From X Factor to off the charts: why Leona Lewis can't crack the top 40

Leona Lewis has, in many ways, single-handedly turned The X Factor into a global concern. Launched in the UK by Simon Cowell in 2004, the first two series produced barely serviceable winners in the shape of Steve Brookstein, a sort of Michael Bublé for the Pizza Express touring circuit, and a low-cost Justin Timberlake in the form of Shayne Ward. While they both achieved moderate success in Britain, their chances of cracking the US seemed about as likely as Sharon Osbourne having a nice word to say about Dannii Minogue. So when Lewis, an office assistant from east London, was crowned the winner in 2006, it looked as if she and her impeccable voice would become nothing more than the Argos alternative to Mariah Carey. Then something amazing happened: her potential was transformed into actual stardom.
By the end of 2007, Lewis was, as her press releases still maintain, a global superstar: her debut single Bleeding Love topped the charts in 35 countries, including the US, where it sold 4m copies, and it was the biggest-selling single of 2007 in the UK. Her subsequent album, Spirit, became the fastest-selling debut album of all time in the UK going on to sell more than 3m copies in Britain and 8m worldwide. The X Factor was suddenly responsible for a legitimate global phenomenon, cementing its reason for being – and saddling Lewis with a curse she’s never quite shaken off. Since Bleeding Love, it’s been a case of ever-diminishing returns for Lewis, with her new single, Fire Under My Feet – the first to be taken from her forthcoming fifth album, I Am, and the first released outside of her contract with Syco – limping into the charts at No 51.
So what went wrong? Let’s start with Bleeding Love, one of the greatest, most immaculate songs of the past 20 years. From its church organ intro to that booming, relatable chorus, Bleeding Love’s perfection is undiminished. But how do you follow such a blockbuster hit? Well, you don’t. In fact, Lewis should have retired the day it came out. While subsequent singles from Spirit performed well in the UK, it remains her only US top 10 hit, and its ubiquity has haunted her ever since.
It didn’t help when she tried to replicate its success with Happy, the lead single from her second album, Echo. Britney Spears attempted to follow the career-defining Baby One More Time with the lead single from her second album by essentially remaking it in the form of Oops! … I Did It Again. With Spears, however, the pop mimicry was obvious but the new song was just as great as Baby One More Time. Leona’s Happy, however, was just a poor man’s Bleeding Love, a message to the casual, one-album-a-year brigade that they needn’t bother with the new record because it’s more or less the same as the one they’ve already got. Echo sent her on a UK arena tour, but it felt like it was happening off the back of that one single.
By the time Glassheart came out in 2012, the gap between the “global superstar” tag The X Factor rolled out every year and Lewis’s actual position in the pop galaxy was so vast you could have fitted Simon Cowell’s ego in it. While her lead single Trouble was a top 10 hit in the UK, the album was never released in the US, and the campaign stalled following Lovebird’s inability to make the top 40.
Leona’s name was trotted out every time anyone dared suggest The X Factor doesn’t produce global stars, which must have made One Direction’s globe-straddling dominance something of a relief. Trouble also epitomised Leona’s other problem: her flawless personality. “I’m a whole lot of trouble,” trills the chorus, which is quite a stretch for a singer whose public persona is so safe and restrained. In a pop world of Mileys and Rihannas, Leona Lewis feels like that strait-laced older cousin who’d dob you in to your parents if she caught you smoking. Even attempts at injecting some personality into her performances mostly backfired, with this version of the excellent One More Sleep on The X Factor coming across like a breakdown at an office Christmas party.
Christmas, With Love, which came out in 2013, was her last album for Syco, and the whole situation reeked of gritted-teeth contract fulfilment. Lewis since moved to Island Records, where the promotion of her new album has been infused with negativity. Early leaks to the tabloids from well-placed sources talked about how the title track is allegedly a stinging attack on Cowell and how free she is from the shackles of Syco (“I am breathing without you / I am somebody without you / I am free without you / I am stronger without you”). While the emotions are likely to be about another relationship altogether, the message it sends out to those who still connect Leona to The X Factor, and who don’t follow the ins and outs of a career, is one of “singer turns on the man who made her famous”. That alone is a huge hurdle to overcome when you’ve slipped from pop’s A-list.
Haunting the whole scenario, however, is the simple fact that Fire Under My Feet isn’t strong enough to make its mark in today’s overcrowded pop market. According to the website Compare My Radio, BBC Radio 1 have only played it twice in the past month, while YouTube views for the video are under 2m. It’s also hard to shake the fact that it sounded better when Adele did it as Rolling in the Deep a few years ago. Still, at least we’ll always have Bleeding Love.

