Alexandra Burke and Leona lewis, are arguably the two most talented winners of any reality show based on vocal ability. (Don't start a debate on this- not the point)

They were our two golden girls!

It all started off brilliantly.

Of course, Leona Lewis broke America and Alexandra had a brilliant UK debut. However, now what's happened? Don't get me wrong, Alexandra and Leona are two of my idols, but I really don't understand why they aren't the ones getting No.1's in America and not One Direction!? I just don't get it!
Is it their management? Are they being treated properly?

Fair enough, Alexandra Burke changed labels, but even then her debut for her sophomore album, never got her the #1we all had expected (or waited for) As good as it is, I had hoped for better.

And the debut, or the 'hype' single for Leona Lewis' new (third) Album only charted at #4.


I fear they won't be around in 5 Years time Its a shame because in my opinion, these two should be part of the biggest artists in the world right now!

I hope Alexandra's and Leona's new albums both achieve global domination and critical acclaim.

Leona's barely gets enough publicity in the uk, so I think she'd need a hit. I don't like Alex, but she could be capable of getting in the US chart.

I agree, they both deserve much better. I'd put them above almost all the other singers in the chart right now.

It saddens me to think that Leona's album would've been out tomorrow if it wasn't delayed once again. I do think there is still huge interest in Leona and Alexandra, mind. Look at Collide and Elephant - not great songs yet they both cracked the Top 5. Both are bound to have better songs than the aforementioned so they could be on course to no.1!

The thing with Leona in particular is that she doesn't do enough promo. Collide got one performance. One. I think she needs to distance herself from SyCo and get a label that'll send her on the road promoting her stuff. People buy it - bleeding love proved that - but these delays can only mean her album isn't good enough, then we'll probably have 2 bits of promo and she sinks into darkness again while the record company puts out records and she does nothing. Syco cannot promote their artists correctly.

Joe McElderry is a prime example of this - he did minimal promo for his singles and nobody bought them. He joined another label and has sold bucket loads because they know how to market him and get him promo slots.

Thing with Leona is that she still has the dignity of having a brilliant voice and respectable image. She's changing her sound to more clubby beats and such, but it's pointless if there's no promo.

Alexandra Burke could make it as a worldwide megastar, but once again they keep holding back on getting her the best promo, best writers and her only decent producer has been redone.

The lack of promotion hasn't helped. Other than being decent singers and coming from the X Factor I don't honestly that much about either of them.

Alexandra Burke and Leona Lewis should be riding high right now...

To ride anywhere you actualy have to 1: Let people know you exist and 2: release good music.

LL is pretty much invisible for most of the time and of late has released very little. Collide which did So So but her fans said it wasnt a proper release anyway just a summer single etc then an ep "Just for her fans" which touched the top 10 then bombed out out of the chart

Her fans know she is doing some private gig somewhere or other but for the rest of us she may as well have retired

As for AB she is at least out there but if Elephant is any indication of her new abum its not going to do much for her

No one can deny she is a good singer and dancer but so are lot's of others and she brings nothing new or original to the table

IMO She will probably carry on having reasonable but limited success but she will never be the Global Superstar some seem to think she will or I suspect even break the US.

They should and it's sad. It's also a shame, that he didn't have time for them (as Alex said). It's so rare to get voices like theirs. Most would kill to be them. I mean they both have good albums and they should've been everywhere. They could have both cracked America easily. Leona needed a little more interesting and edgy songs and Alex needed a proper global push. I mean the energy he's put into 1D saddens me. He doesn't do that for talent. He could have so much credibility if he was nicer (ie on the shows, not humiliating people. He could've brought so many good UK acts to the US. And the worst thing was, the talent came to him and people love Alex and Leona. They both broke records with their debut releases (singles and albums). I hope RCA treat Alex right, and that GH is a return to form for Leona (Emancipation of Mimi style ) She should co-write with Alicia Keys and Mariah too. Oh and not just disappear. Adele is no fame hogger, but she promotes and does her job, you at least see her. Play the game LeLe.

Trouble is, they both don't swear in their music. A C bomb and an F Bomb here and there would grant them both chart success.

