There's a new chick on the scene, at least in the UK, where Agnes Carlsson is dropping her first single in that market, entitled "Release Me", a catchy pop number with a dance vibe. I think it' ll do well in the UK (ie top 30).
The similarities between Carlsson and Lewis are actually rather scary. Agnes Carlsson won the Swedish Idol (the Swedish equivalent to American Idol and X-Factor) in 2005, singing a fairly wide variety of songs (Oasis to Kelly Clarkson to Avril Lavigne to Janet Jackson). Carlsson actually pre-dates Lewis winning her own show by a year (Lewis won X-Factor in 2006), so it's not exactly fair to call her a "clone", since she came around first (at least in Sweden, where she's already had 3 albums). And she's more like "Leona Lewis, if Leona Lewis did dance music", so she is different. But it makes for a more interesting thread title.
For whatever reason (possibly the fact that Leona Lewis has become hugely sucessful, and she kinda looks and sounds similar), they've decided to start promoting Carlsson around Europe, and no longer just in Sweden (I believe one of the reasons Carlsson left Sony BMG in Sweden was their unwillingness to promote her outside of her native land). I don't think she'll come anywhere close to replicating the international success of Lewis, because I don't think her current record label have the same sort of resources as a Sony or a Universal...but anything is possible, I suppose.
Anyway, I thought this was of vague interest, because not only does this Carlsson kinda vaguely sound like Leona, the physical resemblance is eerie. They could almost be sisters. Judge for yourself, with the video for "Release Me";
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBWpETtMlPA
