Spirit (Leona Lewis album)

Spirit (English for: "spirit") is the debut album by British singer Leona Lewis, released in November 2007 under the Syco Music label in the UK and worldwide in early 2008. The album debuted at the top of the charts in nine countries, including her native country and Germany. It ranks among the albums with the most digital album sales worldwide. It was nominated for an award in the category of "Best Vocal Album - Pop" at the 2009 Grammy Awards. There were two other nominations for the album song Bleeding Love, but no award.

Origin and content

Leona Lewis recorded the album in various locations. The first production took place in London, where she worked with Steve Mac on the songs Footprints in the Sand and Homeless. Footprints in the Sand is a piano pop ballad and was written by Per Magnusson, David Kreuger and Richard Page. With it, Leona Lewis performed on an episode on the fourth series of the British casting show The X Factor. It appeared on the B-side of the UK maxi CD of Better in Time. Homeless is a song written by Jörgen Elofsson.

The second production took place in Los Angeles. With OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, she produced there on the song Bleeding Love, which was written by him and singer Jesse McCartney. The pop/R&B ballad went from 0 to No. 1 on the charts in countless countries. It went gold three times and platinum five times. Ryan Tedder was not only involved in the production of her number one hit Bleeding Love, but he also worked on the track Take a Bow. In Los Angeles, Leona Lewis worked with other producers on the CD Spirit such as Louis Biancaniello, Sam Watters, Josh Alexander and Dr. Luke.

The third album production took place in Atlanta. There she produced with Roman, Dallas Austin, Ne-Yo, Wayne Wilkins, Sam Watters, Louis Biancaniello and with the 70s band Runaways on her songs. Roman and Dallas Austin were responsible for the production of the single Whatever It Takes. US singer Ne-Yo produced the track I'm You. Wayne Wilkins, Sam Watters, Louis Biancaniello and the Runaways created the song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, which is a cover version of Ewan McColl's hit song of the same name The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.

After her songs were recorded in Atlanta, Leona Lewis moved to New York. Only one single was produced here, titled Forgiveness and produced by Johnta Austin and the Stargate production team.

On the album, in addition to The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, are two other cover versions: A Moment Like This (produced by Steve Mac) and I Will Be (produced by Dr. Luke). A Moment Like This is Lewis' debut single or her winning song on The X Factor and was covered by Kelly Clarkson, whose winning song on the casting show American Idol it had been. The hit single was released on the Irish, UK and Japanese editions of the album as a bonus track. I Will Be is a reinterpretation of Avril Lavigne's track I Will Be and appeared on iTunes.com as a bonus track. It was subsequently released on the limited edition of Avril Lavigne's studio album The Best Damn Thing. I Will Be was the sixth single from Leona Lewis' album.

PhD

On September 24, 2007, Lewis performed at a special "album launch party" held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. She performed Bleeding Love, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Homeless and Whatever It Takes from the album.

Two weeks later, she embarked on a two-date regional UK radio tour to promote her album Spirit and its second single Bleeding Love. This was followed on 15 October by an appearance on the British TV series This Morning, where she also performed some of her songs. Leona Lewis sang in an episode of the fourth season of the casting show The X-Factor and performed her track Bleeding Love on the US show The Oprah Winfrey Show in March.

At the end of October, Spirit was crowned Album of the Week on BBC Radio. She promoted her album in Europe in February and March, and completed a major promotional tour in America from late March to early April. This took place on TV shows including The Tonight Show, Ellen, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and TRL. She also performed on American Idol. Her American promotional tour was followed by another in Australia. In 2009, she went on The Labyrinth Tour, promoting this and the follow-up album Echo.