Leona Does Oprah

Thought bubble: "Thankfully no more bleedin' bleedin' queueing up in Sainsburys"

Well knock me down with a feather, our Leona recently appeared on none other than Queen Oprah's talk-show. The rumours were buzzing around for weeks which were confirmed when clips surfaced on the Internet yesterday showing the Hackney born songstress sitting on the hallowed O throne. I've kind of come full-circle with regards to my feelings on Leona. When she first appeared on the X-Factor I adored her voice and found her shy and unassuming persona endearing. But as the weeks emerged and Simon's over-enthusiasm reached unbearable levels I began to nit-pick. 'She's too nice', I'd say. Or 'Her speaking voice is really annoying, she sounds like a Essex bred WAG in training'. Just general hatin' I suppose. But when you scratch the surface (as I often do) I began to acknowledge that my feelings had less to do with Simon's school boy crush and more to do with deep seated feelings of envy. Here's why. My girl at the ripe old age of 20 had been plucked from obscurity and in less than 2 years has produced both a N0.1 album and single in the UK and looks set to do the same across the Atlantic. This evening I was discussing with my friend the recent findings which suggested that a high percentage of primary school age kids believe that education was of no value, and it would be far more beneficial to forsake further education to become a singer, model or footballer instead. And who can blame them for thinking that? If you could do it all again can you really hand-on-heart say you'd prefer to endure years of studying, existing in the Rat Race and living from paycheque to paycheque (as the situation stands for the majority of us) as opposed to dossing around in the Big Brother House for six weeks and coming out to lucrative magazine deals ? Mmm, I know what my answer to that would be although you won't see me cosying up to Davina at any time soon. It's scary to think that the next generation is likely to be dominated by all singing, all dancing, leotard wearing X-Factor audtion types. Simon you've got a lot to answer for.

See a clip from the show below