Former X Factor winner Leona Lewis has played her new single
Happy for the first time on Radio 1's Chart Show.
The
song is the first track off second album, Echo, and is the follow-up to her
debut, Spirit, the fastest selling debut album of all time in the UK.
Speaking
to Fearne Cotton and Reggie Yates from Los
Angeles, Leona Lewis said she was happy but nervous
about Smile's release.
"It's
such a big deal," she said. "I've lived with this song for so long
now and it's just been mine. Now I'm sharing it with everyone. It's very
nerve-racking."
Leona
Lewis has worked with Ryan Tedder again on Echo, the man who co-wrote and
produced her biggest-selling single to date, Bleeding Love.
She
says she also got to work with one of her idols on the album.
"I
worked with Justin Timberlake on it." she said. "That was really
cool. At first I was getting over the shock that I was actually going to be in
the studio with Justin Timberlake.
"So
I had to cool myself down a bit. But he's just such a cool guy. He's so
talented.
"I
didn't really know how he worked in the studio, I just knew him from being an
artist. As a producer, he's just so talented, so it was a cool
experience."
During
her interview on the Chart Show, Leona Lewis also revealed that she hadn't had
a chance to see much of the X Factor this year but said the audience being in
the auditions must be really scary.
She
said: "Maybe it's better, because they do it with a backing track. When I
went in there it was just me, really close to the judges. There was no track,
just voice. It was so different."
And
the singer, now 24, insists she doesn't have any rivalry with last year's X
Factor winner, Alexandra Burke.
She
said: "I think we're very different. I'm looking forward to hearing what
she's going to do, for sure. There's no competition."
Leona Lewis' new album Echo is released on 17 November
