Spirit (Leona Lewis album)

Spirit
Studio album by Leona Lewis
Publication (s)	November 9, 2007 (UK) January 25, 2008 ( USA , abroad)
Label (s)	Syco Music / Sony BMG
Format (s)	CD
Genre (s)	Pop , soul , contemporary R&B
Title (number)	13 (UK) 11 (USA) 13 (abroad)
running time	53:39 (British version) 51:40 (US version) 53:39 (Intl. Version)
production	Walter Afanasieff Josh Alexander Dallas Austin Louis Biancaniello Simon Cowell Clive Davis Dr. hatch Eric Hudson The Jam Steve Mac Michael Mani Novel Jordan Omley JR Rotem The Runaways Stargate Billy Steinberg Ryan Tedder Sam Watters Wayne Wilkins Maddscientist Akon Ne-yo Johntá Austin novel
chronology - Spirit Echo (2009)

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Spirit   DE 1 02/08/2008 (87 weeks)   AT 1 02/08/2008 (60 weeks)   CH 1 02/10/2008 (73 weeks)   UK 1 11/24/2007 (103 weeks)   US 1 04/24/2008 (61 weeks)

Singles

A moment like this   UK 1 12/30/2006 (19 weeks) Bleeding love   DE 1 01/25/2008 (37 weeks)   AT 1 01/25/2008 (37 weeks)   CH 1 12/23/2007 (65 weeks)   UK 1 03/11/2007 (38 weeks)   US 1 02/28/2008 (39 weeks) Forgiveness   UK 46 03/11/2007 (2 weeks) Whatever It Takes   UK 61 11/24/2007 (2 weeks) Footprints in the sand   CH 35 11/15/2009 (3 weeks)   UK 25th 11/24/2007 (12 weeks) The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face   UK 73 11/24/2007 (3 weeks) Take a bow   UK 97 11/24/2007 (1 week) Better in time   DE 2 06/13/2008 (26 weeks)   AT 3 05/30/2008 (23 weeks)   CH 5 06/01/2008 (42 weeks)   UK 2 03/01/2008 (27 weeks)   US 11 04/24/2008 (31 weeks) Forgive Me   DE 15th 11/14/2008 (9 weeks)   AT 15th 11/14/2008 (12 weeks)   CH 12 11/16/2008 (7 weeks)   UK 5 11/15/2008 (10 weeks) run   DE 3 December 26, 2008 (100 weeks)   AT 1 02/01/2009 (57 weeks)   CH 2 12/14/2008 (72 weeks)   UK 1 12/13/2008 (44 weeks)   US 81 01/01/2009 (1 week) Misses Glass   UK 98 12/13/2008 (1 week) I will be   US 66 02/12/2009 (4 weeks)

Spirit (English for: " Geist ") is the debut album by British singer Leona Lewis , which was released in November 2007 under the Syco Music label in Great Britain and in early 2008 worldwide. The album debuted to the top of the charts in nine countries, including her country of birth and Germany . It is one of the albums with the highest number of digital album sales worldwide. It was nominated for an award in the 2009 Grammy Awards in the Best Singing Album - Pop category. There were two other nominations for the album song Bleeding Love , but no award.

Origin and content

Leona Lewis recorded the album in various locations. The first production took place in London, where she worked with Steve Mac on the songs Footprints in the Sand and Homeless . Footprints in the Sand is a piano pop ballad written by Per Magnusson, David Kreuger and Richard Page. Leona Lewis appeared on an episode of the fourth series of the British talent show The X Factor . It appeared on the B-side of Better in Time's UK maxi CD . Homeless is a song written by Jörgen Elofsson.

The second production took place in Los Angeles . With OneRepublic front man Ryan Tedder , she produced the song Bleeding Love , which was written by him and singer Jesse McCartney . The pop / R&B ballad made it from 0 to No. 1 in the charts in countless countries. It has been awarded three gold and five platinum awards. In addition to being involved in the production of her number one hit Bleeding Love , Ryan Tedder was also involved in the track Take a Bow . In Los Angeles, Leona Lewis worked with other producers on the Spirit CD, such as Louis Biancaniello, Sam Watters, Josh Alexander and Dr. Hatch.

The third album production took place in Atlanta . There she produced with Roman, Dallas Austin, Ne-Yo, Wayne Wilkins, Sam Watters, Louis Biancaniello and with the 70s band Runaways on her songs. Roman and Dallas Austin were responsible for the production of the single Whatever It Takes . The US singer Ne-Yo produced the track I'm You . Wayne Wilkins, Sam Watters, Louis Biancaniello and the Runaways created the song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face , which is a cover version of Ewan McColl 's hit The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face .

