Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is an English singer, actress and winner of the third series of The X Factor UK television talent show. Her UK debut single, “A Moment like This”, was released in December 2006, breaking a world record after it was downloaded over 50,000 times within 30 minutes.
Her second single, “Bleeding Love,” was the biggest-selling single of 2007 in the United Kingdom, topped several other national singles charts and became a US number one single on April 5, 2008. After falling a couple of places the following week, it returned to the number one spot in the chart dated April 19, 2008.
Leona Lewis was born in the London borough of Islington to parents Aural Josiah, a Guyanese Caribbean youth worker, and Maria Lewis, a social worker of Anglo-Welsh descent. At the age of five, she attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School, and later the Italia Conti Academy and the BRIT School.
Take a behind the scenes peek at Leona during a photo shoot for a fashion magazine: