Snow Patrol’s sweeping ballad did pretty well on release in 2004, reaching Number 5 and selling over 400,000 copies. But it was the vocal acrobatics – and an all-important key change – from Leona Lewis that turned it into a Number 1 hit in 2008, spending two weeks at the top and selling almost 850,000 copies.
CHART FACT: Leona Lewis had another cover that outranked its original when she took Hurt to Number 8 in 2011. Johnny Cash’s version, which was itself a cover of an unreleased (in the UK, at least) Nine Inch Nails song, peaked at Number 59.
They are really good covers and she's done justice both times to the original, but to be fair - none of those songs were pop or conventionally radio-ready the way her renditions were. It's not actually a big surprise her covers would do better on the charts.