Spirit (Leona Lewis Album) - Writing and Recording

Writing and Recording

Lewis recorded the album in several locations the first being London, England, where she worked with Steve Mac, who produced the songs "Homeless" and "Footprints in the Sand". "Homeless" was written by Jörgen Elofsson, and was previously recorded by Swedish singer Darin. "Footprints in the Sand" was written by Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, Richard Page and Simon Cowell. The song is an adaptation of the Christian poem "Footprints", and Lewis commented "Originally it was a poem; it's very inspirational so we put it into a song. I think it is very moving, with a very emotional lyric and I really love to sing this song". Cowell came up with the idea to base a song around the poem, and asked Kreuger and Magnusson whether they could write something dealing with this subject. They took the idea to a songwriting session the pair already had scheduled with Page at his home in Malibu, California and they finished the song the following day. When Cowell mentioned the song concept to Lewis, she agreed that it could be "really quite interesting".

In Los Angeles, California, Lewis teamed up with OneRepublic singer Ryan Tedder, with whom she recorded two songs, "Bleeding Love" and "Take a Bow". In February 2007, OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder and pop singer-songwriter Jesse McCartney had written the song "Bleeding Love" for Departure, McCartney's third studio album. However, his record label, Hollywood Records, did not like the song. Tedder believed it was a "massive" song and the record company was "out of their mind". McCartney wanted to keep it for himself as he had a personal attachment to the song, but Tedder felt it would not work for him. Tedder had previously made the decision not to work with contestants from the singing competition American Idol, but he had not heard of The X Factor. After being shown a website about Lewis, he thought that "her voice just sounded unreal," saying that "from a writer's perspective, this girl – with or without a TV show – has one of the best voices I've ever heard." On hearing that Cowell was looking for songs for Lewis's debut album, Tedder rearranged "Bleeding Love", changed the key and tailored it to suit her voice. "Take a Bow" was written and produced by Tedder, Louis Biancaniello, Wayne Wilkins and Sam Watters. Watters and Biancaniello also wrote "Yesterday", with Jordan Omley, Michael Mani, and Nina Woodford. "Better in Time" was recorded in Los Angeles with producer J. R. Rotem, who wrote the song along with Andrea Martin. "I Will Be" is a cover of an Avril Lavigne song, written by Lavigne, Dr. Luke and Max Martin, that was released as an iTunes bonus track and on the Limited edition of her album The Best Damn Thing. "The Best You Never Had" was also record in LA, written and produced by Billy Steinberg and Josh Alexander, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", a cover of the Ewan MacColl song, was recorded in both Atlanta and Los Angeles. It was produced by Wayne Wilkins, Sam Watters and Louis Biancaniello. "I'm You" was recorded in Atlanta with Ne-Yo, "Angel", a Stargate production, was written by Stargate, Espen Lind, Amund Bjørklund and Johnta Austin, and recorded in New York.

Lewis co-wrote "Here I Am" with Walter Afanasieff and Brett James in LA. Lewis wanted to be involved in the writing process, and said that Cowell allowed her to do so as it was "her album". She noted "I've not been given a formula to follow. I had the time to find my feet and co-write a lot of material. I've learned a lot and Simon and Clive really listen to me." In Atlanta, Georgia, Lewis worked with producers Alonzo "Novel" Stevenson and Dallas Austin on the song "Whatever It Takes", which Lewis co-wrote together with Novel and Tony Reyes. In Miami, Florida, Lewis worked with Salaam Remi, and "Forgiveness" was recorded. It was written by Lewis, Remi and Kara DioGuardi. Lewis's debut single, a cover of Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This", is included as a bonus track on releases in the UK, Ireland and Japan. Two new songs were record in 2008 in order to help the album appeal more to an American audience: "Forgive Me", which was written and produced by Akon, and "Misses Glass" written by Mad Scientist and RockCity. In an interview with Digital Spy, Lewis explained "I wanted to do something a bit different and the chance to work with Akon came about. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out and it's great that it's different, rather than what I always do."