Leona Lewis The X Factor

Leona Louise Lewis (born on April 3 1985) is an English singer-songwriter and winner of the third series of the popular British 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 second single "Bleeding Love" was the biggest selling single of 2007 in the United Kingdom. Her debut album, Spirit, was released in November 2007, and became the fastest selling debut album ever 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 either the UK or U.S. to be given a major global launch with the release of their debut album.

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 December 16, winning a £1 million recording contract. She was mentored by Simon Cowell.

Lewis' voice was consistently highly praised by all three judges — Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Sharon_Osbourne. On occasions she was compared with divas such as Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Celine Dion. However, Lewis was also criticised, by both the judges and in the press, in relation to her confidence. Vocal coach Mark Hudson also criticised her lack of star quality.

On the final night of the show, joined Lewis on stage for a duet of their song "A Million Love Songs". After the performance, singer Gary Barlow told Cowell, "This girl is probably fifty times better than any other contestant you have ever had, so you have a big responsibility to make the
right record with her."

(Picture right : Lewis' final performance at The X Factor)



Spirit

On 25 April 2007, a press release was sent out revealing that Simon Cowell and Clive Davis would work together in a first-of-its-kind partnership on both the song and producer selection for Lewis's debut album, entitled Spirit.

On 24 September 2007, Lewis performed a special album launch party at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge, London, where she performed four tracks from the album. The album 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. The album was released internationally in January 2008, and went to number one in New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Germany and Switzerland.

Spirit will be released in the United States on 8 April 2008. Lewis recorded tracks for the album in London, Miami, Los Angeles, New York City and Atlanta, Georgia. She worked with several songwriters and record producers including Dallas Austin, Max Martin, Stargate, Walter Afanasieff, Salaam Remi, Kara DioGuardi and Novel.

She also recorded a track with Ne-Yo. Two further tracks were recorded in early 2008 for the U.S. release of the album, "Forgive Me" featuring Akon and "Misses Glass" featuring RockCity. Lewis's second single, "Bleeding Love", produced by Ryan Tedder and written by Tedder and Jesse McCartney, was released on October 22 2007 in the UK.

Lewis performed the song on the first live show of the fourth series of The X Factor on 20 October. The single sold 66,000 copies on its first day of release and went on to sell 218,805 copies in its first week, giving it the biggest first-week sales of 2007 to date. It entered both the UK Singles Chart at number one, where it stayed for seven weeks. It also debuted at number one in the Irish Singles Chart, remaining there for eight weeks. It also reached number one in the singles charts of New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Bulgaria. On 16 December 2007, "Bleeding Love" won The Record of the Year 2007 award.

In February 2008, Lewis broke the major American charts as "Bleeding Love" entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 85. It currently stands at 8, entering the top ten for the first time. Not only that, she is currently number 1 with Bleeding Love on i-Tunes and recently appeared with Simon Cowell on the Oprah Winfrey Show. On 31 October 2007, Lewis appeared on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, with acoustic performances of "Bleeding Love" and a cover of Snow Patrol's 2003 single "Run". Her version of "Run" was popular with listeners, and as a result, was added to Radio 1's A list (a list of songs receiving the most airplay). On 6 November she won 'Newcomer of the Year' at the Cosmopolitan Ultimate Woman of the Year Awards. It was reported on 31 October 2007 that management company UEG Music planned to release an album of ten songs recorded by Lewis before her time on The X Factor, shortly after the release of Spirit, called Best Kept Secret. This is because the management company claimed they wanted to recoup some of the costs incurred in their investment and training of Lewis, including £70,000 of studio costs that they claimed remained unpaid. They also claimed to have offered Sony and Lewis's father to buy the rights of the album but both refused. Cowell was reportedly angered by the release of the album, saying that the company did not have the rights to release the songs, and that he would attempt to block the album from being released. He also claimed that the songs are unfinished demos, that fans should boycott the album and that there is no agreement with Lewis to release it. A representative for Lewis said: "UEG approached Leona and her representatives earlier this year - but they do not have the rights to release these demos. Despite Cowell's attempts, the album was briefly released two weeks after her debut album Spirit, on 26 November 2007, through online music store Juno Records, though all trace of the album was removed from Juno the same day. In the 30 November 2007 edition of American magazine Entertainment Weekly, Lewis was included among "8 to Watch in '08" in their 2007 "Entertainer of the Year" issue. The list of entertainers expected to become household names in the coming year describes Lewis as "the next Mariah Carey". On 14 January 2008, Lewis was nominated for four BRIT Awards, in the categories British Female Solo Artist, British Breakthrough Act, British Album for Spirit, and British Single for "Bleeding Love". She performed at the awards ceremony on 20 February 2008. Despite being the favourite to win the most awards, she received none. On 9 February 2008, Lewis performed at Clive Davis's annual pre-Grammy party, as Davis's 'Special New Artist' guest.

