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Leona Lewis reveals real meaning behind hit song 'Bleeding Love'
5 September 2025, 19:45
The X Factor winner has spoken about the impact 'Bleeding Love' has had on her life.
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Leona Lewis has revealed the true meaning behind her classic song 'Bleeding Love', 18 years after it was released.
The X Factor winner spoke exclusively to Heart about her upcoming Las Vegas residency and what it was like working with Simon Cowell.
She also opened up about her hit tune 'Bleeding Love' and how the composition of the emotional ballad came about in 2007 after Jesse McCartney and Ryan Tedder worked on the anthem.
Speaking about how she came across the track, Leona revealed: "Jesse and Ryan first got in the studio, and they came up with 'Bleeding Love'. It was like Jesse's song kind of thing. Like, it was a rough demo, and then I took it. It just spoke to my soul and we developed it further."
Leona also disclosed how she felt about performing the song on the X Factor for the first time, saying: "I do remember being really nervous to perform the song. For some reason, I don't even think it was to perform the song, I think it was because I was going back to the X Factor to sing the song.
"So I do remember being very nervous, which I don't usually get that nervous before I go and perform. It was so important to me, which is why it held a lot of weight and I felt that kind of nervous energy, I wanted to deliver it right.
"I wanted people to get it because it sounded very different for the time as well. The instrumentation was different, I was singing in a way that was kind of different to what was already going on. I just wanted it to come across in its, truest form."
She added: "It was a big deal. Yeah, it's kind of surreal, honestly, like, how much the song connected with people, but it just gave me so much opportunity and opportunity to tour, to travel the world, to sing to audiences globally."
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The star performed her hit song at the Brits in 2008, revealing: "I went to the Brit school and at Brit school we get to see Brit performances. So I think I was 14 and I got to go to the Brit Awards and be in the audience and then I actually got to sing Bleeding Love at the Brits.
"So I saw kids from the school that I went to in the audience, like I was that kid, and now they were kind of staring at me on the stage, singing along, clapping. It was such a surreal, incredible moment for me and it was just full circle. So I think that's one of the standouts of performing the song."
Watch Leona Lewis talk about Bleeding Love here:
Leona Lewis reveals the REAL meaning behind Bleeding Love
Whilst she recorded the song over a decade ago, the true meaning of 'Bleeding Love' has changed for Leona over the years. The star stated: "Over time, the meaning of Bleeding Love for me has definitely changed as well. It's originally about a romantic kind of love, and I used to sing that from the heart so much because I've experienced a lot of love and a lot of heartbreak.
"Then since having my daughter, the meaning has definitely changed into something so much deeper because I have never felt a deeper kind of love than the day my daughter was born. So now every time I hear it or sing it, that's who I'm thinking of, and that's who it's dedicated to."
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