I think for many years these X Factor contestants released a single after finishing the TV series then they seemed to go into hibernation.
The explanation was usually made with an 'announcement' that they are taking a break and are in the studio writing new material. Then they might release something to coincide with the next year's series of The X Factor.

Everything was always about 'announcements' being made about when they will tour or when their next single would be released, then a metaphorical red carpet was laid out for them when they made a TV appearance as though the Queen has made an appearance.

The problem with this is that it was a lot of talk about not really doing much at all, where just about everybody else in the industry was constantly out there releasing records. There was no taking a break or having a short holiday before announcing the release of their next record at some point in the future. Other acts were already out there doing it, knowing that to be out of sight is to be out of mind. They were already out there working and maintaining a certain level of public awareness.

The market is fickle. They aren't going to wait around forever. If something new comes along then it's so easy to distract their attention.
To be a mainstream pop star I think you need to keep a certain level of public profile because you can't afford to be out of the limelight for too long. The public aren't going to care if you are busy working behind the scenes. If you're not there the vacuum will be filled by some other pop act waiting in the wings for their shot.

By the way I am speaking in regards to mainstream pop acts who rely on high profile public exposure which costs a lot of money to promote. You have to keep your head above the parapet or you're forgotten about very quickly.

I agree with Leona and promotion. I think she's awesome but it's very frustrating knowing she has so much talent and still it seems like she's slowly sliding to the back of most peoples minds. I know Syco are terrible with what they've done with her career. Spirit was a success, but they absolutely ruined her with Echo. They pretty much scrapped the album after 1.5 singles when they could have at least pumped 4 out worldwide. I'm really rooting for this 3rd album, but the set backs and lack of information being given to fans has got me nervous for her. Syco need to pull their finger out and start booking her great promotion and not some lackluster crap that they provide her with. She's far too good for that.

In saying that Leona will always have a career in UK, because despite what people say about her, she still sells a bucket load in UK and her sales surpass many female British artists.

My main frustration is that she's a little weak with pushing herself out there. I'm cool with her having a private life. She's a very private person and that is respectable. However, I wish she would interact with fans more. Twitter is pretty much the connection with artists and fans these days and she is rarely tweeting as much as she should. In saying that, when she does tweet it's not anything relevant to music. It's great she's doing so much for animals etc, but it's annoying that she is putting her fans and music on the back burn when it comes to engaging with us.

Despite setbacks, the 2 songs I've heard that are related to the album sound great, and there is one song from the album called 'Trouble' that the press seem to be raving about so I'm hoping this may be her step-up back into a global success.

Yes Toy_Hero I should have added in my post that I do think that Leona Lewis is very gifted as vocal abilities go.

I think there was a lot of trust placed with certain people in guiding her career for her and it may be that this trust was misplaced.

Although I really rate Leona as a singer very highly I'd have to say that at this moment in time Alex probably has more chance simply due to me thinking that perhaps Leona's style is getting old fashioned now.
I'm sure she could still have a decent career and probably deserves one based on talent alone. However I think Leona's style was already on the way out when she first won The X Factor.
Now I think that it may be too tricky to continue on the same level with what may have been adequate a few years ago.

I think that Adele currently occupies the space where Leona should probably have been in right now.
However Adele was already waiting in the wings way back when Leona was getting started, and I personally had a gut feeling about Adele as a future success as soon as I was first aware of her before she became that well known.

I think both Leona & Alex still could surprise a lot of people.

Leona is still around the world promoting and has been over the past years playing at things like Rock at Rio, Japan, Miami, and just last week in Malaysia, 6th April she will be in Dubai, and wherever she appears she gets a lot of well deserved credit.
Her tour was a major point of interest & she played to loads of arena's. I have been around (music, gig wise) since the 60's and her concert was one of the best I have ever seen.

Alex is a hard worker and also promoting herself, last year she played at a lot of festivals, and it would not take much to make her an international star.

I think both will be around for a long time, just because we don't necessarily see what they are up to, they are still out their plying their craft. Good luck to them both. They are certainly amongst the top vocalists around from GB at the moment. Of course whether you like their music or not is subjective but I think no one can deny their vocal abilities.

Another thing is that I just enjoy the music, I don't reflect on chart positions, because sales are more important. For instance someone could sell 200,000 singles one week and come in at number 2 or sell 50,000 and come in at no 1. Albums sales are more important than singles. A lot of people buy albums but don't necessarily buy singles when they are available on the album.

