Leona: Whitney comparison 'big compliment' (VIDEO)

The X Factor winner Leona Lewis has apparently told how she's been flattered by comparisons to Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

"To be compared to Whitney or Mariah is a very big compliment, although I think I have a lot of hard work to do before I have the right to be compared to artists like those in my opinion," Leona told Access Hollywood.

"They're just incredible and have such amazing success and long careers and I admire them."

Leona - whose single Bleeding Love has topped the US chart this week - also admitted to being a little starstruck when she recently met Whitney at a pre-Grammy awards show party.

"We got introduced to each other and she was just so lovely - how I imagined her to be," she said.

"I used to listen to her so much when I was younger, so to meet her and for her to be so wonderful and so amazing is a very big thing for me."

Click below to watch Leona sing Bleeding Love on Swiss TV.