Leona Lewis

Leona Louise Lewis (born April 3, 1985 in Islington, London) is an English singer and songwriter, who was the winner of the third series of the The X Factor. She is the first female winner of the show.

Her debut single, "A Moment like This" was released on 20 December 2006. The single was also available as a digital download from midnight on 17 December. It is believed to have broken a world record, by being downloaded 50,000 times within 30 minutes of being available online.

During the show, her vocal talents were consistently highly praised by all three judges (Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne), and on occasions was compared with divas such as Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. All three judges also commented on how the British music industry needed a singer like her, and that her performances were world class. Louis Walsh remarked that her performance of "I Will Always Love You" was as good as Whitney Houston's version. The only criticism she received, both by the judges and in the press, was related to her confidence. On the 9 December show, Cowell remarked that of all the past Pop Idol, American Idol and The X Factor performances, her performance of "Over the Rainbow" was the best he had ever witnessed.

Cowell also commented throughout the show that Lewis's lack of awareness as to how good she is, is what makes her special. On the final night of the show, Take That 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." Lewis went on the win the competition, receiving 4,800,000(60% )of the 8,000,000+ votes cast.

True...She seems withdrawn, shy and diffident...Some Aries are like that.

But she has some aura around her...something extraordinaire.