One More Sleep

Album: Christmas, With Love (2013)
Charted: 3
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the lead single from Leona Lewis' Christmas collection album Christmas, With Love. The song is about special occasions from a child's point of view. The singer told Perez Hilton that she wanted to express the happiness that comes from anticipation of a big event. "'One More Sleep is basically, it's a thing that a lot of kids say like, there's three days left until we're doing something fun," Lewis explained. "Like it's your birthday or Christmas, you'll be like "oh its three more sleeps left, count down to one more sleep left!" And 'One More Sleep' is really about that feeling."

    "For me I'm on promo and touring and I'm away for so much of the year, but Christmas day is the one day I look forward to the most because I know I'm getting a day off," Lewis continued. "I know I'm going to see my friends and my family. I know I'm going to see my boy, like it's so exciting for me. So literally that song is that feeling, it encompasses that whole song. It's just the excitement, almost a childlike excitement that you have the night before Christmas. It's really very close to my heart, so it was really fun."
  • When the song climbed to #3 in its second week on the UK singles chart, Lewis became the first British female solo artist to achieve eight UK Top Five hits. She previously was tied on seven with Olivia Newton-John.
  • Christmas, With Love represents Lewis' first foray into Motown music. She told Billboard magazine: "With Motown, it's been so present in my upbringing and my musical background, but I had never done a studio recording of it. I think that we got that across in the recordings, with all the live sounds, the brass section and the hugeness of it. And it came together really quickly - we got in the studio in the summer and just had an amazing time recording."
  • Lewis recorded her Christmas, With Love album in the height of summer. "I thought, 'Oh, this is going to be so weird. How am I going to feel Christmas-y?,'" she told Elle magazine. "First off, I recorded it in the UK, which is not the sunniest [place]. Of course this summer was literally like the sunniest on record."

    "It ended up being a blessing in disguise because I started playing loads of Christmas songs and really kind of delving into all of these kind of classics," Lewis continued. "And I discovered some really amazing recordings that I probably never would have had I not had to really get into that kind of Christmas vibe."
  • The music licensing company PPL announced in December 2024 that "One More Sleep" is the most-played modern Christmas song of the 21st century in the UK. (PPL defines "modern" as a track released since 2000). Lewis believes "One More Sleep" resonates so strongly because she consciously aimed for a Motown-style wall of sound, inspired by tracks she listened to growing up.

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