Blake Colin Lewis (born July 21, 1981) is an American singer and beatboxer who was the runner-up to Jordin Sparks on the sixth season of American Idol.
Lewis was born in Redmond, Washington to Dallas and Dinah Lewis, who is a former rocker who still sings and plays guitar, as the only child in the family of Welsh, German and Irish descent. He attended Kenmore Junior High and later Inglemoor High School in Kenmore, Washington. In high school, Lewis participated in many high school state competitions. He also took part in numerous musicals, as well as comedy and rap videos with his friends.
Lewis started beatboxing at seventeen by listening to CDs and picking up this talent purely by ears after he was inspired by Matthew Selby, a former member of the Los Angeles-based a cappella group M-Pact, of which fellow American Idol semi-finalist Rudy Cárdenas is a member. Lewis was a member of the a cappella group KickShaw for four years after graduating from high school in 1998.[10] He had worked with the group on a 10-track album titled Put It In the Microphone but he quit the group in 2002 and became a full-time musician going by the stage name "Bshorty", "doing drum and bass shows, and conscious hip hop shows, singer-songwriter stuff, and electronica and hip hop". Aside from singing and beatboxing, Lewis plays the guitar, piano, drums and has written many songs such as "She Loves The Way", "Emotional Waterfall", "Dumpty Humpty" and "Jealousy". Before Idol, he was working on a solo album with a number of tracks finished.
Lewis auditioned for Idol in Seattle—despite having never seen the show before—with "Crazy" by Seal. Introducing himself as the local beatboxing champion in the audition, Lewis beatboxed along with his teammates, including Chris Sligh, Rudy Cárdenas and Tom Lowe, to "How Deep Is Your Love" by Bee Gees in the Hollywood's Week. The memorable performance received a standing ovation from the audience and Paula, who commented "that brought down the house". In an early episode of the United Kingdom edition of American Idol, Lewis recalled his first solo performance in the Hollywood's Week was "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" by The Temptations. When later he sang it in front of the other finalists, Phil Stacey felt that it was the best performance he has seen from Lewis.
List of Blake Lewis' week-by-week performances on American Idol
Week
Song Choice
Artist
Result
Top 24
"Somewhere Only We Know"
Keane
Safe
Top 20
"Virtual Insanity"
Jamiroquai
Safe
Top 16
"All Mixed Up"
311
Safe
Top 12
"You Keep Me Hangin' On"
Diana Ross and the Supremes
Safe
Top 11
"Time of the Season"
The Zombies
Safe
Top 10
"Lovesong"
The Cure covered by 311
Safe
Top 9
"Mack the Knife"
Kurt Weill
Popularized by Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin,
Robbie Williams and Louis Armstrong
Safe
Top 8
"I Need to Know"
Marc Anthony
Safe
Top 7
"When the Stars Go Blue"
Ryan Adams covered by Tim McGraw
Bottom 3
Top 6
"Imagine"
John Lennon
Safe
(Non-Elimination Week)
Top 6
"You Give Love a Bad Name"
Bon Jovi
Safe
Top 4
You Should Be Dancing
"This Is Where I Came In"
Bee Gees
Safe
Top 3
"Roxanne"
"This Love"
"When I Get You Alone"
The Police
Maroon 5
Robin Thicke
Safe
Finale
"You Give Love a Bad Name"
"She Will Be Loved"
"This Is My Now"
Bon Jovi
Maroon 5
Jordin Sparks
Runner-up
Lewis ended up the last male contestant standing; the judges had predicted Lewis' "front runner" status early in the competition. In an exclusive interview with X17Online on March 4, 2007, Simon Cowell foresaw Lewis' chance to take the crown.After Lewis' performance of "Lovesong" by The Cure/311 on March 27, Paula Abdul said that she would love to see him in the finale. Cowell further confirmed that Lewis was the front runner of male contestants on American Idol. Lewis, upon entering the top 2 on May 16, 2007, he thus became the first ever contestant from the Northwestern United States (specifically, Washington) to compete in the finale.
I've tried to stay true to myself this whole entire time, and I think I've represented myself as creatively as I could with what I got on the show.
Blake Lewis, interview with MTV.com
Lewis' beatboxing and scat singing skills had been featured occasionally throughout the competition, notably in the performances such as "Virtual Insanity", "All Mixed Up", "Time of the Season", "You Give Love a Bad Name", "You Should Be Dancing", "This Is Where I Came In" and "This Love". He had also rearranged songs including "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and "You Give Love a Bad Name". Although Lewis' first performance in the semi-final weeks, "Somewhere Only We Know", was pure singing and inspired judges to make comments about his contemporary vibe, his signature performance on the show was probably "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi. Lewis incorporated a substantial beatboxing component, making the song sound significantly different from its original version. Jon Bon Jovi, the lead singer of the band who also coached the contestants that week, noted that Lewis' rendition was "rolling the dice". All three judges acknowledged the huge risk of Lewis' arrangement, but also praised him for his originality including beatboxing. Randy Jackson believed that it was the most original performance ever on the show. Cowell even predicted that 50% of the audience "would absolutely hate it" but another half would love it. The groundbreaking performance was later ranked #6 in top 20 all-time greatest American Idol performances on AOL.com.
