Leona Lewis' Christmas album was inspired by Motown.

The 'One More Sleep' singer says she wanted to have a heavy old school influence on the songs on 'Christmas, with Love' as she grew up listening to soulful, R&B records.

She exclusively told BANG Showbiz: ''The inspiration for this is very much Motown. When I was first going to record the Christmas album, immediately that's what came to my mind because those are the kinds of Christmas records that I listened to. We wanted to go Motown, and we did ... we went there. It was really fun.''

While the festive-themed album is sure to provide the perfect Christmas soundtrack, Leona, 28, has revealed she recorded the album under less than festive conditions over the summer.

She said: ''We recorded in summertime. It was so weird because I recorded it in Brighton and I thought, 'OK, Brighton, it's summer but you don't really get a summer in Brighton.'

''It's usually really grim, but it was the sunniest summer Brighton has ever seen! It was a bit bizarre recording at that point.''

Leona's album 'Christmas, with Love' is out now.