29) Leona Lewis - Happy

We all know how Leona Lewis got famous and how I fell in love with the song “Bleeding Love” after the dance performance on So You Think You Can Dance. Happily, she hasn’t become a one hit wonder, but I still don’t think that anything she’s done has topped her first hit. I was indifferent about “Better in Time.” Her big single for 2009, “Happy” hasn’t really connected either, but there’s something I can’t pinpoint why I like it. It’s probably the high key she hits.

The thing about Leona Lewis’ song that was probably the reason why it made this list was the fact that I kept hearing the song during the commercials for Precious. Have I watched the movie yet? Not yet, but it’s on the list. A lot of Oscar-worthy films come out during the holiday season and I’ll make time for it. Now, I’m pretty sure that this song was just in good timing and only used for the previews, but the movie looks good anyway.

My biggest problem? Every time I’ve seen Leona perform this song live, it’s been shoddy and bad. The Divas 2009 concert performance was crap and when she performed this on Dancing with the Stars, she lip-synced through the whole thing except for the high note. If you can’t make a song that you don’t know how to sing live, you better do something to fix it. I’ll even forgive you if you have to sing down a key (ahem Whitney Houston).