A striking young woman with a strong vocal resemblance to the young Whitney Houston and a large mop of blonde corkscrew curls, Leona Lewis won the third series of the British reality talent show #The X Factor in a landslide. (For non-Brits: #The X Factor is the revamped follow-up to the original U.K. talent search, #Pop Idol, of which #American Idol is the massively successful U.S. version; #AI's Simon Cowell is the show's lead judge and executive producer.) Born and raised in the Islington section of north London, Lewis won a talent show at the age of 13 and devoted herself to music thereafter, eventually graduating from the prestigious BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology.