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"Simon Cowell has defended Leona Lewis&amp;#039; absence from the charts since she won The X Factor. The 22-year-old has been crafting her debut album with several high-profile US producers \u00E2\u20AC\u201C including Mariah Carey\u00E2\u20AC\u2122s long-term collaborator Walter Afanasieff - since she won the TV singing contest in December.  Cowell insisted that the LP will be worth the wait, saying: &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve spent ten months in a recording studio with Leona in LA and England. You&amp;#039;re all here so I&amp;#039;ll say it on the record: this album, in my opinion, is as good as early Whitney, early Mariah. I think it is a stunning record.  &amp;quot;We could have gone into the studio for a month, made the record quick, thrown it out. It would have been the wrong thing to do. We made a very public commitment to Leona.&amp;quot; Cowell&amp;#039;s X Factor colleague Louis Walsh added: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s like early Mariah Carey. I think Leona&amp;#039;s the best female star from the UK in maybe 20 years.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/music/the-x-factor/news/a71980/cowell-defends-lewis-chart-absence/>