Simon has spoken to the sun about why Leona will be huge in the U.S, and that her talent will conquer the globe.

“Leona can be an enormous star in America and I’m going to make sure of it.

She has got everything it takes to become a big success there and I know I can help her to crack it.

In Britain we don’t get as excited about successful female singers as they do over there.

But in the US they have a rich history of hugely successful women artists from the likes of Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston to Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera.

Her tale is similar to American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson. Kelly was working as a cocktail waitress and entered the competition as a last-ditch attempt to crack the record industry.

Leona’s story isn’t too different from that. She’s a quiet, unassuming girl from Hackney who has tried almost everything to break into the industry and who viewed X Factor as her last chance before giving up.

She’s quiet, female and of mixed race which is unusual compared to previous reality talent competition winners. Above all, what Americans seem to love is genuine talent and that’s what Leona has in bundles.

She will also have an advantage over other winners of these kinds of shows in that I can help open doors for her in the US — like I did for Il Divo — and I’m confident Americans will fall in love with her.

With Il Divo I was able to tell the people who mattered that I’d discovered some of the best voices in the world — and the album went on to be a No1 hit.

There is already a huge buzz about Leona over there and Clive Davis, who discovered Whitney Houston, is already teaming up with me to help.

Clive is the shrewdest man in the business and drives a hard bargain but the moment he watched tapes of Leona singing he rang me and said he wanted to work with her.

He told me she’s like a cross between Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey.

And he wasn’t bothered whether she won the show or not — he wanted to sign her anyway.

He thinks that with the two of us behind her she can’t fail.

More than one million Americans have watched footage of Leona on YouTube and I’m taking her to Los Angeles to perform showcases in front of the business’s biggest writers and execs.

I want her to make an album that is a real statement with some brilliant songs on it.

There’s no need for us to rush anything, and Leona has firm ideas about the kinds of songs she wants to write and perform.

She’s a very talented musician, she doesn’t conform to a stereotype and she knows her own mind.
Source: Sun Online