KIAH is a television station operating in digital on UHF channel 39 in Houston, Texas. KIAH is owned by the Tribune Company, and is affiliated with The CW Television Network. The station's studios are located in Houston, and its transmitter is based in unincorporated Fort Bend County near Missouri City, Texas.

History[link]

Origins[link]

The station began broadcasting on January 6, 1967 as KHTV (Houston TeleVision). The station took the place of the now-defunct KNUZ-TV, which was a DuMont affiliate during the middle 1950s. It was originally owned by the WKY Television System, a subsidiary of Oklahoma Publishing Company, publishers of Oklahoma City's major daily newspaper, the Daily Oklahoman. After the company's namesake station, WKY-TV, was sold in 1976, the WKY Television System became Gaylord Broadcasting, named for the family which owned Oklahoma Publishing.

As Houston's first general-entertainment independent station, KHTV aired a schedule of programs including children's shows, syndicated programs, movies, religious shows, and some sports coverage. One of its best known locally produced programs was "Houston Wrestling", hosted by local promoter Paul Boesch. It aired Saturday evenings, having been taped the night before at the weekly live shows in the Sam Houston Coliseum. From 1983 to 1985, it was known as KHTV 39 Gold. It was the leading independent station in Houston as competitors entered the market. During this time, KHTV was distributed to cable companies as a regional superstation of sorts, reaching systems as far east as Lafayette, Louisiana.

As a WB affiliate[link]

Prior to its launch in January 1995, The WB Television Network agreed to affiliate with KHTV and three of its sister stations, KTVT in Fort Worth, WVTV in Milwaukee, and KSTW in Tacoma, Washington. However, after CBS lost its affiliation with KDFW-TV in the Dallas-Fort Worth market to Fox, a result of Fox's alliance with New World Communications, Gaylord Broadcasting chose to align both KTVT and KSTW with CBS.

Not pleased with Gaylord's about-face, The WB voided its group affiliation contract with Gaylord, and later took the broadcaster to court for breach of contract. This left Houston as the only top 10 television market without programming from the new network in its first few months; this status came to an end in the fall of 1995, when KHTV was acquired by Tribune Broadcasting, which held an ownership stake in The WB network.^[1] Channel 39 became a WB affiliate shortly afterward, and began to call itself Houston's WB39. In 1999, the station changed its call letters to KHWB to reflect its affiliation. The station subsequently dropped references to its channel number, becoming Houston's WB.

From The WB to The CW[link]

Following the 2006 closure of The WB and UPN networks and creation of The CW, KHWB became The CW's Houston affiliate; a few months later, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a call-sign change from KHWB to KHCW (Houston's CW), which became official on April 27, 2006. On September 13, 2006, KHCW rebranded from Houston's WB to CW 39, restoring the channel number to its branding; until June 2007 (during The CW's first television season), it occasionally referred to itself as The New CW 39 on occasion. The station celebrated its 40th anniversary on January 6, 2007.

The station also aired The Tube Music Network during this time on its -DT2 digital subchannel until the service was discontinued on October 1, 2007.

On July 15, 2008, Channel 39 changed its call letters to KIAH as part of a branding campaign emphasizing the station's local orientation (KIAH is the ICAO airport code for George Bush Intercontinental Airport).^[2] Due to sagging ratings for The CW, Tribune wanted its stations including KIAH to reimage themselves and de-emphasize the network's branding. The station changed to the simplified Channel 39 branding as of August 29, 2008, although Channel 39, The CW was used during network promotions. However, in January 2011, it was simplified again to just 39 for regular programming, and CW 39 returned in network promotions (though retaining the numeric 39 introduced with the 2008 rebranding); the CW 39 branding returned full-time on March 28, using the slogan "Real Houston" to continue to emphasize KIAH's local orientation.^[3]

Channel 39 studios

Digital television[link]

The station's digital signal, UHF 38, is multiplexed:

Analog-to-digital conversion[link]

KIAH ended programming on its analog signal, on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States,^[4] and remained on its current pre-transition channel number, 38 ^[5] PSIP is used to display KIAH's virtual channel as 39.

Programming[link]

KIAH-TV broadcasts mostly syndicated programming during the daytime such as The Bill Cunningham Show, Family Feud, The Jerry Springer Show, Judge Mathis, The Steve Wilkos Show, The People's Court and Maury.

News programming[link]

Since the station signed on as an independent, KIAH (when it was KHTV) aired hourly news updates during commercial breaks between programming. In August 1990, the station began producing newscasts at 7 and 11 p.m. entitled Houston TV News, later simply called 39 News. The move was made to fill a gap that KRIV had left open, as it had previously aired news at 7 p.m., but had moved it to 9 p.m. in 1989 as the Fox network had developed a primetime schedule. The 11 p.m. newscast was supposed to cater to people who had missed the traditional 10 p.m. newscasts, though both proved unsuccessful and the news department was ultimately disbanded in May 1992.

KHWB did not attempt to go back into news programming until 1999, when Tribune Broadcasting decided to call for the introduction of news programming on all of its then-The WB affiliated stations, which served as de facto owned-and-operated stations as Tribune owned a partial stake in The WB; in 2000, the station launched a half-hour newscast, WB 39 News at Nine (later renamed Houston's WB News at Nine) to compete with KRIV. For a brief time in 2006, it was also known as Channel 39 News due to the upcoming affiliation change from The WB to The CW; it then became CW 39 News at Nine. The station's Chief Meteorologist, Keith Monahan, has won numerous awards for his weather reports including several Texas Lone Star Awards and multiple first place finishes in Texas AP judging, and was honored with a Lone Star Emmy in 2006 and a Lone Star Emmy nomination in 2007 for the Best Weathercast in Texas.^[6]

The station permanently expanded the newscast to an hour on June 30, 2008 (previously it had been expanded to the full hour on breaking news occasions), and contemplated launching a morning newscast in 2010, along with plans to unveil a new set and begin to broadcast its news in high definition^[7] (the morning newscast ultimately never launched). Additionally on August 29, 2008, the station rebranded the newscast to simply 39 News at Nine.^[2]

On September 28, 2009, KIAH launched an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast, which competes against 5 p.m. newscasts on KPRC-TV, KHOU, KTRK-TV, and KRIV. On May 10, 2010, the station debuted a new set and began airing its newscasts in high definition. KIAH was technically the last English-language network-affiliated station in the Houston market to have made the upgrade. However, like most Tribune-owned stations with in-house originated high-definition newscasts, the locally-originated live field reports are also in HD. (KTRK also uses some HD field footage in its newscasts.) By contrast, KPRC, KHOU, and KRIV still use 16:9 widescreen standard definition for live field video.

[edit] NewsFix and Eye Opener

In March 2011, KIAH relaunched its newscasts and became the pilot station for a new Tribune-developed news format, NewsFix. Described by KIAH General Manager Roger Bare as "a newsreel updated for the 21st century,"^[8] NewsFix de-emphasizes the traditional use of anchors and reporters, preferring instead to allow those involved in a news story to tell the viewer what's going on. Houston radio personality Greg Onofrio provides continuity as NewsFix's narrator; he also makes an on-screen appearance and commentary at the end of the newscast. If NewsFix proves successful on KIAH (where it officially debuted on March 19, 2011, after originally being slated for a fall 2010 launch),^[9][10] the format may eventually be rolled out to some of Tribune's other stations; according to Tribune spokesperson Gary Weitman, NewsFix would be a fit for stations "that don't have a strong legacy news product or where the local news tradition may not be as strong as it is in other markets."^[9]

