Posted March 28, 200817 yr Leona reaches US summit but can she hold on? 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. Edited March 30, 200817 yr by Jester
March 28, 200817 yr We got it I think now. I was interested to find out that she has now sold more downloads in the USA than the UK. I think what Leona has achieved is huge, it's rare for one of our talents to reach #1 in the USA these days. I'm sure if this was Girls Aloud we wouldn't hear the end of it from you either. ;)
March 28, 200817 yr I was interested to find out that she has now sold more downloads in the USA than the UK. I think what Leona has achieved is huge, it's rare for one of our talents to reach #1 in the USA these days. I'm sure if this was Girls Aloud we wouldn't hear the end of it from you either. ;) Yes but were the capital letters needed? -_- Let's make a big thread for her if you want, and put all the info in it. People who are interested will read it, no need to open a new thread everyday.
March 28, 200817 yr She actually has a forum, but as this is chart-related info it belongs here. No need for petty arguments with anyone.
March 28, 200817 yr Its US charts so does'nt it go in international and besides saying its chart related is'nt much of an excuse for putting it in here, if eveyone put where their favourite artist got to in the charts in here then well that would defeat the object of them having their own forums.
March 28, 200817 yr Well perhaps it should have gone in the international charts forum, but either way it is specifically related to chart stats and records.
March 28, 200817 yr I just can't imagine Nicki French being famous in the US...its unbelievable that she got to No.2 there... Her UK Eurovision entry in 2000 was abysmal sub-Steps Europop...shows how far a career can fall in 5 years!
March 29, 200817 yr Author We got it I think now. So I put it in the wrong forum (by your definition)...I'm still new around here and a bit stupid, but at least I'm not rude. I thought other forum members might like an update on Leona Lewis' UK sales, as they are in the article. I'm sorry to have caused you offence but really, if you don't want to know about something the best thing to do is to skip past it and read something you do like, and not bother posting a sarcastic reply. Edited March 29, 200817 yr by Cartouche
March 29, 200817 yr I was interested to find out that she has now sold more downloads in the USA than the UK. I think what Leona has achieved is huge, it's rare for one of our talents to reach #1 in the USA these days. I don't think it's *such * a big deal - after all, their population is 5 times ours, so she could achieve the same sales with almost 5 times less success than in Britian...
March 29, 200817 yr I don't think it's *such * a big deal - after all, their population is 5 times ours, so she could achieve the same sales with almost 5 times less success than in Britian... but record sales in the US are only double the sales in the UK... so there goes your theory....
March 29, 200817 yr No they aren't! Downloads are loads bigger! 3 songs have sold more than 3 MILLION downloads in the US! The most we get is about 500k! That's 6:1, compared with a 5:1 population!
March 29, 200817 yr While a Billboard Hot100 #1 single (or top3) is very nice, it has no guarantee for sustainable success in America. The album chart is a lot harder to crack too. If she does well in the album chart ie. spends many weeks in the higher echelons, then she could build on that. However, I don't think Sprit is a very strong album bar Bleeding Love and she doesn't quite have the same zing factor as Mariah, Whitney, Xtina etc. I am sure with the deal she has with Simon Cowell, she ain't going to be seeing much cash despite selling all these units of the single (and the album), she needs to get some control over her career or she could be a distant memory in 2 years. Edited March 29, 200817 yr by d22ghj
March 30, 200817 yr While a Billboard Hot100 #1 single (or top3) is very nice, it has no guarantee for sustainable success in America. The album chart is a lot harder to crack too. If she does well in the album chart ie. spends many weeks in the higher echelons, then she could build on that. However, I don't think Sprit is a very strong album bar Bleeding Love and she doesn't quite have the same zing factor as Mariah, Whitney, Xtina etc. I am sure with the deal she has with Simon Cowell, she ain't going to be seeing much cash despite selling all these units of the single (and the album), she needs to get some control over her career or she could be a distant memory in 2 years. I know it only got mixed reviews over here - but it still sold in bucketloads - I've no doubt it'll storm to Number One in the US too. As for the distant memory ... I think a lot of us (me included) were saying that a year ago! :lol: :lol: She is a long-term investment for Cowell and she'll last. Norma
March 30, 200817 yr Its great to see a new total for Bleeding Love sales here. I thought it would have made it to 900,000 by now. It looks like its on its way to become a million seller in the US though which is great. I'll be honest, I'm not the greatest fan of Leona, i do like her album but I'm not a fan of her as say I am with Delta Goodrem, but i'm really glad she is doing well. It would be interesting if they were to take Shayne Ward over there as well and see how he would fare
March 30, 200817 yr She'll only be getting about 4p for every song sale as she's only a performer, the pennies will all add up, but god knows how much the promo and everything else is costing her, she'll only start earning big money on the more co-writes and touring she does. I can remember that big stink in the press about S-Club 7 selling millions and after 5 years they'd only earned about 300,000 each wasn't it? I reckon Shayne Ward might do ok actually, some of the stuff on his album is very similar to Taio Cruz.
March 30, 200817 yr Right, just to clear this up: This is slightly UK chart Chat related, so on this occasion, it can stay here. Can we please keep all Leona #1 in the US posts in one thread from now, please? Any more and they should go to the International Charts forum. Finally, please can we cut down on the sarcasm? Thank you.
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