Drake seals Coachella with a kiss from Madonna

Drake’s headlining set on Sunday night at the Coachella festival in California saw him being kissed on stage by Madonna.
The rapper was performing his song Madonna, when the pop star herself emerged in black thigh-length boots and a multicoloured mac. While Drake DJ’d, she performed her 1994 hit Human Nature, which then cut to her 2005 single Hung Up.
Removing the mac to reveal a basque top emblazoned with the slogan Big as Madonna, Drake then sat in a chair, a reference to his lapdancing scene in Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda video.
Madonna then kissed the rapper, rubbed her hands over his chest and announced “Bitch, I’m Madonna” – the title of one of her new songs.
Drake asked: “Did that just happen?”
The stunt got a mixed response in the audience. Madonna has recently performed with a variety of younger stars, including Taylor Swift at the iHeartMusic awards last month.
Besides Madonna’s appearance, Drake’s headlining set saw him play a hit-packed set to one of the largest audiences of the festival. “I don’t want to change your life, I just want to be part of it,” he told the crowd.
The Canadian rapper’s set had been the most anticipated of the weekend, with other musicians including The Weeknd and Lykke Li paying tribute with covers of his songs including Hold On, We’re Going Home and Crew Love.

Earlier in the evening, Florence and the Machine had debuted three new songs from her forthcoming album How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.
Concluding her set with Dog Days are Over, singer Florence Welch asked the audience each to remove an item of clothing and wave it over their head.
By way of encouragement, the singer took off her blouse and finished the set in her bra.

Paloma Faith ‘not cool enough’ to sing Bond theme

Paloma Faith says she has “messed up” the opportunity to sing the next James Bond theme tune. Speaking at a march to mark International Women’s Day, she told reporters that she was being punished for openly admitting she wanted the gig.
“In the industry that I’m in, if you ask for something or you seem like you want something you don’t get it,” she said. “You’re supposed to pretend that you’re really cool as a cucumber and stuff just comes to you, but I’m not really that type of person. But now I’ve messed it for myself because I’ve told everyone that I would like to do it.”
The 33-year-old singer songwriter has made no secret in the past about her dream to follow in the footsteps of Adele, Shirley Bassey and Tina Turner by singing a Bond theme. Spectre, the latest movie in the 007 series, is due to open worldwide on 6 November, although the artist performing the theme tune has yet to be announced. Rumours suggest it could be Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran or Lana Del Rey.
Faith also found time at the march to talk about her mother’s influence on her feminist beliefs. She said: “My mum was a child of the 60s and was one of the people who burned their bra and made a pact to herself never to be oppressed by a man in her life, and so wasn’t. She has brought me up with those beliefs, so this is way more important to her than anything.”

Taylor's reign, Madonna gaffes and other talking points for Grammys 2015

1. Madonna has to be the talking point for the right reasons
She was a geisha for Nothing Really Matters in 1999, lycra-clad in 2006 for Hung Up and presided over 33 marriages in 2014, but there’s a sense that this year’s Madonna Grammy performance is the one that has to stick. It’s unclear which aspect of the campaign for new album Rebel Heart has been more damaging; the endless leaks or the Instagram naivety. While the release of six songs last December hasn’t exactly set the charts alight (they’ve only sold 131,000 downloads in America so far), Madonna’s at her best with her back to the wall so hopefully we’ll see controlled rebelliousness, tabloid-baiting controversy and a liberal smattering of unnecessary hashtags.
2. Sam Smith will lead a British invasion
Tom Petty fan Sam Smith’s polite ballads have dominated the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and the feeling is his current chart momentum (his album’s been in the US top 10 for 32 weeks) could see him clean up in the six categories he’s nominated in. Certainly odds are in his favourto walk away with best new artist (over fellow Brits Bastille), and despite the presence of Beyoncé – more of whom later – it would be a shock if the generally risk-averse voting panel didn’t award In The Lonely Hour album of the year. Other Brits in with a shout include stand-in Radiohead alt-j for best alternative music album; Ed Sheeran; and Arctic Monkeys.
3. Could the Iggy Azalea backlash harm her chances?

All white on the night? Iggy Azalea performs at Sundance. Photograph: Mat Hayward/Getty Images

