A hit can be produced by being forced down the public's necks. Just look at Pixie's All About Tonight, the majority of people would agree that it's pretty generic and mediocre, yet it reached #1. This is because in the weeks leading up to it's release, Pixie had been doing radio tours, loads of live performances during the summer at festivals etc, she released the video months in advance of the single release etc. And yet it didn't sell very consistently and doesn't appear in the top 20 biggest selling singles of last year.

And by spamming the public like that, you increase the amount of people who hear the song and, by definition, increase the amount of people who like it. And of course, people who may not have got it on first listen, would eventually get it after hearing it everywhere. And you make the point about hearing it in shops, television etc all the time, well that would naturally happen if the label did spam an artist.

And at the end of the day, there are two ways people can measure success - consistent high sales vs. number of number ones - Look at Maroon 5's MLJ - second biggest selling single in the UK of 2011, yet it only reached #2 or Chris Brown's Beautiful People, it only reached #4 yet it's the 16th biggest seller of 2011. Compare that with Olly Murs who had two #1's last year, yet neither single appear in the top 20 biggest selling singles.

I agree, it was an average song (as was the Saturday's one) that was just force fed to the public, a video which has her in a skirt short enough to hold a gynecology lesson with and lots of Pixie being everywhere.

Yes, you are right. But I want Leona to put out the best song possible. Because I think putting out a huge song with less promotion is better than releasing a normal song with huge promotion. Promotion is very much limited to the UK and maybe Germany. What I am trying to say is that Leona simply needs a great song. Worldwide promotion with a mediocre song can't bring you back into the spotlight, you would have to get on the biggest shows in each country which is difficult to do.
Take a look at Jennifer Lopez. She didn't score hits for years but suddenly came back with On the Floor which is an amazing song. She didn't have to promote the song worldwide in order for it to become successful.

No doubt her appearances on American Idol as a judge helped. Now if Leona was a judge on something...

To my mind of course promotion is needed, how else will the average person know that Leona has music out there.
On a seperate note, I am really still taken with how much Leona has progressed in the last 5 years, and for me Echo was a beautiful album, no point in going over old ground or regrets.
The reason I am so excited about GlassHeart is that Leona has grown so much, and we know she has many experiences over the past couple of years which will reflect in her music.
Hurt, the EP, was and is wonderful to me.
Happy, still speaks volumes to me.
I still love all the unreleased songs like HEYA.
I believe wholeheartedly that the best is yet to come. I look forward to new music from Leona, because her emotion in the songs she sings speaks volumes. If Leona is excited about her new album, then who am I to argue lol. Really this is going to be a great Leona year. Starting to save my pennies ready for the next tour, I will need to see Leona more than once.

You are all thinking into this too much and dwelling on other artists, not being rude but katy perry is Katy perry and rihanna is rihanna. Leona has an amazing list of songs to her name, for all we know this song lovebirds which I love could be a track that they aren't even using for the album or could be a demo for someone else. Leona will soon let us know what the score is, I mean people are saying they think fireflies and trouble will be the lead single when we don't even have a clue what these songs sound like, we should just wait and see what happens, all this talk and guessing is just mind boggling to me :s

People still didn't know that Collide was out, despite the Avicii stuff. It didn't get radio play on the scale it needed and the video was hardly played.

For Leona to get her video played it either needs a lot of naked flesh in it (female obviously) or it needs to be a very clever video.

I'm being cynical but truthful.

You're right, Leona does need a radio hit and something that will launch the era. But I wouldn't become too complacent for a radio hit. 'Love Birds' is a decent song, enhanced more by Leona's vocal imo, but I can't help but think she could have a better lead single. I know I've said this a lot over the past year but what is stopping her from getting an effortlessly great pop track with a soaring vocal like 'Firework' or 'Only Girl (In the World)'? Yes, I'm aware that she doesn't have the "guaranteed hit" tag of Katy Perry or Rihanna (whose albums [One of the Boys and Rated R] preceding these huge hits weren't actually that successful).

If I was on Leona's label, I'd be trying to bag Guetta, Dr Luke, Stargate, Calvin Harris or Tricky Stewart for a great single to lead the era with. Yes some of those names have released generic records in the past but among some of those cookie-cutter pop tunes, there were gems produced ('When Love Takes Over', 'Umbrella', 'We Found Love', 'E.T.').

What I would have loved was Leona featuring on David Guetta's single 'Without You' instead of Usher. Imagine the vocal!


'What If' by Jason DeRulo?

The Collide video did get played a lot though, I'm sure it peaked at #3 or #4 on the UK TV Airplay chart. It was just the song itself that didn't get much radio play.

It might have had some play but it didn't get anything like the play it needed. I can't remember the last time I saw it on the video channels.

But scroll though them and just about every Rihanna, Beyonce, Gaga video has bare flesh in it and they get played a lot (even the old videos)

But yes the song didn't seem to get much airplay despite Radio 1 B listing it.

I think think the video was a bit bland and safe.

Run is #73 at German's year end charts

I think you have to be careful what kind of radio hit you go for though.