It has been reported that Lewis has agreed to appear in the seventh series of American Idol in 2008 to help boost her career in the United States. Lewis performed "Bleeding Love, on The Oprah Winfrey Show, on 17 March 2008. Lewis's third single, a double A-side featuring "Better in Time" and "Footprints in the Sand", was released in the United Kingdom in March 2008, in aid of Sport Relief, and she visited South Africa for the charity. As a part of Sport Relief, Lewis has set up a website, yougivemestrength.com, for people to share their inspirational stories. It has been reported that Lewis is planning a £15 million world tour in 2010. A second album is planned for release in 2009.

(Picture above : Lewis visited South Africa for aid of Sport Relief )


Personal Life

Lewis lives in Hackney with her boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa, an electrician, who she has known since she was nine years old. Lewis has stated that she would like to marry Al-Chamaa.
Lewis has been a vegetarian since she was 12 and says she would like to promote a line of non-leather bags and shoes that are affordable.


(Credits : Wikipedia)

Meet Our Permanent Bloggers

Style & Life : Lifestyle currently has a handful of permanent bloggers contributing articles on a consistent basis.

Come and meet them!


Shuhada Rabi
Chief Permanent Blogger / Creative Adviser
Born December 8th, 1990, Shuhada enjoys blogging during her free time simply to express herself. She started blogging since 2004. Her blogging habits of not sticking to one provider for long has been her signature ever since. Currently she blogs on her latest blog, kembOngkempis. She dislikes and despises those with hatred towards her and constantly requests them to stay off her blog as well as her life. Shuhada can really be a friendly girl on net, but in real life she is a quite shy person. Shuhada owns of the nickname kembOngkempis. Like other regular teenagers, she uses social networking sites such as Facebook and Friendster. She very much likes to spend her free time in front of the computer; mainly editing picture or playing her favourite game, The Sims 2 or the popular online game, Neopets.


Faris Ahmad
Group Adviser / Co-founder
Faris was born in Perak, Malaysia and later was raised in Penang where he spent most of his childhood. Faris usually goes by the nickname Riz in the cyberworld so much so as he is known to some of his friends. Faris enjoys reading, traveling, cooking, hanging out and trying new food to mention a few. However, he seems to dislike the idea of sports ever since he was a child, but if forced, he would always opt for badminton. Faris would be turning 20 in August 2008. He has been offered a place to study Mathematics at King's College, University of London. Faris will hence leave for the UK come September 2008 to take up this offer. Faris is the only member of the team that does not take an active blogging role. He however oversees and advises the S&L team on content and blog postings. Faris is a Youth Amplifier on YouthMalaysia.com where he takes an active role as a writer writing on youth issues. His personal blog is on a hiatus for the time being, but Faris confirmed that he will be back blogging on his personal site when the right time comes. At present, he resides in Penang island with his family.


Natasha Khanum
Permanent Blogger / Co-founder
Natasha, famous for her addiction to the colour purple is a 20-year old student currently pursuing her bachelor of commerce. Natasha is an active arts enthusiast. She has been involved in projects carried out by UNESCO, Arts-ed USM and several other art NGO bodies. Besides that, she is a regular girl-next-door. Natasha enjoys outdoor activities, hiking in particular. She also works out at the gym regularly and enjoys dancing. In her free time she simply hangs out with her best buddies, most of the time indulging the best foods in town. Quoting Natasha on her favourites, she says ' I'm all crazy about chocolates and satay'. Natasha is based in Penang at present and lives with her family.



Faisal Admar
Permanent Blogger
A true Penangite, Mohd Faisal Admar Hafiz majored in Information Technology. Having said so, his life basically rotates with computers and IT related stuff. As he describes himself, Faisal is a computer and internet maniac. He started blogging quite some time back but had his ups and downs in his blogging habits. Recently, he started blogging frequently again. The reason he took up blogging again was to express his sorrowfulness and depression as his stress level was getting high with work and colleagues. In other words, blogging made his life a little bit better. Since then, he has changed his contents to be more positive-like. Currently, he is attached with the Inland Revenue Board. A guy of big dreams, he says he'll achieve his dreams in the long run. On the development of this blog, he hopes to contribute some good articles. Faisal who is 27 this year resides in Penang. Faisal blogs on http://www.faisaladmar.blogspot.com



Lisa Cheah
Permanent Blogger
A native Penangite, currently residing in Norway, and attempting to finish high school as an IB graduate and then eventually majoring in Law. Lisa uses sarcasm as her form of defense mechanism. Lisa enjoys doing regular teenage things, with exception of the drama. Just because Lisa is a girly girl, doesn't mean she likes pink and goes around acting like a bimbo. She gets loud and can talk like a chatterbox and totally enjoys intellectual discussions. Appreciates a honest friendship. Usually blogs on her own private blog www.my.opera.com/orlyandsa. Lisa has a strange phobia with seeds and is totally in love with her bolster, whom she shares everything with. Lisa is a self proclaimed vain-pot and sees no problems with that. Lisa also loves pinching cute fat babies.


Shafinaz
Permanent Blogger
Shafinaz is famous among her friends as Peanut or Inaz. She is also known as burnstrux in the cyberworld. She was born in Penang on 6th June 1988. She is a proud Penangite and most of the time, she craves for Nasi Kandar. Apart from that, she enjoys indulging in variety of foods that can satisfy her. She is currently pursuing her second year of her Diploma in English Communication at MARA Professional College Indera Mahkota – Kuantan, Pahang. Peanut is a gadget aficionado and has a wide knowledge on gadgets. This is the first official blog that Peanut is contributing to. She has an obsession with TV series; Heroes, Prison Break, The L word, Nip/Tuck and Brothers & Sisters. In addition,Peanut is a huge fan of Fall Out Boy and Boys Like Girls and dreams of becoming a drummer one day. She lives her life not up to anyone's expectations and marches to her own beat, not to the rhythm of others.


Zamir Hady
Permanent Blogger
Syed Zamir Alhady was born in Sabah, Malaysia and but raised in Penang since 1995. He is the second child in his family. He is a pretty simple laid-back guy. One would describe Zamir to be enthusiastic, hilarious, talkative and open-minded guy. Zamir is despises being selfish and stingy. Currently, he has just completed his National Service stint at the Guar Chenderai Camp, Perlis and ever since has been waiting for his university placement. He started blogging when he was 16. He used to have a personal blog but recently deleted it as he plans to set up a new one soon. Zamir goes by the alian Psycho Phreak in social networking sites; MySpace and Friendster. Zamir loves the colour black hence it is not a surprise to catch him donning black tops always. Zamir enjoys swimming, chatting, eating and cooking. He dislikes sports so much that he often skips sports training back then in school. He spends his free time hanging out with his buddies, watching movies and chilling out on the Net. He is a die hard fan of Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys, Dashboard Confessional and James Morisson. He has a string of favourite tv shows, and to date has not missed any episodes of Smallville, Desperate Housewives, and Ghost Whisperer. He turns 18 this year and aspires to be a successful businessman in the future.

Be A Part Of Us

Information to join our team of permanent bloggers
You are welcomed to submit your application to be a permanent blogger on this lifestyle blog if you have what it takes to be one.

To be a permanent blogger, you are expected to post in as frequent as possible (around once a month at least). As this is a free-for-all blog, your contributions of articles or offer to be a permanent blogger does not translate to any payment whatsoever.

You will need to be proficient in English as at present we are only publishing materials in English. Also, you should be familiar with blogs and it is an added advantage if you have one. Individuals with high sense of enthusiasm and motivation are encouraged to apply. Your entries should be posted in general; not matters pertaining on your life. You cannot at any time post materials which would be deemed inappropriate such as political or racial issues. You may reproduce works of others but obtaining their approval beforehand is vital and should be borne by you. All unoriginal work published by you on this blog will need to be credited to their original owner(s).

If you think you have what it takes, please send us a mail.

Your mail should include the following;

ONE (1) article on any of the categories listed as per the blog banner above - with pictures would be an added advantage. Your article should be at least 3-5 paragraphs long but a decent amount of information.

Your full name

Your age

Present area of residence and country

Nationality

A short paragraph stating why would you like to join us

A Personal Biography (In a third person's perspective) - For example, please have a look on our permanent bloggers section.

Your picture with the dimensions not exceeding 450px x 600px (any orientation). If your picture is smaller than the said dimension, we would appreciate that you maintain its aspect ratio. Your picture would be preferred in greyscale too.

Your application is subjected to a review by our permanent bloggers for approval and is not automatically approved. You should hear from us within ONE (1) month after submitting your application, if your application is successful. If your application is unsuccessful, it may be caused by one of the following reasons:

(a) You missed out submitting information as per required. Incomplete application.
(b) We currently do not have any vacancies or openings for a permanent blogger.
(c) You do not possess the proficiency or qualities to contribute towards the blog.

If your application is unsuccessful and if it is caused by reason (b), your application would be stored in our records. Should there be a need for a new permanent blogger, we would look up into our records and reconsider your application. So there is no harm in applying!

Do note too that even if your application is unsuccessful, we may still publish your article(if it meets our requirements and standards) with credits given to you as a guest blogger.

Please send in your applications to this e-mail address with the subject being PERMANENT BLOGGER

Information to be guest bloggers
If you are not interested of being a permanent blogger, or do not want to feel obliged to contribute on a regular basis but you would still like to contribute your materials from time to time, you can always opt to be one of our guest bloggers.

By becoming a guest blogger, your profile would not be featured on our blog but articles submitted by you would be posted on the blog by a permanent blogger. The material however would definitely be credited to you as the contributor.

To submit your articles, please mail them to this e-mail address with the article's title being the subject.

Should you have excerpts or other materials such as pictures in your article but they do not belong to you, please let us know the name of the original owner(s) or their source(s). We would deem your article as an original work by you if you do not include those details.Please note you will not be paid for your submission as this is a free-for-all blog.

Please include your name that you wish to be credited at the beginning or the end of the article.

If you would like to have a line or two dedicated on your personal biography, you may do so. WE WILL ONLY INCLUDE A MAXIMUM of three lines at the end of the article.

Your article should not touch on sensitive issues and should be relevant to one of the categories stated as per the blog banner above.

Welcome Note and About Style & Life : Lifesytle

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages,

Welcome to Style & Life : Lifestyle, a non-profit user-to-user based blog serving the online community. Most of our bloggers on this site are from Malaysia, hence articles posted too would reflect on the Malaysian lifestyle. However, we would like to emphasize that the blog would still serve as a general reading material for the online community regardless of any nature. We will try our best to post more entries covering on non-specific Malaysian issues from time to time.

This blog was created in March 2008 which had its first entry posted on 13th March 2008. However, the blog only officially kicked-off on April 1st, 2008. We currently have a handful of bloggers signed with us as Permanent Bloggers with the number of applications growing by the days.

This blog would feature a diverse range of topics dedicated to a diverse group of people. Style & Life : Lifestyle was firstly discussed during a lunch outing in 2007 by Natasha Khanum, Faris Ahmad and Min Chua. However, due to unforeseen circumstances back then, the project was at a standstill for nearly half a year before taking off.

The objective of creating a blog such as this nature is to enable the online community to share and learn new information on a free-based platform whereby we do not charge readers and do not pay contributors. Also, it would help to give an inside to today's latest lifestyles habits and happenings.

As this is a free-for-all website, Style & Life : Lifestyle may not publish articles on a regular basis, but would work on a concept of relaxation. Permanent Bloggers would post their articles whenever they are flexible to do so, but they are expected to post at least one entry per month. There is no force on them on this but a review would be carried out every April to check and balance on their performance. Permanent bloggers who do not meet the minimum of 12 entries per year would be terminated to be a permanent blogger on Style & Life: Lifestyle. They may re-apply but would be put on the application queue. Style & Life : Lifestyle would limit the number of its permanent bloggers to 15 at any one time. To cope with that hindrance, we welcome anyone from the online community to join us as guest bloggers at anytime to contribute towards this site. Please click on the link located at the BE A PART OF US section.

At present, we have no plans of making advertising as a source of income to generate enough revenue to maintain this blog. It is hosted for free and it is on a free domain. However, we have plans in the future to allow advertisers to post their ads so that we could generate enough revenue to purchase a unique domain which would in return increase site traffic. Extra funds from this would be channeled to the needy. We will from time to time inform our readers should this idea take off.

Style & Life : Lifestyle would never post articles touching on sensitive issues such as political, racial or religion issues. This is to ensure a healthy blogging culture between its bloggers and readers. Most of our permanent bloggers are regular bloggers at their personal blogs, so be sure to check their blogs out too. However, this site is in no way affiliated to their blog in terms of usage. We only endorse their blogs on our site.

We hope you will have a great time reading our articles and hopefully do come back for more. We also hope that you will learn a great deal of information by using this blog.

We would be mostly be appreciated if you too could contribute to the blog in terms of submitting materials.

We wish you a pleasant surfing experience.

The Permanent Bloggers Team
Style & Life : Lifestyle
March 2008