Leona reaches US summit but can she hold on?

Source: MW

Friday March 28, 2008

 

By Alan Jones

 

As widely reported elsewhere, Leona Lewis has become the first British female solo artist to top the US Hot 100 for more than 20 years, climbing 8-1 this week with Bleeding Love.

 

Lewis, who turns 23 next Thursday (3rd April) was a toddler, just two years old, when Wilde reached the summit with You Keep Me Hangin’ On in June 1987. The fourth of five US chart entries for Wilde – follow-up Say You Really Want Me was the last, and peaked weakly at number 44 – You Keep Me Hangin’ On was a hit at a time when the chart was a much happier hunting ground for UK acts.

 

The week it was number one, it was one of 19 hits on the Hot 100 by UK and Irish acts, with others including Chris De Burgh’s Lady In Red, Genesis’ In Too Deep, Billy Idol’s Sweet Sixteen, Heart And Soul by T’Pau, Mary’s Prayer by Danny Wilson, One For The Mockingbird by Cutting Crew, and a brace of Steve Winwood songs, The Finer Things and Back In The High Life Again.

 

Since Billboard first devised its singles chart in 1940 (it became the Hot 100 in 1958), six other UK female solo artists have topped the chart, along with Lewis and Wilde. They are: Vera Lynn with Auf Widersehen Sweetheart (1952), Petula Clark with Downtown (1965) and My Love (1966), Lulu with To Sir With Love (1967), Olivia Newton John with I Honestly Love You (1974), Have You Never Been Mellow (1975), Magic (1980) and Physical (1981), Sheena Easton with 9 To 5 (1981), and Bonnie Tyler with Total Eclipse Of The Heart (1983).

 

Since Wilde’s success, four British female solo artists have had number two hits – Sheena Easton with The Lover In Me (1989), Cathy Dennis with Touch Me All Night Long (1991), Nikki French with Total Eclipse Of The Heart (1995) and, most recently, another member of the Lewis clan, namely Donna Lewis, who reached runners-up spot with I Love You, Always Forever in 1996, losing out to Los Del Rio’s Macarena. The latter track, of course, sampled Alison Moyet’s giggle from Yazoo’s Situation, so had some British interest.

 

On a wider note, Leona Lewis is only the second UK act to have a number one single in America this decade. Of the 107 previous chart-toppers since January 2000, the only one by a British act is You’re Beautiful by James Blunt. Like Lewis, Blunt was hugely indebted to exposure on Oprah Winfrey’s show just before reaching pole position.

 

One thing Leona Lewis has in common with Kim Wilde is that both of them achieved their number ones with American songs. Wilde’s single was a hi-nrg cover of the Diana Ross & The Supremes smash penned by Holland, Dozier & Holland, while Bleeding Love was written by Ryan Tedder and Jesse McCartney.

 

Tedder is the lead singer of OneRepublic. Unknown a year ago, he has since co-penned six Hot 100 hits. Bleeding Love is the first to reach number one, though OneRepublic’s Apologize collaboration with Timbaland reached number two. Love Like This was a number 11 hit for Natasha Bedingfield and Sean Kingston, Do It Well reached number 31 for Jennifer Lopez, and He Said She Said peaked at number 58 for Ashley Tisdale. OneRepublic’s follow-up to Apologize, Stop & Stare, climbs 16-12 on the Hot 100 this week. All of Tedder’s songs were penned with different co-writers.

 

Available since December, Bleeding Love initially made slow progress in America but its download sales there have now overhauled their UK tally. With the Oprah effect helping to generate sales of 219,237 downloads there last week, it has now sold 537,061 copies, whereas downloads account for 471,198 of Bleeding Love’s UK sales tally of 867,884.

Despite its sales success, Bleeding Love is far from being one of the top records on US radio. It has been on the Hot 100 airplay chart for just three weeks, moving 66-51-37. It is also number 34 on the Rhythmic Top 40, and number 22 on the Mainstream Top 40 airplay charts. TV exposure for the songs video didn’t really take off until the song got Oprah’s seal of approval but it debuts at number nine on the Hot Videoclip chart this week.

 

Like Kim Wilde, Lewis’ reign atop the US chart will be limited to just one week – Bleeding Love is certain to be overtaken next week by Mariah Carey’s Touch My Body, which is way ahead of Bleeding Love on airplay and should easily sell more than 200,000 copies in the next week, as pent-up demand is released. Madonna’s 4 Minutes is also selling very strongly, and made push Lewis into third place.

 

But the future looks bright for Lewis, who is due to appear on Good Morning America, Live With Regis & Kelly, The Ellen De Generes Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and American Idol before her Spirit album drops stateside on April 8.

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