Songland: Rafferty Sings “Heart Full of Love” for Leona Lewis (VIDEO)

SONGLAND — “Leona Lewis” — Pictured: Rafferty — (Photo by: Trae Patton/NBC)

On Wednesday’s Songland (Aug 28) four songwriters will present tunes to X Factor UK alum Leona Lewis. She’ll pick one to be her next single. In this preview, songwriter Rafferty presents “Heart Full of Love” to the panel, which includes Ryan Tedder, Ester Dean and Shane McAnally.

Songland Spoilers Featuring Leona Lewis: Meet the Songwriters

A little background on Rafferty: The Colorado-born singer/songwriter has released several EP’s and an album. His song “Apple Pie” soundtracked the Apple iPhone 6 launch, and became the most used song in Apple’s history of any product launch. There’s a Ryan Tedder connection here. Rafferty met OneRepublic band member Tyler Johnson who introduced the songwriter to Grammy award winning producer Jeff Bhasker. He went on to produce “Apple Pie.” More on Rafferty HERE and HERE.

In the clip, Rafferty sang the first verse of his beautiful ballad a’cappella to highlight the emotional lyrics. He sings with an appealing croon that eventually opens up into a surprising full throated belt. The song really is gorgeous. Leona, seemingly enthralled, is literally melting in her seat.

“What just happened!” shouts Shane, “I love you!” Apparently, Rafferty told a moving story before his performance (we’ll have to wait until the show airs to hear it). Shane says  the song “tour my heart out.” 

Leona calls the lyric “universal” and loves how Rafferty “isn’t scared to be vulnerable.” But she wonders how the melody will work with her voice. Ryan asks him to sing the first verse with chords and begins working on the lyrics. The words need to stay personal, he says. Leona adds, “I have to figure out where the light and the dark come in. I don’t just sing happy songs,” adding, “I’ve got a lot of pain inside and I need to get it out.” 

Watch Rafferty perform his original song “Heart Full of Love”

https://youtu.be/rnKOIIvqnVU

 

About mj santilli 34841 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!