Talent-show winner Leona Lewis has become the first British female solo artist in more than 20 years to top the American pop charts.

The former receptionist, who shot to fame after winning X Factor in 2006, reached the summit of the US Billboard Hot 100 with Bleeding Love, the best-selling single in the UK last year.

The 22-year-old Londoner is the first female solo singer to manage the feat since Kim Wilde notched up a US number one with her 1987 song You Keep Me Hangin' On, a cover of The Supremes song.

Recent sales have been boosted by the Islington-born R&B diva's appearance on the Oprah Winfrey talk show.

Bleeding Love has topped the charts in 10 countries.

Her biggest break Stateside was when manager and mentor Simon Cowell, creator of the X Factor, negotiated a £5m contract with Clive Davis, the chairman and CEO of the RCA Music Group and the man who discovered Whitney Houston, to whom the British singer is constantly compared.

She is only the third UK solo female artist to get to number one in the US with her debut.

Petula Clark was the first, with her 1965 track Downtown, while Sheena Easton's Morning Train - released in the UK as 9 To 5 - followed in 1981.

Lewis's debut album Spirit, due for US release on April 8, has sold more than two million copies so far, according to a statement from Lewis's record label SyCo Music, promoter and television star Simon Cowell's division of Sony BMG. It has already topped the UK charts.

The singer notched another milestone a week after winning X Factor when she grabbed the 2006 Christmas number one single with A Moment Like This.

While Amy Winehouse had the top-selling album in the UK last year - shifting 1.85 million copies of Back to Black Ms Lewis's Spirit was a close second, notching up 1.59m sales - off the back of just two months of sales.

The singer wrote of her US success on her website: "Well I really don't know what to say, I'm so overwhelmed.

"I'm getting to share my music with people around the world and it's beyond my wildest dreams.

"I'm still in LA at the moment so I'm going to make sure I find time to celebrate.

"Once again I can't thank everyone enough for this incredible support."