Leona Lewis had been lined up as one of the contestants on the now scrapped The X Factor: All Stars series – and it seems that the former winner will return to the talent contest this year after all.
A source has told RadioTimes.com that the Bleeding Love singer has been recruited as a guest judge on The X Factor: The Band, which begins on Monday 9th December on ITV.
Lewis won the third series of The X Factor back in 2006 and went on to have a number of successful singles, including winners song Moment Like This, international hit Bleeding Love and Better In Time.
Her first two albums, Spirit and Echo both reached the number one spot in the UK albums chart.
So far only Simon Cowell and Nicole Schwerzinger have been officially confirmed as judges, with Louis Walsh not involved after reportedly turning down a backstage role on the series.
The show is looking to find the world’s next big boy band or girl group, with a spokesman for the show claiming that the goal was “to find the new superstar group – though now in record-breaking time.”
With Cowell having previously discovered One Direction, Little Mix and Fifth Harmony, he clearly has history of establishing bug groups – and it will be interesting to see if he can match this success in the hastily arranged show.
And the mogul says that he hopes to find a band that can even rival the success of K-Pop bands like BTS.
He said: “K-Pop is ruling the world. This is a show to find a band to launch UK-Pop. It’s more than winning a record contract, it’s starting a new music wave.”