On May 9, 2011, KIAH became test market for another Tribune news concept, Eye Opener. Airing in the morning slot (5-8 a.m.) on KIAH, Eye Opener is a local/national hybrid show billed by KIAH and Tribune management as a "provocative and unpredictable" combination of daily news, lifestyle, entertainment, and opinion segments. Mia Gradney (the last KIAH prime-time news anchor before NewsFix premiered) serves as presenter of Houston news, weather, and traffic from the KIAH studios,^[11] with national content initially pre-produced at Tribune's Chicago headquarters, where Kirby O’Connell, Sean Dowling, and Adam Lee Campbell served as presenters.^[12] By Fall 2011, Eye Opener would see its national hub relocated from Chicago to Tribune's Dallas CW affiliate, KDAF,^[13] which added Eye Opener to its schedule on October 31, as did Tribune stations in Philadelphia, Miami, and Portland.

News/station presentation[link]

Newscast titles[link]

• Houston TV News (1990–1991)
• 39 News (1991–1992 and 2008–2011)
• WB 39 News (2000–2002)
• Houston's WB News (2002–2006)
• Channel 39 News (2006)
• CW 39 News (2006–2008)
• 39 News (2008–2011)^[14]
• NewsFix (evenings, 2011–present)
• Eye Opener (mornings, 2011–present)

Station slogans[link]

• "Channel 39, We Play Favorites!" (1970's–1980's; channel slogan)
• "News When You Want It" (1990–1991; news slogan)
• "News to Talk About" (2009–2011; local variant of The CW's "TV to Talk About" ad campaign)
• "Real Houston" (2011–present)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

News team[link]

Current on-air staff[link]

• TBD - news cut-in anchor during EyeOpener
• Steve Simon - specialty reporter for NewsFix
• Greg Onofrio - narrator for NewsFix
• Sean Dowling - EyeOpener host and entertainment correspondent; also producer
• Ellen Fox - EyeOpener host
• Danielle Vollmar - host; also substitute meteorlogist at KDAF in Dallas/Fort Worth

Former on-air staff[link]

• Alan Ashby - sports director
• Ken Jones - reporter
• Katie McCall - reporter (2002–2007; now at KTRK)
• Jim McKrell - station spokesman (later became an anchor and after the newscast had ended, he hosted station-produced specials; appeared in the film Teen Wolf)
• Donna Savarese - anchor/reporter
• David Scott - weekday anchor (now reporter and weekend anchor at KXAN-TV in Austin, TX)

References[link]

External links[link]

Houston portal

• KIAH Official Website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KIAH
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KIAH-TV

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Leona Lewis
Lewis at the 2009 American Music Awards
Background information
Birth name	Leona Louise Lewis
Born	(1985-04-03) 3 April 1985 (age 27) Islington, London, England, UK
Genres	Pop, R&B
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, recording artist
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Syco, J, RCA
Website	leonalewismusic.co.uk

Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer and songwriter.^[1] Lewis came to prominence in 2006 when she won the third series of the British television series The X Factor.

Lewis has released two albums to date, Spirit and Echo, in 2007 and 2009 respectively. A multi-platinum selling artist and three-time Grammy Award nominee, her most successful single, "Bleeding Love", reached number one in over thirty countries around the world, and was the best-selling single worldwide in 2008.^[2] Other notable singles include "Better in Time", "Happy" and "I Got You". She was proclaimed 'Top New Artist' by Billboard magazine in 2008.

Lewis's debut tour, The Labyrinth, took place in 2010, and her third album, Glassheart, is scheduled for release in 2012. It was preceded by "Collide", a single from the album, which became her seventh top-five hit in the United Kingdom. Lewis's net worth was estimated at £12 million in April 2012.^[3]

Early life[link]