It seems to me that the x factor has just given up... They used to hand out a contract to the winner and that would be it, but now they hand them out to nearly all of them and say "well let's just hope for the best"... Then they just pointlessly clog up the charts to make a few quid. There's simply too many of them out there now.

I think that point may hold a lot of truth.

At one point in time several years ago there was a kind of kudos to being the winner of The X Factor. At least there was for the people he bought into that kind of hype.

There were expectations that as being the winner, and therefore the cream of the crop, and the best talent around in the land, that they would go on to be a worldwide success.
Again I'm speaking from the point of view of the people who bought into the illusion.

However as the years went by the occasional contestant coming in 2nd or 3rd place would get a contract too.
In the end record contracts were getting handed out to contestants like sweets whatever place they finished in.
So over the years the very nature of being an X Factor winner meant less and less as time went on. To the point where the whole premise of the show was undermined.

Now you're probably just seen as merely an X Factor contestant whatever position you finally finished in, no more no less. 3rd, 5th, 1st, 2nd, it doesn't seem to make much difference nowadays.
So therefore the winner of The X Factor is possibly seen as being at around the same level of any pop act in the charts, maybe even seen as being something less than the average pop performer.

So I think that over time the show has undermined itself.

Or it may be more accurate to suggest that the show has over time undermined the illusion it tried to present itself to us as over the years, and instead now presents itself to us as what it really is.

Whatever lustre or glamour a sense of being the winner of The X Factor may have once had is probably long gone by now.
If the title of being the winner of The X Factor right now isn't see as amounting to that much, then the title of being an ex-winner of The X Factor isn't going to help. Even if at the time it used to be seen as holding some kind of value.

In the case of Leona Lewis - it was decided she'd try to crack the USA which is more than just a few weeks abroad so clearly her 'awareness' here dropped.then other new acts come along with big PR meaning people forget even further.That said I'm sure she'll be back before long.she's not exactly my cup of tea but she does have an amazing voice.

'Should be riding high'? Why do people on here think these X Factor singers have a divine right to huge success and huge promotion over anyone else? It's insulting to other artists, especially those who've worked hard for their success, for the sake of music.

Leona is, and has always been, too clean cut and bland. Simon's got bigger fish to fry than to keep trying to push her onto a public that prefers artists with a bit of character to them. The best producers/songwriters would rather work with those edgier artists too.

As for Alexandra, she's mediocrity incarnate.

Well they are both extremely talented singers, and it isn't exactly like Leona didn't try to make it before hand she had recorded two albums and worked hard to pay for studio sessions and entered other local competitions to try to get noticed.

Personally I don't care about how an artist gets their break, as long as they work hard and release good material throughout their career and for me Leona and Alex both do that.

Hardly surprising seeing as they're from that dreadful sinking ship the S.S X Factor.

Both Leona and Alex worked really hard to try and break into the industry. As others have said Leona recorded quite a bit of material before X Factor, and Alexandra even got offered a record deal with Motown before the X Factor but her mother thought she was too young....but even afterwards she was singing in bars and clubs etc to get her name out there

The X Factor did give them both a boost, but it's extremely unfair to insinuate that they didn't work for this at all...

She must have been bloody young then. Motown as a stand alone label has not released music for years it still exists but is buried within the huge conglomerate of Universal music. You'd be going back to the Boyz 2 Men era of 1992 when Motown were releasing music under its own marque.....

Funny how a lot of people still think X Factor winners did nothing before X Factor.

Leona's not relevant anymore, "eww her, she's way too old and boring and her songs are c**p" is how my neice described her when I asked what she thought of her. Even though Leona is only 26, my niece thinks she's old. She's 17 and a big fan of Jessie J and Katy Perry, she doesn't like Cher Lloyd or Rihanna.

Hello there! It could have been under Universal Motown, we don't know.

This is why delay of Leona's music will be her downfall. I was a big fan, but I'm going off her simply because she's not around and there is no new music. If she or her people are struggling bringing out the next album then what of the next and the next?

She's only released two albums since the mid 2000s and then next one will be seen as a 'comeback' album. That's not a good sign for a 'new' artist.