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Leona Lewis left Syco over covers album proposal

By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 3 August 2015

Now that Zayn Malik has definitely and undeniably and 100% for certain written off every moment of pop music he created as part of One Direction under the Syco regime (well, he did declare that his upcoming solo output would be the “real music” – and via a Twitter hashtag no less), the last popstar to leave the Sony label and then diss her work there has been saying more about why she parted company with Simon Cowell.

When she signed to Universal’s Island Records last year, ‘X-Factor’ alumna Leona Lewis said that, while she had had “seven incredible years” with Syco, she was now happy to be on a label where “artists can really flourish and are encouraged to express themselves” and which “stands for quality music”. Which for someone as nice as Lewis, constitutes a major slating of her former record company.

Though, it turns out, it was Cowell’s insistence she record another covers album that convinced the singer it was time to move on. In a recent interview with Sirius XM host Larry Flick she explained: “The label wanted me to do an album of covers, and I just felt like I had not gotten to the point where I wanted to do that. I’d already done a Christmas album and done a lot of covers and had so much fun with it, then I was ready to do my own album, a studio album again”.

But, she went on, “that opportunity wasn’t there, so I decided to leave and do a record myself. I literally didn’t know what I was going to do, who I was going to get signed to, or what was going to happen”.

Which is all nice and mysterious. Except I already told you she signed to Island, who will release her new long player ‘I Am’ in September. All full of #realmusic, I’m sure.