Lewis was born in the London Borough of Islington, to Aural Josiah "Joe" Lewis of Afro-Guyanese descent, and Maria Lewis of Welsh, Irish, and Italian descent.^[1][4][5] Her parents enrolled her at the Sylvia Young Theatre School. From there she attended the Italia Conti Academy and the BRIT School, where she learned to play instruments, such as the guitar and piano, in the hope of becoming a singer-songwriter.^[6][7] Lewis wrote her first full-length song at the age of 12.^[8] She initially trained in opera, but went on to singing jazz and blues, eventually leading to popular music, citing Minnie Riperton, Eva Cassidy and Stevie Wonder as her main influences.^[5] After leaving the BRIT School at 17, following a year abroad in Boston, Massachusetts in a transfer program,^[5] she took a number of jobs to fund studio time,^[9] recording a demo album called Twilight.^[10] The album, almost exclusively comprising her own compositions, was recorded under Spiral Music, a production company based in Fulham. "I tried to secure a record deal by doing things my own way. I worked very hard but I never managed to land a contract", said Lewis.^[11] Other demos were recorded under licence from UEG Entertainment, later included on an album called Best Kept Secret.^[12] None of Lewis's demos brought her significant attention, however, and she considered taking a hiatus from her music career to attend university. Then her boyfriend persuaded her to enter The X Factor which subsequently severed her connections with UEG.^[13]

Music career[link]

[edit] 2006: The X Factor

Lewis at the London premiere for Flushed Away, November 2006

Lewis auditioned for the third series of The X Factor in 2006, singing "Over the Rainbow". She was mentored by Simon Cowell and was announced the winner on 16 December 2006, winning a £1 million recording contract.^[14]

Her debut single, a cover of Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This", was released on CD on 20 December 2006, and was available as a digital download from midnight on 17 December. It broke a world record after it was downloaded 50,000 times in thirty minutes.^[15] On 24 December, "A Moment Like This" was crowned the 2006 UK Christmas number-one single, having sold 571,253 copies, outselling the rest of the Top 40's sales combined.^[16] The single became the most downloaded song in 2006; it stayed at No. 1 for four weeks and stayed at the top spot in the Irish Singles Chart for six weeks.^[17]

[edit] 2007–09: Spirit and international breakthrough

In February 2007 Lewis signed a £5 million (US$9.7 million) five-album contract in the United States with Clive Davis's record label, J Records,^[18] and showcased for several American music executives.^[18][19][20] A press release described how Cowell and Davis would work together in a "first-of-its-kind" partnership on both the song and producer selection for Lewis's debut album, entitled Spirit.^[21] Lewis recorded tracks for the album in London, Miami, Los Angeles, New York City, and Atlanta,^[22] where she worked with several songwriters and record producers including Dallas Austin, Walter Afanasieff, Salaam Remi,^[23] Steve Mac,^[24] Stargate^[25] and Ne-Yo.^[26] It was released in November 2007 and entered both the Irish Albums Chart and the UK Albums Chart at number one, becoming the fastest-selling debut album in both countries, and the United Kingdom's fourth fastest selling album of all time.^[27][28][29] It was released in several other nations in January 2008, and went to number one in New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Germany, South Africa and Switzerland.^[30] Two more tracks were recorded in 2008 for the US release of the album: "Forgive Me", produced by Akon, and "Misses Glass", produced by Madd Scientist.^[31] It was released in the United States in April 2008 and entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1, making Lewis the first British artist to reach number one with a debut album.^[32] A special edition of Spirit was re-released in November 2008 in Europe, including the songs "Forgive Me", "Misses Glass" and a cover of the Snow Patrol song "Run". The album again went to number one in the UK Albums Chart. To date the album has sold over 6.5 million copies worldwide^[33] and has a 9× platinum certification in the UK.^[34]

Lewis performing at the Clive Davis Pre Grammy Gala in 2009

Lewis's second single, "Bleeding Love", produced by Ryan Tedder and written by Tedder and Jesse McCartney, was released in October 2007 in the UK, where it sold 218,805 copies in its first week, giving it the biggest first-week sales of 2007 to date.^[35][36] It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, where it stayed for seven weeks,^[37] and in the Irish Singles Chart it remained at number one for eight weeks.^[38] It reached number one in the singles charts of New Zealand, Australia, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria, Canada and the United States. "Bleeding Love" won The Record of the Year in December 2007.^[39] In February 2008, "Bleeding Love" entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 85 and then went on to peak at number one for four non-consecutive weeks. The song became the first track by a UK female to reach number one since Kim Wilde's "You Keep Me Hangin' On" in 1987.^[40] Lewis's third single, a double A-side featuring "Better in Time" and "Footprints in the Sand", was released in the United Kingdom in March 2008, in aid of Sport Relief, and she visited South Africa for the charity.^[41] The single reached a peak of number two in the UK singles chart selling over 40,000 copies in its first week of physical release. "Better in Time" was released as Lewis's second single in the US, where it peaked at number 11 in the Billboard Hot 100.^[42] "Forgive Me" was released as Lewis's fifth single in November 2008; it reached number five in the UK.^[43] "Run" was released as a download-only single in the UK, reaching number one, and becoming the UK's fastest-selling download-only single with 69,244 copies sold in two days.^[44] Lewis's last single from Spirit, "I Will Be", was released in January 2009,^[45] only in North America; it peaked at number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100. In August 2008, she performed "Whole Lotta Love" with guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin at the 2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in Beijing, representing the handover to London as the host of the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[46] In September 2008, she joined several female singers to perform a single for the anti-cancer campaign Stand Up to Cancer. The single, titled "Just Stand Up!", was performed live during the one-hour telethon that aired on all major US television networks.^[47] Lewis received three nominations for the 51st Grammy Awards in December 2008. "Bleeding Love" was nominated for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Spirit was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album. She was nominated for four BRIT Awards, in the categories British Female Solo Artist, British Breakthrough Act, British Album for Spirit, and British Single for "Bleeding Love",^[48] but despite being the favourite to win the most awards, she received none.^[49] She won two awards at the 2008 MOBO Awards: Best Album for Spirit and Best Video for "Bleeding Love".^[50] In December 2008 Lewis was named 'Top New Artist' by Billboard magazine.^[51]

[edit] 2009–10: Echo and The Labyrinth

Lewis performing on The Labyrinth tour in 2010

Lewis's second album, Echo, was given a worldwide release in November 2009.^[52] Production took place throughout 2009, including work with Ryan Tedder,^[53] Justin Timberlake,^[54] Max Martin,^[55] Arnthor Birgisson,^[56] Kevin Rudolf,^[57] and John Shanks.^[58] It was recorded in Los Angeles and took nine months to produce.^[59] Lewis described the album as "more guitar-driven" compared to Spirit.^[60] Lewis performed her first full UK show at the Hackney Empire in London on 2 November 2009, performing songs from Spirit and Echo.^[61][62] Echo reached number one in the UK Albums Chart and the top ten of Austria, Ireland and Switzerland.^[63] Despite previous attempts from Lewis's lawyers to ban the release of Best Kept Secret by UEG Music, claiming that the singer had not given her consent, the album was released in January 2009 when the label insisted it owned the rights to the music and Lewis would receive a 50% share of the album's profits. However, a television advert for the album was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority, who said in a statement: "We considered that the claim 'Leona Lewis's new album' misleadingly implied it was the singer's latest recording rather than a new CD of tracks recorded some years ago."^[64] The album was released to iTunes in standard and deluxe editions, and two EPs, "Private Party" and "Dip Down"/"Joy", were released in September 2009. The first single released from Echo was "Happy", which was written by Lewis, Tedder and Evan Bogart and produced by Tedder.^[65] The single was released on 15 September 2009,^[66][67] peaking at number two in the UK,^[68] and reaching the top ten in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Japan and Switzerland.^[69] Lewis also recorded the theme song for the 2009 science fiction film Avatar, directed by James Cameron.^[70] The song, "I See You (Theme from Avatar)", was written by James Horner and Simon Franglen. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the 67th Golden Globe Awards.^[71] In January 2010, Lewis provided vocals on a cover of "Everybody Hurts", released to help raise money for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.^[72] The second single from Echo, "I Got You", was released in February 2010. The song "My Hands" was used as the theme song for Final Fantasy XIII^[73] In April 2010, she featured on a duet with Italian singer Biagio Antonacci, called "Inaspettata (Unexpected)", from his album Inaspettata.^[74] They performed the song on the Italian TV show Io Canto on 22 October 2010.^[75] Lewis performed a 13-piece set list at the Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon, Portugal, on 22 May 2010, including songs from Spirit and Echo.^[76] Her first tour, titled The Labyrinth^[77] supporting Spirit and Echo, started in May 2010,^[78] with a theme based on the film Labyrinth.^[79] Lewis was scheduled to tour North America from July to August 2010 supporting Christina Aguilera's Bionic Tour,^[80] however, Aguilera cancelled the tour, leaving Lewis's plans unknown.^[81] A DVD of the tour, along with a ten-track CD, was released with the title The Labyrinth Tour Live from The O2 on 29 November 2010.^[82]

