New home woo! Lets hope Part 24 is lucky

I love that demo (as an album track), she could make it epic! It is very Leona. The belting would be amazing.

And I hope she works with Autumn Rowe too. I want to hear some news soon, I'm so impatient. Even about that US thing she tweeted about that is airing this year, I'm so curious!

Great chorus. As far as safe radio-friendly ballads go, this is one of the better ones. If they sped up the verses a bit I could see it being a hit. Not a major one but top 10.

That demo sounds like a Ina Wroldsen kinda track to me.

Could be a nice 3rd/4th single, if it were coming off the back of hits. Would sell the album nicely too. I really hope she records this!

Incidentally there has been confirmation today that Larry Jackson has joined Universal and will be executive vice president of Interscope Geffen A&M, handling U2, Eminem and Lady Gaga and others. Larry will also have a mini-role in American Idol this season, helping Jimmy Iovine mentor contestants.

Apparently he left Sony after falling out with Barry Weiss, who rather ironically has also since left Sony/RCA to join Universal.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...-to-universal/

Certainly hope whoever has taken over from Larry acknowledges, like he did, that Leona has evolved as a performer and that they need to freshen things up. Indeed simply that they will also support her as much as Larry did. Hopefully he wasn't the only person from J who made an effort to go to see Leona on tour.

Slightly concerning that some Jennifer Hudson fans have suggested that she recorded a host of dance songs for her new album but that they were rejected by J who wanted to go in a more 'safe' direction (although obviously they are just rumours).

One of my main concerns about the new album is that even if Leona records great material if Clive is choosing the lead single his past record suggests it wont be an uptempo, current record. SyCo' faults are obvious and J's seem to be that they can be somewhat old fashioned, which works for many artists (Alicia Keys etc) but I don't think it will work this time round with Leona.

Edit- just saw someone posted the story about Hudson having to go back into the studio from last year on PJ,
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/20..._on_recor.html

Admittedly J may have had an argument in relation to Jennifer Hudson who is not as versatile an artist as Leona.

There is a clip of JHud's lead single from her next album and it sounds very safe and bland. That concerns me a bit.

It's an awful single choice, I really don't know what they were thinking with that one. Especially after the success she had with Spotlight you'd expect something better. J Records are very consistent I'll give them that.....consistently bad at picking singles that is.

Yes J-Huds lead single choice is a bit of concern for the direction of Leona's next album. What I would say though is that Jennifer is no way near as versitile as Leona so I don't think Jennifer would have ever been given something even remotely edgy. I also think some artists (and I say some) should stay to their own particular musical niche. For example, if Alicia Keys brought out an album full of dance numbers in the vain of GaGa it would be a disaster, but on the otherhand I think Leona has proven that she is comfortably suited to a variety of styles. I know I might be clutching at straws here, but I believe Simon maybe finally realising that ballads aren't the way to go for his younger artists, heck even Joe was given an uptempo number for his lead single. Happy wasn't the hit he thought it to be, he even sort of confirmed this when he said something along the lines of "sometimes when I put one of my artists up against someone else on the X Factor, their single goes on to perform better, and then you have to put your hands up and say they had the better record."- This comment was made the week after BEP's CYMMHW beat Happy to the number one spot. He's also seen that Leona can exceed at uptempo numbers when he saw her on tour. Only time will tell I suppose.....

Oh dear. And it's really upsetting that Larry's gone, he came to watch Leona on tour didn't he? That was the point I thought that he'd make sure she'd be a bit more edgy/uptempo. LEts just keep our fingers crossed he passed on this knowledge to whoever replaced him

Yeah I think we should give Syco some credit really. Everyone expected her first single to be something like Homeless and they took a risk with Bleeding Love which massively paid off. I'm more worried about J and how old-fashioned they are to be honest.

I have just been watching ABBA the movie on DVD and it makes me realise even more how crap the music scene is today, personally I would love for Benny and Bjorn to do something with Leona I think it would be interesting.
Gonna watch Leona's concert in a minute too

Well the rumours are sounding good, but I do fear that they will bottle it and go for some mid tempo track I really do.

Funny you say that because ABBA were considered CRAP back in the 1970's but their songs have stood the test of time.

