Leona Naess (born Leona Kristina Naess on July 31, 1974 in London, England) is a pop\rock singer-songwriter from the 2000s.

Leona is the daughter of Arne Naess Jr., a Norwegian mountaineer & business magnate and Fillippa Kumlin D’Orey, a Swedish interior designer. Her parents divorced when she was 7 years old and in 1986, her father married singer Diana Ross.

When she was 14 years old, she got her first guitar from her mother and later began writing her own songs. Growing up, she attended school in London’s Chelsea area and the Purcell School in Hertfordshire where she studied music composition.

Leona moved to New York City at the age of 18 to study music at New York University; however, she later switched her major and received a degree in anthropology. She began performing with her guitar at open mics and went on to perform in coffeehouses, bars and clubs.

A friend of Leona’s who worked as an intern at Sony Records invited an executive to see her perform and soon, various record companies were interested in signing her. Shortly after graduating from New York University, she signed with producer Scott Litt’s record label, Outpost Records.

In 1998, she began working on her first album which was completed in June of 1999, but a series of business mergers postponed the album’s release and then Outpost Records went out of business. However, the head of MCA Records bought Leona’s record contract over to the label.
In March of 2000, Leona released her debut album, “Comatised” on MCA Records which did not make the album charts.
The lead single, “Charm Attack” peaked at #29 on Billboard’s Adult Top 40 chart and was featured in the teen comedy film, “Whatever It Takes.”
The follow-up singles, “New York Baby” and the title song didn’t make the music charts at all. During that time, Leona appeared as a model for Calvin Klein prior to the release of the album.
In 2001, Leona released her sophomore album, “I Tried to Rock You But You Only Roll” which peaked at #43 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart; however, the title song and the track, “Mayor of Your Town” failed to make much impact on the charts at all.
In 2003, she recorded backing vocals on the Counting Crows’ album, “Hard Candy” (primarily on the track, “Black and Blue.” During that same year, she released her self-titled third album on Geffen Records which didn’t make the charts.

Tracks from the album such as “Ballerina,” “Christmas” and “Calling” were featured on films and TV shows such as “Weeds”, “The O.C.” and “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.”

In January of 2004, Leona’s father, Arne died in a climbing accident in South Africa which caused her to withdraw from music and move back to London to live with her mother. She was also dropped from her record label, she split with her manager and considered returning to school.
However, Leona later returned to New York City, resumed songwriting and began collaborating with music producer Samuel Dixon. In September of 2008 (five years after the release of her previous album), she released her fourth studio album, “Thirteens.”

These days, Leona resides in New York City where she is the mother of two children and frequently travels back to London. Although she performs occassionally (according to research), she has yet to release a new album.

To see a video for “Charm Attack,” go to:

To see a video for “New York Baby,” go to:

To see a video for “I Tried to Rock You But You Only Roll,” go to:

To see a video for “Mayor of Your Town,” go to:

To see a video for “Calling,” go to:

To see a video for “Ghosts in the Attic,” go to:

To see a video for “Leave Your Boyfriends Behind,” go to: