Late breaking Leona Lewis news

It seems that while I was away in Australia, Leona Lewis was taking over the world. She has had the number one single for four weeks, her album is the biggest-selling debut in the history of the world, Scotland has been renamed in her honour, and Gordon Brown has made her Queen for the months of March, July and October.

It's all a bit much if you ask me.

Bleeding Love is an excellently-crafted song, but Simon Cowell was right when he crowed about it sounding like "early Whitney Houston" because the production is so horribly dated you half expect someone will shout "pump up the volume" over the top.

Her album, meanwhile, contains exactly three good songs. And while I know its wrong to judge people by their hair, Leona's 'do' brings new meaning to the phrase "would you like to buy a bottle of frizz-ease?"

But opinions are there to be changed, and my feelings have shifted a little after hearing her session on Jo Whiley's Live Lounge (which happened while I was away). Leona covered Snow Patrol's Run, turning a brilliant indie pop anthem into a harrowing, string-drenched ballad.

Her voice will send shivers down your spine for three minutes before the song climaxes in the most ridiculously overblown crescendo of all time. This could literally be the soundtrack to the apocalypse.

Listen very closely: Towards the end you will hear the sound of cliffs crashing into the sea, elephants stampeding, and a World War II tank shooting lasers at a leopard.

Leona Lewis - Run


"Interesting" Pop fact: The Live Lounge is actually the poky little basement room where junior Radio One staff normally answer the phones.

You can download an MP3 of this song using Bittorrent from this link.

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