The success or otherwise of another Brit, Charli XCX, could depend on whether the backlash against Australian rapper Iggy Azalea manifests itself in the voting, with their collaboration Fancy up for two awards alongside Iggy’s nods for best new artist and best rap album. In a recent article detailing their Grammy predictions, Stereogum suggested Iggy was a favourite for the latter, before sarcastically adding, “OK, Eminem has a chance too because white people have really taken this hip-hop thing to a new level.” Expect Kendrick Lamar’s disappointing i single to win big by way of recompense for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis beating his Good Kid, M.A.A.D City to the rap album honour last year.
4. The duets should offer a chance for a loo break
Forcing artists together for one night of musical experimentation has become an award show staple and the Grammys are no exception. Who could forget Usher and Celine Dion doing unspeakable things to Michael Jackson’s Earth Song in 2010? For reasons people with fully functioning ears are still investigating, this year finds former Voice UK co-workers Jessie J and Tom Jones uniting to, I assume, over-sing each other into oblivion. Other random pairings include Annie Lennox with Hozier, Beck with Chris Martin, Gwen Stefani with Adam Levine and Lady Gaga with Tony Bennett, the latter of course having taken the art of unnecessary pairings to a whole new level. There’s also a trio – Rihanna, Kanye West and Paul McCartney playing snoozy new single FourFiveSeconds.
5. It’s crunch time for Lady Gaga’s jazz odyssey

Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga peform at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Photograph: Handout/Getty Images

During the release of Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett’s Cheek to Cheek last September, Gaga retweeted every positive review, referring to each journalist as a “music connoisseur”. Nominated for best traditional pop vocal album, a gong Bennett has won 11 times already, you sense a win for Gaga would mean more than any of the five Grammys she’s won to date. Nothing adds an authentic seal of approval to a leftfield career move following an under-performing album than a Grammy, and a win could help her move on from needlessly trying to prove she’s more than a great pop star. Either that or she’ll see it as one big thumbs up and we’ll get Cheek to Cheek volume 2 faster than you can say Michael Bublé.
6. Sia could steal the whole night
Singer, songwriter and sudden recluse Sia announced she was performing at the Grammys in a very Sia way. Continuing the theme for her 1000 Forms Of Fear album campaign, the announcement was made on Ellen from under an ill-fitting blonde wig while standing in a box that covered her from the neck down. This melding of the surreal with the mainstream sums up Sia’s last 12 months, her videos for Chandelier and Elastic Heart encasing massive pop songs in thought-provoking imagery. Nominated for four awards – including record and song of the Year for Chandelier – Sia could well be the surprise highlight, especially if she can pull off a performance as spellbinding as this.
7. It’s Max Martin’s time to shine
Given that he’s co-written and co-produced 19 US No 1 singles, it’s odd that Swedish pop overlord Max Martin has never previously been nominated for Producer of the Year. This year he’s honoured for his work on albums by warbling mini-Mariah Ariana Grande and Katy Perry, as well as Taylor’s Shake It Off and collaboration pile-up Bang Bang by Jessie J, Grande and Nicki Minaj. In other words, the majority of pop’s biggest songs of the last 12 months. Basically he has to win or I’m launching a Facebook campaign.
8. Will Katy Perry ever win a Grammy?

Katy Perry at the Super Bowl on Sunday: Grammy loser. Photograph: David J Phillip/AP

Despite five MTV VMA awards, six Billboard Music Awards and a Brit, Katy Perry has left the Grammys empty-handed every year since 2009. Nominated 13 times – including the two this year for best vocal pop album for Prism and best pop duo/group performance for Dark Horse – Perry wouldn’t exactly be paranoid in thinking there’s some sort of vendetta against her, especially when you consider 2011’s Teenage Dream equalled Michael Jackson’s record for most No 1 singles from one album – five made the top slot. Maybe, a bit like Martin Scorsese and the Oscars, Perry will finally nab a Grammy when she least deserves it – in other words, for Dark Horse.
9. Beyoncé may have peaked too soon

Beyonce with her 2004 Grammys haul. Photograph: Frederick M Brown/Getty Images

Performing at last year’s ceremony just three months after she shock-released her album, Beyoncé had every right to feel smug. The album had shifted over a million copies in under two weeks and its release strategy was being heralded as some sort of new dawn for pop royalty. You can’t help but feel, however, that she’d be disappointed that the album’s momentum has all but disappeared, and so while she’ll probably clean up in the R&B categories, her inclusion in the best surround sound album category probably doesn’t make up for being snubbed for both song and record of the year. Mind you, she already has 17 Grammy-shaped bookends so chances are she’ll get over it.
10. Taylor Swift will rule the 2016 Grammys
With her album 1989 – almost 6m global sales and counting – released too late to be eligible for this year’s awards, it feels like Taylor’s three nominations for Shake It Off this year are a mere prelude for the dominance that should take place in February 2016. This was all but confirmed when she announced she wouldn’t be performing this year. With 1989 boasting two US No 1 singles already and having spent 10 weeks topping the album charts, it feels like the campaign is only just getting started. Expect Taylor’s acceptance speeches this year – should she get to make any – to feature a very knowing sense of “This is nothing, just you wait until next year when I’m clumsily holding 10 gold gramophones while trying not to drop one.”

