Forgive Me (Leona Lewis song)

"Forgive Me" is a song by British singer Leona Lewis featured on the North American version and on the international deluxe edition of her debut album Spirit (2008). It was released as the fourth single of the album in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2008. The song was written by Aliaune "Akon" Thiam, Claude Kelly and Giorgio Tuinfort, and produced by the former. Musically, "Forgive Me" is a R&B, dance-pop and soul track written in A minor. Its lyrics address a girl who has found a new love and asks her old love for forgiveness.

The song received generally positive reviews from music critics, however some of them criticised Lewis's voice for being very similar those of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey voice. Lewis has performed it on some television shows, such as GMTV and The National Lottery Live. The music video—inspired by Broadway musicals, including Carousel and West Side Story—was released in September 2008. It also features the Jabbawockeez dance crew. "Forgive Me" reached number five on the British and Irish charts, thus making it Lewis's fourth single to peak within the top ten in the UK. It peaked atop the Slovakia singles chart and reached the top ten in Italy and Sweden. Lewis performed the song during her tour The Labyrinth.

Maher Zain

Maher Zain (Arabic: ماهر زين‎ ; born 16 July 1981) is a Muslim Swedish R&B singer, songwriter and music producer of Lebanese origin. With more Facebook fans than any other Muslim artist, award-winning singer-songwriter Maher Zain is one of the biggest stars in modern Islamic music. He released his debut album Thank You Allah, an internationally successful album produced by Awakening Records, in 2009. He released his follow-up album Forgive Me in April 2012 under the same production company.

Career

Beginnings

Maher Zain's Lebanese family emigrated to Sweden when he was eight. He completed his schooling there, gaining a bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering. After university, he entered the music industry in Sweden and linked up with RedOne, the Moroccan-born Swedish producer, in 2005. When RedOne moved to New York in 2006, Maher Zain followed soon after to continue his music industry career in the USA producing for artists such as Kat DeLuna.

On returning home to Sweden, he became engaged once more with his Islamic faith and decided to move away from a career as a music producer to become a singer/songwriter of contemporary R&B music with a strong Muslim religious influence.

Bryan Adams

Bryan Guy Adams, OC OBC (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian singer songwriter and photographer.

Adams rose to fame in North America with his album Cuts Like a Knife and turned into a global star with his 1984 album Reckless.

For his contributions to music, Adams has garnered many awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations, 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television in 1992. He has also won MTV, ASCAP, American Music awards, two Ivor Novello Awards for song composition and has been nominated five times for Golden Globe Awards and three times for Academy Awards for his songwriting for films.

Adams was awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for contributions to popular music and philanthropic work via his own foundation, which helps improve education for people around the world.

Adams was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in March 2011 and Canada's Walk of Fame, Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame in 1998., and in April 2006 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards. In 2008, Bryan was ranked 38th on the list of All-Time top artists in the Billboard Hot 100 50th Anniversary Charts. On 13 January 2010, he received the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award for his part in numerous charitable concerts and campaigns during his career, and on 1 May 2010 was given the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for his 30 years of contributions to the arts.

Leona Lewis

Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter and animal welfare campaigner. She was born and raised in the London Borough of Islington, London, England where she attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology. Lewis achieved national recognition when she won the third series of The X Factor in 2006, winning a £1 million recording contract with Simon Cowell's record label, Syco Music. Her winner's single, a cover of Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This", peaked at number one for four weeks on the UK Singles Chart and it broke a world record for having 50,000 digital downloads within 30 minutes. In February 2007, Lewis signed a five-album contract in the United States with Clive Davis's record label, J Records.

Lewis's success continued with the release of her debut album, Spirit, in 2007; it went 10x platinum in the United Kingdom, while the lead single, "Bleeding Love", spent seven weeks at number-one. She achieved international recognition with the album in 2008, when she became the first British female solo artist to top the US Billboard 200 album chart in more than 20 years. Spirit has sold more than eight million copies worldwide, and "Bleeding Love" peaked at number one in over 30 countries, becoming the best-selling single of 2008. As a result, she was proclaimed 'Top New Artist' by Billboard in 2008. Under the guidance of Cowell and Davis, Lewis released her second UK number-one album Echo and recorded the theme song for the film Avatar in 2009, while embarking on her first UK arena tour, The Labyrinth, in 2010.