, as if you were listening to that song for the very first time.

I first discovered Leona Lewis in 2006, when she appear on the popular UK reality series X-Factor. A friend of mine told me that "you sound similar to this girl, from this reality show", when you sing this song. Although, I was honored that she would say such a thing, I was more than intrigued at how great Leona performed. She was effortless, but she also showed soul and proved to be a regular girl, trying to make it. The first song I heard Leona sing was the Dolly Parton classic "I Will Always Love You". It's a very smooth, subtle ballad about love that possessed radical emotion. This song truly was delivered through Leona's soul. Not only was this amazing song projected so outstandingly, Leona managed to make you believe her, when she sang, but like a true performer who managed to hit the technical difficulty, this girl proves that emotionally she is just as good, as her voice itself. The song speaks so many volumes, as did quite a few other songs Leona performed.

Miss Lewis possesses a lot of raw emotion, that you normally don't see (or hear) in popular music. Leona has often been criticized for being too "commercial" or too "unoriginal" or too "forgettable" or too "poser", but she later proved to possess an original, passable, yet so smooth, and colorful vocal; it was

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