Tedder: 'Halo wasn't written for Leona'

Beyoncé's hit single 'Halo' was not originally penned for Leona Lewis, songwriter Ryan Tedder has insisted.

The One Republic frontman admitted that he only tentatively offered the track to Lewis after Beyoncé initially took a long time to record it.

"There was this huge scandal that originally 'Halo' was meant to go to Leona. That was never the case," he told Alex and Lucy on Key 103's In:Demand.

"I'm putting that rumour to bed right now. That song was written for Beyoncé. What happened was that Beyoncé waited long enough to record that song that I had no communication with her and didn't know if she was going to do it or not.

"I thought this would be a brilliant first single for Leona, which it would have. When you have a song as special as 'Halo', you don't want anyone else to sit on it. So sometimes you have to pull the whole, 'Well, I'm going to get someone else on it', to prove a point.

"What I did was foolishly say to Leona's camp, 'I have it on hold for another A-list artist and I'm pretty sure they'll take it, but if they don't, I just want to know if you like it enough to consider it.'

"I sent it to them and they flipped on it. They loved it and instantly said they wanted to do it. I was like, 'Wait, wait, wait, no, it's not free yet! It's just in case."

Beyoncé reached No. 5 with the single on the Billboard Hot 100 in January.

> Cowell 'furious' over 'stolen' Leona track