Blake Lewis
Blake Colin Lewis (born July 21, 1981) is an American musician, singer and actor who was the runner-up on the sixth season of American Idol. His major label debut album A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream) was released on December 4, 2007, through 19 Recordings and Arista Records.[2] On October 30, 2007, his first single "Break Anotha" was released. The album landed on number ten on the U.S. Billboard 200 as its highest peak position with 97,500 copies sold in its debut, and has sold over 350,000 copies. After the release of his second single "How Many Words", which peaked at number eight on the U.S. Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs, Lewis was dropped by Arista Records. Lewis eventually signed with Tommy Boy Records.
Blake Lewis
American
BShorty[1]
- Musician
- singer
- actor
2007–present
Bothell, Washington, U.S.
- Pop
- soul
- electropop
- Vocals
- guitar
- keyboard
- drums
- beatboxing
- loop pedals
Kickshaw
His second album, Heartbreak on Vinyl, was released on October 6, 2009. The first single "Sad Song" was released on July 21, 2009. The album charted at number 135 on the U.S. Billboard Billboard 200, number twenty on the Billboard Independent Albums, and number seven on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums with over 4,000 copies sold in the first week.
His third album, Portrait of a Chameleon, was released on May 20, 2014. This was his first independent record and includes the single "Your Touch".
His fourth album, Wanderlust Unknown, was released in February 2020.[3]
Biography[edit]
Early years[edit]
Lewis was born in Redmond, Washington to Dallas and Dinah Lewis.[4][5] Dinah is a former rocker who still sings and plays guitar.[6] He is an only child and is of Welsh, Swiss, German and Irish descent.[7] He attended Kenmore Junior High and later Inglemoor High School in Kenmore, Washington.[8][9] 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.[4][10][11][12] In many of these videos, he portrayed his alter ego, Jimmie Walker Blue, the character he introduced during the semi-final round of American Idol.
Lewis started beatboxing at seventeen. He picked up this talent purely by ear, listening to CDs of beatboxing, 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 was a member.[7][13][14] Aside from singing and beatboxing, Lewis plays the guitar, keyboard, drums and has written many songs such as "She Loves the Way", "Emotional Waterfalls", "Dumpty Humpty" and "Jealousy".[15][16][17] He describes himself as an improv musician and often uses devices such as loop pedals and the Kaoss Pad to layer beatboxing, instruments, vocals and effects to create a song live on stage.[18]
Being a member of the a cappella group Kickshaw for four years after graduating from high school in 1999, Lewis worked with the group on a 10-track album titled Put It in the Microphone, but he quit the group in 2002 to become a solo musician going by the stage name Bshorty, which was basically inspired by the nicknames of the members of 311 and "aggressive inline-skate videos during the 1990s", "doing drum and bass shows, and conscious hip hop shows, singer-songwriter stuff, and electronica and hip hop".[11][13][19][20][21][22] He made connections with various musicians by performing regularly in many venues in Seattle such as Nectar Lounge in Fremont, SeaMonster Lounge, Lo-Fi Performance Gallery, Jet Deck in Everett (now in Mill Creek) and hosted shows like The Digital Lounge shows at ToST.[7][18][23][24] Before Idol, he was working on a solo album with a number of tracks finished.[25]
Post-Idol[edit]
Lewis's songs from 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 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. Figures from SoundScan which were posted on USA Today indicated that Lewis' "You Give Love a Bad Name" was "the biggest-selling download of the season", with 192,000 copies sold.[47]
After the finale of Idol, Blake 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.[48][49] In the episode of The View on June 14, 2007, he sang "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane.[45] 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.[50][51][52] 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.[53][54]
Lewis took part in the "American Idols LIVE! Tour 2007" from July 6 – September 23, 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 would be playing musical instruments on the tour (for the first time ever), "doing like a folk band," and that he would bring along his loop pedals for his beatboxing.[45] Before several shows, Lewis improvised, got dressed up as a janitor character named Bob Bobberson and sometimes as a Pop-Tart.[55] He performed "She Loves the Way" on the last show, becoming the first Idol who sang their pre-Idol original materials on the tour. He and Chris Richardson have "started working on a little documentary" on the tour and it will be published at their MySpace profiles.[55][56]
Lewis was named number five in the list of the ten sexiest Idol contestants ever on the website during the running of the sixth season of American Idol and was ranked number 21 in the list of music's 21 sexiest single men on June 11, 2007, on AOL.com.[57][58] 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".[59][60][61] He has also made a cut on the list of 50 hottest guys on Elle Girl.[62]
Voice acting[edit]
Lewis made his voice acting debut in the English dub of the anime series Durarara!!, in which he voiced Kasuka Heiwajima;[86][87] however, he was replaced by Vic Mignogna in the show's second season. Lewis had also voiced a character named Thump on one episode of Generator Rex.[88]
Philanthropy[edit]
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.[89] He chose to put his support behind this organization after a best friend of his as well as his friend's girlfriend were diagnosed with lymphoma.[10][90] In 2010 Lewis competed on Don't Forget the Lyrics to raise money for the Seattle Children's Hospital, a charity that he has worked with for over ten years.