The playlist: electronic – Carl Craig, Lena Willikens, the return of Sueño Latino and more

From Carl Craig’s classical excursions to Lena Willikens’s Dusseldorf eclecticism and Juju and Jordash’s ballsy improv: it’s the electronic playlist

Carl Craig plays at the Movement festival in Detroit

Carl Craig and Francesco Tristano

Premiering exclusively on the Guardian is a live improvisation between disgustingly handsome pianist Francesco Tristano and Detroit techno master Carl Craig. Recorded for a Boiler Room session in Germany sponsored by Ballantine’s whisky (whose imagery you might well notice throughout) it comes as part of their Stay True Journeys series. Techno is naturally po-faced, so can seem awfully haughty when it actually tries to be serious and edge its way into the conservatoire. But whether its Villalobos and Loderbauer mining the ECM archives, or Craig and Moritz Von Oswald turning Ravel into dub techno, the worlds of classical music and techno can potentially dovetail beautifully. So it (mostly) proves here as Craig sends acid arpeggios on skewed axes, before Tristano returns with full-blooded house chords. Piano sounds are usually approximated in dance music, often beautifully and strangely, but it’s satisfying to hear the grand piano put to use in the unbecoming business of a fist-pumping anthem. You see can more from the same Boiler Room series here.

Lena Willikens

Another Guardian premiere here, from the debut EP of Cologne producer Lena Willikens, out next week on Matias Aguayo’s Comeme label. Willikens made a name for herself as an artist with immaculate taste: She’s hosted the likes of Hieroglyphic Being and Theo Parrish at her Dusseldorf club residency, and her brilliant podcast, Sentimental Flashback, showcases her crate-digging – one week will be her favourite bass guitar lines, the next, cold war-era German pop, the next a tour through global polyrhythms. All of this cosmopolitanism is poured into her tracks, which have the chilled jugular beat of minimal wave, the scrunched electronics of IDM, the wit of electroclash and the phantasmagoric camp of gothic pop. On lead track Howlin Lupus, Willikens breathes and howls like a wolf, tapping into the dark sexuality at the heart of werewolf myths, while the bassline scurries with maniacal intent. Club promoters – you have your first no-brainer booking of the year.

Galcher Lustwerk

While acknowledging his punkish credentials, part of me really wants underground producer Galcher Lustwerk to bring out an artist album and blow away the dance mainstream – one-offs like Chillin in the Booth have been as spectacular as his 2013 Blowing Up the Workshop mix, where he lays his steady enigmatic flow over peerless deep-house production. For now, we can happily make do with a new batch of re-edits, featuring lazy G-funk, ambient and the addictive riddim of Lumidee’s Never Leave You flecked with workout sweat. Best of all is this rework of rap crew OGC’s track Hurricane Strang, which has a gorgeous tension between the pert pulsations of Lustwerk’s beat, and the vocal line dragging its heels just behind it.

Juju and Jordash

Gal Aner and Jordan Czamanski are Israelis who moved to Amsterdam and immersed themselves in the playful, puckish house style of the city – and also added their own flavour, building their tracks from lengthy improvisations until a groove is smoothly carved. They ballsily use this technique when playing live in their trio with Move D, Magic Mountain High, but they’re skilled arrangers too, using the studio without sucking away the serendipity of improv. Their new album, Clean-Cut, is their best yet. Ambitious in its clean mulch of krautrock and jacking house, and channelling high-gloss 80s weirdos like David Sylvian and Laurie Anderson, the pair manage to nail it, and the title track is as good a place as any to start. The strutting bedrock could have been made by Moderat or Todd Terje, but then the kitsch panpipe melody begins, and is joined by sounds seemingly from a cheap instructional cassette for ayurvedic medicine. Pristine, yes, but definitely perverted.

Sueño Latino

Finally, clearing away the January blues is the turquoise flourish of Sueño Latino, reissued this week on vinyl following its original release in 1989. Perma-gurning crusties will insist that the second Summer of Love was ecstatic social emancipation on a par with the fall of apartheid, but when you hear tracks like this you can imagine the pharmacologically-assisted bliss must have been pretty significant. Built around Manuel Göttsching’s astral classic E2-E4 the Italian group fed a solid bass drum underneath, dotted tropical birdcalls and house pianos throughout, and added some almost comically sensual vocals from Carolina Damas. The canonical version is the Paradise Mix, but other remixes included here are equally strong. On Derrick May’s revisit from 1992 he revs up the bpm, adds extra melodic lines, and sluices mild acid over it all. Equally beautiful, though in a much more elegant way, is the Agua Version, which mutes the bass kick to keep everything flitting around in the mid-range and Gottsching himself turns up on the pounding Winter Version. Buy it, turn the central heating up, and spin around your living room wearing a flower garland for late-80s Ibiza on the cheap.