TALKING TO ME from sunny Los Angeles, Leona Lewis has come a long way since her X Factor days. Back then, she was a hopeful 21-year-old looking for her big break; today, she is a singer-songwriter who has sold 35 million records worldwide, owner of vegan coffee shop Plants and Coffee, and mother of a 14-month-old who was up early this morning.
“Me and my husband are still figuring [parenting] out,” Lewis laughs. “We’re just about getting to a point where we’re like, ‘OK, I think this works’.”
You wouldn’t know from looking at her that Lewis was up early chasing after an energetic toddler. She is glowing and happy to chat. Currently she is in the midst of preparing for her upcoming Christmas headline UK tour, working on the setlist.
How do you put a setlist together, anyway? Lewis explains that usually, an artist will prioritise songs from whatever album they’ve just had out. In the case of artists with a few albums, they can play around a bit more. This applies to Lewis, who has five studio albums under her belt, including Spirit which became the fastest-selling debut album in the UK at the time of its release in 2007, and remains one of the best-selling albums in UK chart history.
It’s clear that Lewis’ fans are important to her, and they play a big role in shaping the setlist. “I asked on Instagram what songs people wanted to hear,” she tells me. “I went through them and thought, Which of these are my favourites as well? I find a middle ground.”
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