Leona Lewis was born in Islington, London on 3 April 1985 to Joe and Maria. She is the middle child of three, with two brothers, Kyle and Bradley. They grew up in North London. Lewis wrote her first song at the age of 12, and at the age of 13, she won the Lady D under-18 talent show at the Hackney Empire. She attended the Sylvia Young Stage School and the Brit Academy.

Although her big passion is singing, she is also a keen dancer and actor. Before auditioning for "The X Factor", Lewis recorded an album of her own songs called Twilight, but the album was never released. Leona now lives in Hackney, where she previously worked as a receptionist.

The X-Factor

In 2006, she auditioned for the third series of "The X Factor", singing "Over the Rainbow". On the 9 December show, Simon 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' lack of awareness as to how good she is, is what makes her special.

She made it through to the final stages and was announced the winner on 16 December 2006, winning a 1 million recording contract. She was mentored by Simon Cowell.

During the show, her vocal talents were consistently given high praise by all three judges (Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne), and on occasions were compared with Mariah Carey, Celine Dion 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 the Whitney Houston version.

On the night of the Grand Final, Lewis won 60% of the 8,000,000+ votes cast.