Better In Time was an example of a high quality radio hit that was also very lyrically punchy.

If you go for something like "Impossible" from Shontelle or "All about Tonight" by Pixie Lott, yes they were hits, but they did nothing to sell there albums.

Yeah, there is a problem with Leona's videos and longevity which is a mixture of the actual songs not sticking around for long (Happy, IGY, Collide) and the video's being very safe.

I hope this era the video's are much better. She doesn't have to strip off just have an interesting story line or something. The Happy video was very good.

I think if we look back at the Spirit campaign we can clearly see why Leona was so successful. She lead with a song that was fresh and different to anything around at the time and presented Leona as a different artist to anyone around. Bleeding Love was quite a cool song in comparison to other ballads around, remember, she lead her campaign with a song about bleeding!

Originally, the campaign was supposed to lead with BIT as the lead single. BIT is a good song, very radio friendly, very middle of the road, very inoffensive. Yes it sold well, but if BL wasn't the lead single, would Spirit and Leona have been so successful, I don't think so.

So now in Lovebird, we have a very radio friendly song, catchy, inoffensive in many ways, very similar to BIT. However, I think you could expect to see Katy Perry, Natasha Beddingfield, Rihanna release something very similar.

Yes Leona needs a radio friendly song, I think she needs something much stronger to lead the campaign with. Lovebirds sounds like a very safe song following a not so successful release of Collide.

IMO, Leona needs to find her place in the market with something fresh, exciting and daring. If she comes back with a safe song, I don't think it will be a hit or do her any favours in the long term in showing the record buying public what she actually represents.

I do still think Lovebirds could be a single, it is a good song, but not the lead single.

If LoveBirds was released as the lead single then I don't think this era would do very well! She needs an uptempo for her first few singles.. try and 'reinvent' herself and get some new fans. She just released an EP that contained all ballads and even Collide was a 'slow' uptempo. She needs to start this era with a bang.

If there is going to be more than one single before the album then Glassheart won't be the lead single. I am hoping that Trouble is released to radio at the end of Jan, then is released around the Brit awards with an amazing performance and then the album comes in April with another single beforehand... maybe Glassheart as the second single.

Yes please.

Why aren't they deleting the Lovebirds videos off youtube and killing all the download links if they are so annoyed it leaked out? It doesn't make sense. Anyone would think they want people to hear it. Maybe they really are gauging the feedback for it. Or it could be a 'scrapped' song and that's why they are not bothered about it. I don't get it.

I think the thing about the leak that annoys me the most is that it was supposed to be "a snippet" but turned out to be almost a complete track. I would have preferred a 30 second real snippet, then we could have had even more guesses about what the finished product would have sounded like.

I would love a single that went straight to the top of the charts and stayed there, but if not that, then I would like a single that stayed in the top ten for weeks. Of course it is very difficult to actually achieve that - it everyone did it there would be no room for new records.

The balancing act between producing something that is the same as everything else, so doesn't stand out at all, and something that is so different that no-one buys it can be finer than we think.

Looove Songbird! So Catchy!

I know this may be a really unpopular opinion on here and obviously Leona isn't going in this direction for the next record but I'd love a retro album from her. Think big band with a contemporary twist. Has anyone heard Lloyd's new single 'Dedication to My Ex' featuring Andre 3000 and Lil Wayne? That is a great example of a brilliant retro single with a current R&B vibe - mixing the past and the present. Also, before anyone claims that this sort of record wouldn't do Leona's career any favours, you may want to think again. The one thing British females seem to do right is retro music - Adele, Amy Winehouse, Duffy. Even Beyonce, who is obviously American, dominates contemporary-retro music. Her new single 'Love On Top' is a perfect example of this.

I Agree.

Damn you! I couldn't take it anymore I just had to listen to it once.

On first listen it is much more appealing to me than Collide, by quite some distance. It really does remind me of Better In Time, like it could be a direct sequel to it. Her voice sounded different to me.....better somehow. I think it would be a good single for the US market. It's very pleasant.

I was instantly hooked with Lovebird from the first seconds I heard it... I was waiting for Leona to bring out another song that hooked me from the very start since Bleeding Love and she did it ! CAN'T wait to hear it in full and HQ !!!!!

Run re enters the german singles chart at 97

That's exactly how I feel. I really liked the Happy video because it had a story to it. I'd even say the I Will Be video was good too because it also had a plot. And a lot of well known artists are now starting to release at least one really long video, that's sort of like a mini movie. It doesn't have to be that long, I just want Leona to have stories in her videos, which there was a lack of in the Collide video.

I love LoveBirds, and I agree with others that it wouldn't make a good lead single, but I think it should definitely be released as a single. I could imagine a fantastic video of that, since it connects with her. I think of the video possibly being like Pink's So What video. She actually had her ex-boyfriend in the video with her while she was singing it, and it was all to him. I'd love for Leona to do something like that for LoveBirds since it's such an uplifting song

OMG that's so weird! everytime I listen to that song I imagine Leona singing it. I think her vocals would fit perfectly!!!