[edit] 2010–present: Hurt and Glassheart

Lewis began work on her third album shortly after she had completed The Labyrinth tour.^[83] She suggested the album would be "a bit different from what people have heard" from her before, adding that she planned to "go in and create and just see what happens".^[84] Lewis later described the album as "more progressive", "more eclectic", "more uptempo" and "a bit darker".^[85] Reports suggested that the album had taken a dubstep direction, with songwriters asked to submit dance songs and no ballads.^[86] It was also reported that Simon Cowell had set a deadline for the album for a summer 2011 release.^[87] On 25 May 2011, Lewis was named as an ambassador for BBC Radio 1's Hackney Weekend 2012, the BBC's biggest ever free-ticketed live music event, and one of the artists confirmed to be performing at the event, which will take place on 23 and 24 June 2012.^[88][89] Following the announcement, she performed a special Live Lounge at the Hackney Empire, with a reggae version of "Better in Time", which incorporated Rihanna's "Man Down", and a cover of Labrinth's "Let the Sun Shine".^[90][91] In June 2011, when asked about the upcoming album, Lewis described it as "energetic, deep, [and] unique". She also commented that it would have a darker tone and that she would be putting her "heart into [her] lyrics". She cited Tracy Chapman, Kate Bush and Tears for Fears as the album's primary influences.^[92]

On 14 July 2011, it was confirmed that "Collide" would be the first track to be taken from Lewis's third studio album, Glassheart. The dance-pop anthem, written by Autumn Rowe and produced by Sandy Vee, had its first UK radio play on The Scott Mills Show on BBC Radio 1 on 15 July 2011. It was released in the UK on 4 September 2011 and Germany on 9 September 2011.^[93][94][95] The single courted controversy after it was plagiarised from Swedish musician Avicii's 2010 song "Penguin".^[96] Berg took the case to the British High Court.^[97][98] Collide debuted on the official UK top 40 singles chart at number 4.

For the album, Lewis has worked with numerous writers and producers including: Ammo, Jonas Quant, Chuck Harmony, Claude Kelly, Ryan Tedder, Fraser T. Smith, Al Shux, Steve Robson,^[95] Dallas Austin,^[87] Rico Love^[99] and Ne-Yo.^[100] In May 2011, it was reported that Lewis had recorded a track called "Trouble" written by Emeli Sandé and Naughty Boy. Lewis also recorded a track called "Mountains" written by Sandé, Naughty Boy and Blazin' Squad members Flava (James Murray) and Mus (Mustafa Omer).^[99][101] It has been confirmed that the album is entitled Glassheart. Though originally announced to be released on 28 November in the UK, it has since been announced that the album will be released on 26 March 2012. However, it was later announced in January 2012 that the album would be delayed again to the 26 November 2012.^[102]

On 7 October, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding J Records along with Arista Records and Jive Records. With the shutdown, Lewis (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) will release her future material (including Glassheart) on the RCA Records brand.^[103][104]

On 29 October, Lewis performed as the featured performer for the closing of the 2011 Doha Film Festival, where she sang a setlist of ten songs, including 'Collide' and covers of OneRepublic's Apologize, Seal's Kiss from a Rose and Boney M's Rivers Of Babylon.^[105]

Before the release of Glassheart, Lewis released an EP on 9 December 2011, entitled Hurt: The EP, containing three covers as a holiday gift for her fans.^[106] On 22 December, Lewis performed a version of Snow Patrol's "Run" at the season finale of the U.S. X Factor.^[107][108] It was announced on 25 January 2012 that the album would be delayed again until late November 2012.^[109]

Artistry[link]

Voice[link]

A mezzo-soprano,^[110][111] Lewis is often compared with other singers such as Celine Dion, Whitney Houston^[112] and Mariah Carey.^[113] Lewis is also known to sing opera, stating that she practises operatic scales every week.^[112] Music critic Neil McCormick, of The Daily Telegraph, has praised Lewis's technical skills, writing, "Her mezzo-soprano range allows her to take melodies from luxurious low notes to high-flying falsetto, gliding with elegant power and impressive control through all kinds of fluctuations and modulations."^[110] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic adds, "Lewis can hit [high belted] notes but make it seem easy, never straining her voice and building nicely to the climax."^[114] In the same vein, Slant describes Lewis's vocals as "technically unimpeachable".^[115]

Influences[link]

Lewis credits Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston as her major influences. She said, "when I was growing up I used to listen to Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, those kind of big powerful kind of singers so that influences a lot my music and a lot of the songs I like to sing."^[116]

Other activities[link]

In October 2008, The Times reported that Lewis had turned down a seven-figure sum from Mohamed Al Fayed to open a Harrods sale. Lewis commented in the press that she turned down the deal on the grounds that Harrods is the only UK department store which continues to stock clothing made from animal fur.^[117] "It wasn't a million pounds that I was offered, as the papers reported, but even if it had been, I still would have turned it down."^[118] "I got a lot of flak for that. There were people who said I should have done it and given the money to charity, but that would have been such a contradiction."^[119] She announced in October 2008 that she was in the "bargaining period" of launching her own ethical line of accessories through Topshop,^[5][117] and that she was in the late stages of releasing her own perfume for Europe.^[120] Her perfume, Leona Lewis, was launched by LR in July 2009.^[121] In 2010, she set up a fashion company with her then boyfriend, Lou Al-Chamaa, called LOA Clothing Ltd.^[122]

Lewis signed a book deal in January 2009 to release an illustrated autobiography in October 2009. The book, entitled Dreams, contains mostly pictures taken by photographer Dean Freeman.^[123] In May 2012, Lewis returned to The X Factor as a guest judge during auditions in London for the ninth series.^[124]

Personal life[link]

Lewis lives in Hackney. She lived with her boyfriend Lou Al-Chamaa, former electrician turned A&R scout for Sony records, until their split in June 2010.^[125] Lewis and Al-Chamaa knew each other since she was approximately ten years old.^[126] A vegetarian since she was 12,^[23] Lewis won PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian along with Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis in 2008,^[127] and Europe's Sexiest Vegetarian in 2009 with actor Scott Maslen.^[128] She also was named PETA's Person Of The Year for 2008.^[129] Lewis is a supporter of the World Society for the Protection of Animals^[130] and is a patron of Brentwood's Hopefield Animal Sanctuary.^[131]

Wikinews has related news: Leona Lewis assaulted at book signing in London, England Man charged with assaulting British singer Leona Lewis

At a book signing for Dreams on 14 October 2009 at the Piccadilly branch of Waterstone's book store in central London, Lewis was assaulted by a 29-year-old man from south London^[132][133] who was arrested at the scene;^[133] Lewis suffered bruising.^[134] The assailant was sectioned under the Mental Health Act^[133] and was charged with common assault,^[134] He admitted to the offence and was hospitalised for an indeterminate period.^[135]

Discography[link]

Albums

• 2007: Spirit
• 2009: Echo
• 2012: Glassheart

Tours[link]

• 2010: The Labyrinth

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]