Meanwhile, Leona Lewis, Simon Cowell's ballad-belting protégé, is undone less by her words than by her metaphor. Bleeding Love, which peaked on the charts in the spring and has lingered in broken hearts ever since, builds on the image of an ex-lover whose return cuts Lewis open and causes her to "Keep bleeding/ Keep, keep bleeding love"—and then keep repeating it. Lewis has a nice little flutter in her voice, but how many times can she utter this phrase in four minutes before the imagery becomes oppressive? The answer is three. After that, Bleeding Love becomes oozing bathos.