After her songs were recorded in Atlanta, Leona Lewis moved to New York . Only one single was produced here, which was titled Forgiveness and was produced by Johnta Austin and the Stargate production team.

In addition to The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, there are two other covers on the album : A Moment Like This (produced by Steve Mac) and I Will Be (produced by Dr. Luke). A Moment Like This is Lewis' debut single or her winning song on The X Factor and was covered by Kelly Clarkson , whose winning song he was on the talent show American Idol . The hit single was released as a bonus track on the Irish , British and Japanese editions of the album . I Will Be is a reinterpretation of Avril Lavigne's track I Will Be and was released as a bonus track on iTunes.com . It was then released on the limited edition of Avril Lavigne's studio album The Best Damn Thing . I Will Be was the sixth single from Leona Lewis' album.

promotion

On September 24, 2007, Lewis performed at a special "Album Launch Party" held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. There she presented the tracks Bleeding Love , The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face , Homeless and Whatever It Takes from the album.

Two weeks later, she went on a two-day UK regional radio tour to promote her album Spirit and the second single, Bleeding Love . On October 15, she appeared on the British TV series This Morning , where she also presented some of her songs. Leona Lewis sang on an episode of the fourth season of the talent show The X-Factor and appeared on the US show The Oprah Winfrey Show in March with her title Bleeding Love .

At the end of October, Spirit was crowned album of the week on BBC Radio . In February and March she promoted her album in Europe and completed a major promotion tour in America from late March to early April . This took place in TV shows such as The Tonight Show , Ellen , Jimmy Kimmel Live! and TRL instead. She also appeared on American Idol . Her American promotion tour was followed by another in Australia . In 2009 she went on the The Labyrinth tour, where she promoted this and the follow-up album Echo .

criticism

The reactions to the Spirit album have been generally positive. IGA described the album as " a perfect copy ". MSN Entertainment writes that it was a very impressive debut album and that it was well worth the wait for its release. The British daily newspapers The Guardian and The Times, however, commented on the album less pleased. Both gave Spirit only 2 out of 5 stars. The Guardian gave the disappointed comment: "Lewis certainly put every bit of energy into their songs [...] but being able to blow them out is one thing, if there is a personality, then it is well hidden". The Times wrote: "If Lewis is looking for the greatest love - the admiration of the audience - it will have to do more." Daily Star magazine, however, was pleasantly surprised by the album and added as a review: "The fans will Don't be disappointed by their sweet vocals and their power ballads. "The Evening Standard also rated the album positively:" It is a very successful album with the necessary bite ". The website popjustice.com sees the tracks from the long player as acceptable with a few exceptions.

Chart successes

Spirit is considered the UK's fastest-selling debut album since receiving awards there. It sold better than the Spice Girls' greatest hits album . Sales hit 286,000 copies and the album stayed at number 1 on the UK charts for 7 weeks . It is the most successful British album of 2007 and the fastest million seller by a solo artist in just 29 days. On October 16, 2007 Spirit was certified fourteen times platinum by the British Phonographic Industry and in 2008 again reached top positions in the charts.

The album also reached number 1 in the Irish charts and was also the fastest-selling debut album there. Spirit pushed the album from the Arctic Monkeys off the top of the charts and stayed at number 1 for two weeks before it was replaced at the top of the chart by Shayne Ward's album Breathless . It went 7 times platinum.

The album was also a great success in other countries. It rose to number 1 in the Australian ARIA charts, in the New Zealand RIANZ charts, in Germany, Austria , Switzerland and other countries. Even in the USA, her album made it to number 1 on the charts straight away. The album held its top position for three weeks, selling 205,000 copies in the first week and over 1.5 million units in total. It was certified platinum in June 2008.

On November 24th, 2008 Spirit came back to number 1 in the UK Top 100. The album has been sold an estimated 10 million times worldwide.

On October 8, 2010, Run was able to place itself in the German charts again, namely at number ninth in the 31st week of evaluation. That is the highest position of the song in Germany so far.

Track list

1. Bleeding love
2. Whatever It Takes
3. Homeless
4. Better in time
5. Yesterday
6. Take a bow
7. I will be
8. fishing rod
9. Here I Am
10. I'm you
11. The Best You Never Had
12. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
13. Footprints in the sand

The new German edition also contained the titles A Moment Like This (# 14), Forgive Me (# 15), Misses Glass (# 16) and Run (# 17), a cover version of Snow Patrol ; In North America , additional titles were Forgive Me and Misses Glass .

