LEONA LEWIS RELEASES HER HIGHLY-ANTICIPATED NEW ALBUM ECHO on 16 NOVEMBER 2009

ECHO is the follow up to her 6 million plus seller, 4x Brit –nominated and 3x Grammy-nominated debut album Spirit

Leona Lewis today announces her second album entitled ECHO will be released on November 16th on Syco Music. Leona took the music world by storm with the release of her 2007 debut album Spirit selling over 6 million copies worldwide – It earned four Brit Award nominations and three Grammy nominations, making it the best selling album of 2007 and 2008 in the UK and the US respectively.

Leona’s debut album Spirit entered the UK album chart at #1 and became Britain’s fastest-selling debut of all time selling over 1 million copies in the UK in its first 5 weeks.

Spirit’s first single Bleeding Love claimed the #1 chart spot for seven weeks and became the best selling single of 2007 in the UK and of 2008 in the US and iTunes top selling single of 2008. A special edition of Spirit was re-released in November 2008 in Europe, including the song “Run”. The album again went to number one in the UK Album Chart. Run was released as a download-only single in the UK, reaching #1 and becoming the UK’s fastest-selling download-only single

In the US Spirit debuted at #1 on the Billboard album chart, the first time in music history that any album by a British female artist has entered Billboard’s Top 200 album chart at #1, as well as the first time any British artist, male or female, has claimed the top spot with a debut album.

Album track listing and more information to be announced soon.

Leona’s debut single A Moment Like This was released on 20 December 2006 breaking a world record after it was downloaded 50,000 times in thirty minutes becoming the most downloaded song in 2006 and going on to sell over a million copies..

Visit www.leonalewismusic.com for news, updates and more.

Leona Lewis – by Paul Flynn

Statistically, emotionally, dramatically and with an apparent ease that masks the deeper machinations of Leona’s fundamental talent, 2008 was hers. With Leona this still feels like the beginning of a story that will continue to beguile her millions of admirers and bemuse the received wisdom of how the star story ought to progress for a long time into the future.

Some select dates from the Leona Lewis Diary, 2008…

January: Leona eases into her year with a cool four Brit Awards nominations.
February: Leona is the invited guest to play at Clive Davis LA Grammy Awards party to a room that includes, amongst illustrious, glittering others, her idol Whitney Houston.
March: The most powerful woman in America, Oprah Winfrey says of Leona ‘a star is born’ as she thrills America with her number one single ‘Bleeding Love’, becoming the first UK female artist to take pole position with a debut since Sheena Easton did it in 1982.
April: Leona repeats the astronomical British success of her ‘Spirit’ album by becoming the first UK artist ever, regardless of gender, to debut at number 1 on the Billboard US album charts.
May: Leona performs to the biggest television audience of her entire career, somewhere over the rainbow of 30million awestruck faces, when she replays the gift of her discovery to Simon Cowell, by appearing on his smash hit US variant, American Idol. Ryan Seacrest duly dazzled!
June: Leona performs for and meets Nelson Mandela at his 90th birthday concert. Surely nobody needs spelling out the significance of this one for a mixed race girl from Hackney?
July: To lend her some stone-cold clout in terms of extra-curricular international relations, Leona is appointed at a ceremony in Tokyo as Goodwill Ambassador for the UK-Japan 2008 campaign. It is a role that will see Leona represent the contemporary aspects of UK creativity as part of the celebrations marking the 150th year of UK-Japan diplomatic relations.
August: Leona Lewis closes the Beijing Olympics with Jimmy Page of Led Zepellin and the most famous sportsman on the planet, Mr Beckham.
September: Leona will be the guest of couturier, impresario and visionary Roberto Cavalli at his Milan Fashion Week show.
October: Leona will join the rarefied company of Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani and, if the rumour mill is to be believed, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, when the buzz and clip of her Akon-produced brand new single ‘Forgive Me’ cuts loose.
November: ‘Spirit Deluxe’ is released and heads straight for the Number 1 slot.

December: An extraordinary campaign is ignited among fans to get ‘Run’ released as a single, resulting in Leona celebrating her third Number 1 single and becoming the fastest selling digital release ever. The year is rounded off with an amazing 3 Grammy nominations.

2009 has seen Leona head back into the studio to work on her highly anticipated second album, with a cast list of writers, producers and musicians that reads like a veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of everything that is exciting and fresh in today’s music industry. The eagerly awaited album is planned to drop in November 2009, along with a coffee-table photo book which has documented Leona’s amazing journey; from Hackney to Hollywood…and beyond.

—
Martin Myers
www.martinmyers.co.za
www.hotstix.co.za
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www.musicexchange.co.za