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Baggy pants, skatepunk sneakers, and other youthful fashion touches make Kristian Leontiou (pronounced Lee-On-Tyoo) look like he's going to bust out an aggressive teen-angst anthem at any moment, but the poignant sounds of David Gray, Dido, or Damien Rice with a blue-eyed soul swoon and sway are what you get. The London native had been in love with music from a young age and was sure he wanted to sing professionally by age 16 -- so sure that a year later he was out of the house, out of school, and funding his pursuit of fame with any odd job he could find. At first, labels wanted the young singer to join rap or teen pop acts because of his looks. Leontiou would have none of it and kept shopping his singer/songwriter-styled demos to labels. Hitting pay dirt when he was 22, he signed with Polydor in the U.K. in 2004 and the hype machine started rolling. In spring of the same year, his debut single, "Story of My Life," stormed up the charts and was followed up by the massively successful album Some Day Soon. Island released the album in America in February of 2005. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide |
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