As I have pointed out forget silly stunts with baths and plastic telephones glued to heads the real test is the music.

It's why I'm hopeful that the GaGa fad is passing especially if she comes out on her next album and does the same sort of things again, I suspect people will just yawn.

ABBA managed to do great catchy pop songs and really cutting ballads, Leona can do the same.

I think for the lead single, Leona needs something seriously anthemic and euphoric - a modern day 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)'. Coincidence that she performed it on tour?

Think 'I Like It' with actually decent lyrics. Something like 'Firework', 'OMG' or 'Only Girl (In the World)'.

Also, on the album, I'd like there to be a sexy R&B slow jam like Ciara's and 50 Cent's 'Can't Leave 'Em Alone'. It's so hot, summery, fresh and slick. Leona could excel with that song or something similar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEQH4ngWd50&ob=av2el

The whole eurodance/trance thing is very in at the moment and a lot of artists are having success with it. Rihanna, JLS, Chris Brown, Wynter Gordon, Alexis Jordan etc and many more are using it on their latest singles. Maybe a song or two with that sound wouldn't go amiss.

I hate "OMG" with a passion but the others would be suitable soundwise. Good uptempo beat and a catchy hook is all she needs really.

I wouldn't mind that either but you have to remember her label don't want her to appear too 'urban'. If it ain't MOR and safe its against the rules.

In many ways, I wouldn't mind if the lead single was just a throw away uptempo number, if it meant that it would be popular. Then Leona could release a solid midtempo afterwards that would enjoy success off the back of the uptempo.

Yes a good uptempo track will always get plenty of radio airplay and a great music video will also get played.

IGY hardly ever got played, but BL, FM and Run get played all the time.

This was posted on PJ


185k sales is brilliant considering that some artists with new albums out last year failed to reach such a number of sales.

That was copied from here, it's on the last page of the previous thread. Total UK sales for both are on that page too, Echo is at 657k something. Very good sales all off the back of one single basically, IGY had no effect on sales whatsoever really. I do hope that the new album is a bigger seller though, would be very disappointing otherwise.

IGY couldn't help, it got little promo, dumped by Radio 1 and of course Echo had long since slid from the charts.

Too little too late and too bloody slow.

If they don't learn from the shambles of Echo they need their ar**s kicking.

Well I would tbh. If it was another, say, 'Start Without You', I would feel extremely disappointed. If the label opt for catchy generic up-tempo pop, at least go in the Dr. Luke direction like 'California Gurls'.

Leona shouldn't try to sell out to the public, she should try to make the public adapt to her sound...while also slightly adapting herself as well.

All Leona needs is a catchy, quality, up-tempo song that has a good marketing campaign and an original and captivating video to accompany it. If she has that, I'm sure she can smash the charts on a global scale again.

I loved Start Without You wouldn't want Leona to do it though. And I wouldn't want her to do California Girls either, our press think she's turned into an LA girl enough already changing it to 'Hackney, Hackney Girls, they're unforgettable' however has a much better ring to it

I'd like a Beyonce Sweet Dreams/Radio type song. Ideally a song like Umbrella but those sort of songs come around like once a decade if it were midtempo I'd love a What's My Name type song for the second single. I definitely want her to work with Stargate.

I love that this thread's becoming more active again DS isn't the same without the LLAT being the most active thread! The Matt and Aiden threads have taken over guys! I limit my posts on the ABAT now too due to the constant Leona/Leona fan digs by a certain poster.

Well said couldn't agree more. I think Leona will do what she wants to do anyway as she said in that U stream thing and she sounded like she knows what she wants, I feel confident that she won't record any old crap.

An 'Umbrella' or 'Don't Stop the Music' type song like SOTC would be epic for Leona! Literally epic!!

I agree snoopy. I don't really post in the Alexandra thread for the same reason. And because a certain poster keeps making really repetitive digs at tons of people.

Yep I think that too. Leona isn't like most artists who just feel the need to agree. She genuinely cares about the quality of the music and will prioritise that over commercial success - which is good because there will inevitably be a balance between Leona's artistry and the labels' commercialism: a perfect hit!