Leona Lewis, singer
I used to be doing gigs and studio work, something to get a report deal. At one level, I received a nationwide karaoke competitors held by Yates’s Wine Lodge. The prize was £10,000 and it was like a pub model of The X Issue. So when an opportunity at the actual factor got here alongside, I used to be able to attempt that as properly.
I auditioned singing Eva Cassidy’s model of Someplace Over the Rainbow. My cousin had simply handed away, so I sang it in her reminiscence and poured the whole lot into it. Progressing by way of The X Issue put me on this bizarre bubble: hardly seeing household or mates and already being recognised on the street. I used to be 19, got here from Hackney in east London, and successful the ultimate appeared a pipe dream. When it occurred it felt like an out-of-body expertise. After successful, I needed to sing for Clive Davis. I stored pondering: “This man launched Whitney Houston!” She was one in all my all-time heroes.
Simon Cowell mentored me, selecting songs and preparations. We had just a few disputes however he shared my imaginative and prescient of who I needed to be. Once I did a showcase gig in LA, I used to be so nervous I used to be sick – then I needed to go on stage and carry out. I vaguely bear in mind assembly songwriters and producers, however I do know precisely how I felt after I heard a demo of Bleeding Love. I assumed: “This track might have been written for me.” It had a Prince vibe and I simply stored enjoying it time and again.
Ryan Tedder, who wrote the track, is a superb producer – in addition to being the lead singer of OneRepublic. So at any time when he stated, “Why don’t you do that?”, he was capable of really sing what he meant. I might relate to the track as a result of Ryan can write like a teenage woman. Simply earlier than Bleeding Love, I had had a very unhealthy breakup. I considered that whereas I used to be singing.
The track got here out a 12 months after I received The X Issue. I used to be frightened folks may need forgotten me, however the present had such a excessive profile again then – and YouTube was blowing up, too. The track turned so enormous [topping the charts in 35 countries] I nonetheless can’t clarify it. Bleeding Love simply appeared to attach with folks – and so they needed to listen to it many times.
Ryan Tedder, songwriter and producer
In my 20s, I wrote and produced for Jennifer Lopez. After that, the cellphone didn’t cease ringing. I really wrote Bleeding Love for the American singer and actor Jesse McCartney. I’d accomplished a few hits with him and he needed to attempt one thing completely different.
At any time when I don’t know what to jot down, I ask myself: “What would Prince do?” I used to be in my residence and began enjoying organ chords. Even the track’s distorted drums are Prince-like. I quickly had the verse, the melody and the opening lyrics: “Closed off from love, I didn’t want the ache / A few times was sufficient, and it was all in useless / Time begins to cross, earlier than you realize it you’re frozen.” I’d been fascinated about When Doves Cry or Nothing Compares 2 U. I needed to jot down a track that was about love however devastating, so thought of breakups that had crushed me in school.
I completed the track with Jesse and we got here up with the phrase Bleeding Love within the studio. I assumed it was the most effective track I’d ever written, however I bought a name from Jesse’s A&R man telling me it wouldn’t make his album. “I don’t personally suppose the track is successful,” he stated. I used to be livid and thought: “Both he’s flawed or I want a brand new job.”
Two months later, I used to be at Leona’s showcase on the Beverly Hilton alongside each author and producer within the enterprise. I used to be an up-and-coming no one, however the second I heard Leona’s voice, I assumed Bleeding Love can be good for her. Simon Cowell and Clive Davis each cherished the model I’d accomplished with Jesse, so I re-did it with Leona and spent days crafting the strings. Individuals informed me that halving the tempo within the center broke all the principles of songwriting.
I despatched the completed track to Simon and he stated: “I assure I’m going to ship you a UK No 1.” It reached No 1 in the identical week OneRepublic did within the US with Apologize – which I’d additionally written. I’d accomplished one other track with Leona on the identical time, referred to as Take a Bow, which might have been a single if Rihanna hadn’t launched a observe with the identical title. The one factor higher than having a huge No 1 with a brand new artist would have been having two.
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