Leona has who is about to become an international superstar has revealed in a recent interview with the sun that she had considered quitting and giving up all hope of a music career just months before X Factor, which has launched her career.

The 21-year-old singer revealed she was depressed at her lack of success and close to giving up when she first auditioned for ITV1’s hit talent show.

In her first and only interview, Leona — who has now scooped a £1million record contract — told The Sun: “A few months before the X Factor, I decided to give it just one more year then give up.

“So if I hadn’t got through the audition, I might be doing something else now.

“I’ve been trying to break into the record industry since I was 14.

“But it’s so hard and there were lots of times I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t know if this is going to happen’.

“This has come along at just the right time. It’s like a fairy tale — and this is the happy ending.”

And she credits her childhood sweetheart Lou Al-Chama for persuading her to give the X Factor audition one last shot.

She says: “He’s always known I wanted to do music and he’s so happy my dreams are coming true. He’s been so supportive.”

Emotional Leona collapsed in tears at the end of Saturday’s final after spotting Lou and her parents in the audience.

She said: “I was keeping it together at the final but when I sang the last line I saw Lou and my family out of the corner of my eye and they were all crying, and I just went. I call him my family because we’re so close.

“I’m so grateful for their support, and it’s time to pay them back by taking them away for a nice, hot holiday!”

Leona admitted that the worst part of the X Factor was missing Lou when she was holed up in the finalists’ house — but she has no doubt they will stay together.

She said: “We’re totally committed to each other. I think I’ve found the perfect person and he’s so lovely.

“He always tells me the truth when I ask his opinion. I’m so happy to share this experience with him.”

The couple have been together since the age of 17 — but have known each other since they were just nine years old.

Talking about their relationship for the first time Leona says: “We grew up on the same road together. He was always very cute! We used to play together.

“But we went to different schools so we didn’t see each other as much when we were teenagers, then one day he posted me a letter — with a stamp even though I lived a few doors down — asking me out.

“He was too embarrassed to talk to me and it was the sweetest letter. It said he’d really missed me, and stuff like that.

“My friends couldn’t believe it when I told them we were together because I used to go on about him all the time.”

And talking of reports that Lou is intending to propose, she says: “Is he? That’s interesting! I don’t think that’s true but I would like to marry him one day, in a few years.”

But for now the gorgeous singer is going to concentrate on her new career.

After she won the final on Saturday night — watched by a record 12.6million viewers — her mentor Simon Cowell has vowed to make her into a worldwide star to rival Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

Her first single, a cover of Kelly Clarkson’s A Moment Like This, will be released on Wednesday and is almost certain to reach Christmas No1. It has already been downloaded by an estimated 200,000 people.

But instead of banging out a quick album of covers like previous winners Steve Brookstein and Shayne Ward, Leona insists on taking her time over a collection of top songs.

She says: “I want to take time to record the best I can. I just want to provide something of quality rather than just rushing something out. We’re going to find the best songs and I want to try and co-write some of them.

“I’ve got an idea about the kind of artist I want to be and that time-scale is really important to me so I can make the kind of album I have in mind.

“Simon’s talking about recording in America and that would be absolutely amazing. I’d love to have a hit over there.”

Leona is not as naive as some previous talent show winners.

And that is no surprise as she has attended stage schools Sylvia Young, Italia Conti and Brits, and has been recording since she was 14.

It’s a point she’s keen to hammer home to critics who may think that she has just been given everything on a plate.

She says: “I’ve been working really hard all my life.

“I’ve learnt how to use a recording studio, how to play keyboard and guitar and I’ve learnt classical singing as well as pop.

“I’ve had a lot of knock backs and a lot of doors shut in my face.

“But that’s only made me stronger and this means so much more because of it.”

Leona grew up in Hackney, East London, with her parents — Joe, a youth offending officer, Marie, a social worker, and brothers Kyle, a mechanic and Bradley, an editor on music channel MTV.

After leaving school at 17 she took a number of jobs — like reception work and waitressing at a pizza joint — to fund sessions at a recording studio.

But amazingly, despite her powerful voice, Leona had so little confidence that she did not think she would get through the first stage of the X Factor auditions.

She says: “I just thought it would be nice to see Simon and Louis and see what they thought of me.

“I didn’t think I’d get through. I didn’t have much self-confidence and every time I got through to another round, I was speechless.

“But now that I’m here, to finally be recognised as a singer after so long, it’s just amazing.

“But I still can’t get my head round the fact that at least four million people voted for me! It’s crazy.

“From singing I Will Always Love You into my little hairbrush when I was six, to singing it in front of millions of people, that’s amazing.

“I’m starting to feel like a pop star already.”
Source: Sun Online