Born on July 21, 1981, Lewis is an American singer-songwriter and beatboxer who was the runner-up on the sixth season of American Idol.
Lewis was born in Redmond, WA on July 21, 1981 and started singing around the age of 5. In junior high, he began singing in the Columbia Boys Choir and toured Europe with them. He also participated in choir at Kenmore Junior High and Inglemoor High School. In addition, he was in several plays and musicals in high school.
During his senior year of high school he was turned onto beat boxing and has been hooked ever since, winning several local beat boxing competitions. Lewis says he's been "making noise [his] whole life."
After high school, Lewis began performing all around the Pacific Northwest, looping his own beats and singing over them while playing guitar. He also plays keyboard and drums. He spent several years as a member of Kickshaw, an acapella group.
Lewis was often complimented on American Idol for his creativity and canny song selections. Songs he performed on the show include: "Somewhere Only We Know" (Keane), "Virtual Insanity" (Jamiroquai), "All Mixed Up" (311), "Time of the Season" (The Zombies), "Love Song" (The Cure), "Imagine" (John Lennon), "You Give Love A Bad Name" (Bon Jovi), "This Is Where I Came In" (The Bee Gees), "Roxanne" (The Police), "This Love" (Maroon 5), "When I Get You Alone" (Robin Thicke), "She Will Be Loved" (Maroon 5) and "The Show" (with Doug E Fresh).
Speaking about A.D.D., Lewis told Entertainment Weekly: "I like to call it the two-thousand-'80s, because all my musical influences have come from the '80s, like new wave, Michael Jackson, Prince, Sting, U2, New Order ? all this great electro-pop. I'm heavily influenced by electronic music because I've been listening to it from about '93 to now."
Collaborators/producers on his debut album include [Lewis's best friend and fellow Idol finalist] Chris Richardson, BT, S*A*M (Sam Hollander) & Sluggo (Dave Katz), J.R. Rotem, Steph Jones, Mike Elizondo, David Hodges, Sean Hurley and OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder.
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From Wikipedia:Blake Colin Lewis (born July 21, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and beatboxer 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/Arista Records. On October 30, 2007, his first single "Break Anotha" was released. The album landed on #10 on the U.S. Billboard Billboard 200 as its highest peak position with 97,500 copies sold in its debut, and over 350,000 copies so far. After the release of his second single "How Many Words", which peaked at #8 on the U.S. Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs, Lewis was dropped by Arista Records. Lewis eventually signed with Tommy Boy Entertainment.
His second album, Heartbreak on Vinyl, was released on October 6, 2009. The first single "Sad Song" was released on July 21, 2009 and peaked at #10 on the U.S. Billboard Dance Radio Airplay. The album charted at #135 on the U.S. Billboard Billboard 200, #20 on the Billboard Independent Albums, and #7 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums with over 4000 copies sold in the first week (1000 of those were digital downloads).