It is also remarkable that several original versions of song Lewis performed re-entered Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart shortly after the show. Lewis' first performance on-stage, "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane, re-entered the chart at #26; "Time of the Season", a The Zombies' hit in 1968, reached #67; Tim McGraw’s “When the Stars Go Blue�? hit #39; Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" shot up to #29; "This Love" and "She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5 re-entered at #41 and #45 respectively. Maroon 5’s album Songs About Jane had re-entered the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart at #5 on June 2, 2007 as well.
Lewis claimed 311 as his all-time favorite band after his performance of "All Mixed Up".Responding to a viewer question on March 13, 2007, he had also confessed his love of "underground hip hop, electronic music" such as Common Market and Panda Conspiracy, with an addition of The Mob Law, which in Lewis' opinion, "should be signed to a major label".
While being the last two contestants waiting for the results on May 2, Lewis and Chris Richardson answered Ryan Seacrest's question about their close relationship, saying that they are best friends. Interestingly, Lewis has "Chris Sligh, Rudy Cárdenas", contestants from the sixth season of American Idol, listed as his own "American idols" on his profile on American Idol official website, while Sligh and Cárdenas also have Lewis on their lists.Furthermore, Lewis claimed in an interview with The Blaker Girls that besides Richardson, Cárdenas and Sligh, his best friends on the show were Brandon Rogers, Jordin Sparks and Gina Glocksen. In the episode of The View on June 14, 2007, Lewis said that there were "a lot of writers on the show", including Richardson, Sligh and himself.
Lewis' songs from the American Idol have been on sale at the iTunes Store and the American Idol official website as Blake Lewis - EP (called a "bundle" on Idol's official website) shortly after the finale of Idol, along with other songs that did not make the EP's cut that are being sold as individual singles.
After the finale of Idol, Lewis has made several appearances on television shows. He performed Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved" on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet (combined with a snippet of U2's "With or Without You"), The Today Show, Live with Regis and Kelly and The Early Show.[29][30] In the episode of The View on June 14, 2007, he sang "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane.[28] Lewis had also appeared on Total Request Live, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet with the winner of Idol, Jordin Sparks and Larry King Live with contestants who made into the top ten of American Idol.[31][32][33] On July 4, 2007, Lewis performed "God Bless America" and "America the Beautiful" on Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular with Sparks and Melinda Doolittle.
Lewis will take part in the "American Idols LIVE! Tour 2007" from July 6 to September 22, 2007, along with other contestants in the top ten. He revealed on The View on June 14, 2007 that all the male contestants on the show will be playing musical instruments on the tour (for the first time ever), "doing like a folk band," and that he will bring along his loop pedals for his beatboxing.
Lewis was ranked #21 in a list of music's 21 sexiest single men on AOL.com on June 11, 2007.He has also been named #5 in a list of the 10 sexiest Idol contestants ever on the website during the running of the sixth season of American Idol.Later in the issue of People magazine on June 15, 2007, the brand-new runner-up of Idol appeared on its list of "Hottest Bachelors of 2007".
This section contains information about a scheduled or expected future album.
It may contain speculative information; the content may change as the album release approaches and more information becomes available.
On June 21, 2007, Lewis disclosed in his blog at MySpace that on top of the American Idol tour, he has "been in meetings with producers and writers" for his album, though his record deal has not been announced officially at that time. In two interviews on June 25 and June 27, 2007, Lewis admitted that he has been recording his album in the studio "for all night long" since June 18. He expects to release a full length record by Thanksgiving to Christmas in 2007.
The singer has stated in several interviews that he wants his future album to have pop, electronic and jazzy hip hop feels to it, as he classified the sound as "electro-funk-soul-pop". He has also listed his ideal choices of producers and collaborators for his album in various interviews, including "Father of Trance" BT, Darkchild, will.i.am, Pro J, DJ Shadow, Dan the Automator and Gnarls Barkley (the musical collaboration between Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo Green). In interviews with Entertainment Weekly magazine and Entertainment Tonight, he mentioned a collaboration with Doug E. Fresh, the hip hop/beatboxing legend Lewis beatboxed with to "The Show" in the Grand Finale of the sixth season of American Idol and received a standing ovation from the judges and the audience, as well as some of his musical influences, such as Maroon 5, 311, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson and Jamiroquai.
Being interviewed by TV Guide on June 27, 2007, Lewis revealed that Doug E. Fresh "is in talks to beatbox on a song" and one of his favorite producers, BT, has signed on to produce his debut album.Moreover, he is "going to have four or five people beatbox between tracks�?. According to an interview with the improvised show Cupcake (the collaboration between Ethan Newberry and Justin Sund, who has filmed a number of comedy videos with Lewis) and Cisco McCarthy (the videographer of the group, who has also created several videos of Lewis' performances) on BlakeLewisMedia.com (now BlakeLewisMultimedia.com/The Blaker Girls Official Forum), the friends are making a documentary and the album art for Lewis' album. Travis Wall and Ivan Koumaev, contestants on the second season of So You Think You Can Dance, and Ryan Tedder, the lead singer of the pop/rock band OneRepublic, are getting to work with Lewis as well.
Lewis has been supporting cancer research at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle by donating 50% of the proceeds from the merchandise of The Blaker Girls.[53] He chose to put his support behind this organization after one of his best friends and his friend's girlfriend were diagnosed with lymphoma.
