OneRepublic star RYAN TEDDER has criticised executives at Leona Lewis' record label for failing to promote the singer's latest track - insisting HAPPY could have been a number one hit.
The singer/songwriter penned Lewis' best-selling single Bleeding Love, and they teamed up again to produce the lead track from her second album, Echo.
But despite reaching number two in the British charts, the ballad failed to make the top 10 in the U.S., scraping into the Billboard Hot 100 at number 31.
And Tedder puts the blame firmly on Lewis' record label, insisting bosses shouldn't have released the song when they knew the singer wasn't available to promote it in America.
He tells Digital Spy, "I know exactly why (Happy flopped in the U.S.) and I actually told the label what was going to happen. In the U.S., unless you're Justin Timberlake or Beyonce, you cannot put out a song and not be in the country when it comes out. Leona was gone for six weeks when Happy came out because she was promoting the record in other countries - it wasn't her fault; she just couldn't be (in) two places in once.
"I asked them to do what they did with Bleeding Love. They should have waited until it became a proper hit in loads of different countries and then put it out in the States. For whatever reason, it had already been decided that the release was going to be simultaneous. From the day Happy came out I never felt completely confident. It was very disheartening because I've never put so much time into one song."