DIVA Las Vegas

Leona lewis is thrilled to follow in Celine Dion's footsteps with a residency in the glitzy US city. By HANNAH ROBERTS and CASEY COOPER-FISKE

- HANNAH ROBERTS and CASEY COOPER-FISKE

MANY stars of the UK’s TV talent shows quickly fade away after their initial success, unable to sustain a career after the first flush of stardom.

But this certainly does not apply to Leona Lewis. Almost 20 years after winning the third series of The X Factor in 2006, she is preparing for her own Las Vegas residency, following in the footsteps of the likes of Elvis Presley, Celine Dion and Sir Elton John.

The residency, named A Starry Night, is being billed as a “Christmas spectacular’, and will be a return of sorts for Leona, who hasn't released a studio album in a decade.

The busy period since her last full-length release included the Covid pandemic, the birth of her daughter Carmel in 2022, and the honour of being made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for her services to music and charity.

She says: “I’m really excited about it, during Covid, a lot of us musicians, we couldn't tour, we couldn’t perform, so that felt really heavy.