Information : The Deluxe Edition of Spirit was released in the UK on November 17th . The deluxe edition reached number 1 there .

There is also a second CD on the album, which includes Bleeding Love's music videos in both UK and US versions, Better In Time , Footprints In The Sand , Forgive Me and A Moment Like This . The Run music video is not included. However, the video of Run is included on the iTunes.com version of the Deluxe Edition .

Bonus tracks

• Bleeding Love (Jason Nevins Extended Mix) (itunes.com)
• Here I Am (USA)
• The Best You Never Had (iTunes.com)
• Footprints in the Sand (USA)
• A Moment Like This (UK, Ireland, Japan)
• Forgiveness (Japan)
• You Bring Me Down (Japan)

Awards

Awards for music sales

Spirit has been awarded 7 × gold and 26 × platinum worldwide. According to awards, the album was sold more than five million times.

country	Award	Sales
Australia	platinum	70,000
Belgium	gold	15,000
Germany	3 × gold	450,000
France	gold	75,000
Ireland	7 × platinum	105,000
Japan	gold	100,000
Canada	platinum	100,000
New Zealand	platinum	15,000
Austria	platinum	20,000
Poland	platinum	15,000
Russia	gold	10,000
Sweden	gold	20,000
Switzerland	2 × platinum	60,000
Hungary	gold	3,000
United Kingdom	10 × platinum	3,000,000
United States	platinum	1,000,000
All in all	7 × gold 26 × platinum	5,058,000

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chart sources: Singles in the German charts ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Singles in the Austrian Charts Singles in the Swiss Charts Singles and albums with the title "Spirit" in the British Charts Singles in the US Charts Album in the German Charts ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was used automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Album in the Austrian charts Album in the Swiss charts Album in the US charts   
2. ↑ ARIA Charts - Accreditations - 2008 Albums. Australian Recording Industry Association , accessed April 6, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Goud en Platina Singles & Albums - 2008. In: ultratop.be. Retrieved April 6, 2016 (Dutch). 
4. ↑ Gold / platinum database. Federal Association of the Music Industry , accessed on April 6, 2016 . 
5. ^ SNEP Les Certifications. Syndicat National de l'édition Phonographique , accessed April 6, 2016 (French). 
6. ↑ 2007 Certification Awards - Multi Platinum. Irish Recorded Music Association , accessed April 6, 2016 . 
7. ↑ ゴ ー ル ド デ ィ ス ク 認定. Recording Industry Association of Japan , accessed April 6, 2016 (Japanese, selection 2008 年 4 月; Japanese names are: Leona Lewis (レ オ ナ ・ ル イ ス), Spirit (ス ピ リ ッ ト)). 
8. ↑ Musiccanada Gold / Platinum Database. Music Canada , accessed April 6, 2016 . 
9. ↑ NZ Top 40 Albums from August 11, 2008. Recorded Music NZ , accessed April 6, 2016 (English). 
10. ↑ IFPI Austria Gold & Platinum. IFPI Austria - Association of the Austrian Music Industry , accessed on April 6, 2016 . 
11. ↑ Bestsellery i wyróznienia. Związek Producentów Audio-Video , accessed April 6, 2016 (Polish). 
12. ↑ ЗОЛОТО И ПЛАТИНА / International 2007. Archived from the original on January 24, 2009 ; Retrieved April 6, 2016 . 
13. ↑ Sverige Topplistan. hitlistan.se, accessed April 6, 2016 (Swedish). 
14. ↑ Precious metal database. IFPI Switzerland , accessed on April 6, 2016 . 
15. ↑ Arany- és platinalemezek ›Adatbázis 2008. Magyar Hangfelvétel-kiadók Szövetsége, accessed on April 6, 2016 (Hungarian). 
16. ↑ Certified Awards Search. British Phonographic Industry, accessed April 6, 2016 . 
17. ^ RIAA Gold & Platinum Database. Recording Industry Association of America , accessed April 6, 2016 . 

swell

• Criticism about the respective songs from "Spirit" (English page)
• CD review by "Spirit"
• Listen to the whole album on lastfm.de
• Article report on cnet.de
• Article report on mediamarkt.de
• Article report on swr.de
• Article report on ndr2.de
• Article report (about the deluxe edition) on weltbild.de
• Article report (about the deluxe edition) on ilikemusic.com (English page)
• CD review of "Spirit - The Deluxe Edition" (English page)
• Further chart placements by "Spirit" (English page)
• Chart tracking from the album