LEONA LEWIS - LEONA BRINGS LIGHT TO OXFORD ST

LEONA BRINGS LIGHT TO OXFORD ST

X Factor winner Leona Lewis has heralded the launch of her new album by turning on the Christmas lights on Oxford Street in London.

The Bleeding Love singer, whose album Spirit will hit the shops next week, performed her chart-topping single and flicked the switch at the Disney-themed Have an Enchanted Christmas event.

Also performing to the gathered thousands on the capital's most famous shopping street were Irish boyband Westlife, who performed their new hit Home.

The boys released their annual festive-fuelled album Back Home on Monday, and they will go head-to-head with Leona next week in the album charts.

Heart 106.2 presenters Jamie Theakston, Harriet Scott and Toby Anstis presented the event and the stars headed off to the premiere of the animated family flick Enchanted afterwards.

"I’m just pleased the lights worked," Theakston said of his part in the evening's activities.

"Harriet and I spent ages putting them up, she was on my shoulders like a human ladder."

The cast of the West End's Mary Poppins and the Disney Channel’s High School Musical Pep Rally also kept the crowd entertained but it was Lewis who most had come to see.

"It was such an honour to help switch-on the Enchanted Oxford Street Christmas Lights," she said.

"I remember coming to the switch-on as a kid and how exciting it was, so to perform at the event is incredible."

London's other famous central lights, those on Regent Street and Bond Street, will be illuminated on November 20th and 22nd respectively.