Blake Lewis Bio
Blake Colin Lewis (born July 21, 1981) is an American musician, singer, and actor who first gained national attention as the runner-up on the sixth season of American Idol. A skilled beatboxer and multi-instrumentalist, Lewis blends pop, soul, and electropop, and he frequently uses loop pedals and live looping to build layered arrangements on stage. His major-label debut, A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream), was released in December 2007 and reached the top ten of the Billboard 200. Beyond his solo catalog, Lewis has toured with the American Idols LIVE! tour, contributed to other artists’ recordings, performed on television, and undertaken voice acting and charitable work in the Seattle area.
Early Life and Background
Blake Colin Lewis was born on July 21, 1981, in Redmond, Washington, to Dallas Lewis and Dinah Lewis. He grew up as an only child and is of Welsh, Swiss, German, and Irish descent. His mother, Dinah, is a former rocker who still sings and plays guitar, and her musical background helped shape Blake’s early interest in performance.
Lewis attended Kenmore Junior High and later Inglemoor High School in Kenmore, Washington. He took part in numerous high school state competitions and joined many school musicals, as well as comedy and rap videos made with friends. In many of these early projects, he portrayed an alter ego named Jimmie Walker Blue, a character he would later reintroduce during the semi-final round of American Idol.
Path to Music
Lewis started beatboxing at the age of seventeen, learning the craft entirely by ear after being inspired by Matthew Selby, a former member of the Los Angeles-based a cappella group M-Pact. He plays guitar, keyboard, and drums in addition to singing and beatboxing, and he began writing original songs such as “She Loves the Way,” “Emotional Waterfalls,” “Dumpty Humpty,” and “Jealousy.” He describes himself as an improv musician and often uses loop pedals and the Kaoss Pad to layer beatboxing, instruments, vocals, and effects to build a song live on stage.
After graduating from high school in 1999, Lewis joined the a cappella group Kickshaw for four years and worked on a ten-track album titled Put It in the Microphone. He left the group in 2002 to pursue a solo career under the stage name Bshorty, a name inspired by the nicknames of the members of 311 and the aggressive inline-skate videos of the 1990s. He built a local following by performing at Seattle venues such as Nectar Lounge in Fremont, SeaMonster Lounge, Lo-Fi Performance Gallery, and The Digital Lounge shows at ToST, doing drum and bass, conscious hip hop, singer-songwriter, electronica, and hip hop sets. Before trying out for Idol, he was working on a solo album with a number of tracks already finished.
Blake Lewis Career
Early Career (2007)
Lewis auditioned for American Idol in Seattle, performing “Crazy” by Seal and an off-screen rendition of “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5. He introduced himself as a local beatboxing champion and went on to become the last male contestant standing, finishing as the runner-up of the sixth season. Along the way, he became the first contestant from the Northwestern United States, and specifically from Washington, to compete in the finale.
After the finale, Lewis toured as part of the American Idols LIVE! Tour 2007 from July 6 to September 23, 2007, and made numerous television appearances, including The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, The Today Show, Live with Regis and Kelly, The Early Show, Total Request Live, Larry King Live, The View, and Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular. According to SoundScan figures posted by USA Today, his performance of “You Give Love a Bad Name” was the biggest-selling download of the season, with 192,000 copies sold.
Breakthrough (2007–2008)
Lewis signed with Arista Records and 19 Recordings, and his “electro-funk-soul-pop” debut album, A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream), was released on December 4, 2007. The first single, “Break Anotha,” was released to radio on October 30, 2007, and to the iTunes Store on November 13, 2007, while the second single, “How Many Words,” followed on March 10, 2008. The album debuted at number ten on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 97,500 copies in its first week, and went on to sell more than 350,000 copies. “How Many Words” peaked at number eight on the Billboard Dance/Club Play Songs chart.
On June 25, 2008, Entertainment Weekly announced that Lewis had been dropped by Arista Records, although he remained on Idol creator Simon Fuller’s 19 Recordings roster. He began a national tour at the end of September on the East Coast, playing songs from A.D.D. as well as new material, and started working on his second album with drummer KJ “Quantize” Sawka. Lewis parted with Arista in 2008 and eventually signed with Tommy Boy Records, a dance, hip hop, and electronic label whose catalog includes albums by Africa Bambaataa, Biz Markie, and De La Soul.
2009–2012: Heartbreak on Vinyl
Lewis released his second album, Heartbreak on Vinyl, on October 6, 2009, through Tommy Boy Records. The first single, “Sad Song,” was released on July 21, 2009. The album charted at number 135 on the U.S. Billboard 200, number twenty on the Billboard Independent Albums chart, and number seven on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart, selling more than 4,000 copies in its first week. During this period he also performed at the 2009 Congressional Clubs’ First Lady’s Luncheon to Honor Michelle Obama on April 30, 2009, delivering a beatbox version of “America the Beautiful” among his set.
2013–2015: Portrait of a Chameleon
On February 25, 2013, it was announced that Lewis had signed with Republic Records, and the first single from his third album, “Your Touch,” premiered on February 26, 2013, in a commercial for Internet Explorer 10. The song was released to iTunes on March 4, 2013. On February 17, 2014, Lewis officially announced that the album would be released on May 20, 2014, on his own record label, Audio Day Dream Records, making it his first independent record.
2016–present: Strings, Spit, & Serenades, Our Fragile Heart and Wanderlust Unknown
In 2017, Lewis released Strings, Spit, & Serenades, a live album that included live versions of music from previous albums and a live version of “7 Nation Army Dreams” featuring Chris Poage. In 2018, he released a remix album, Our Fragile Heart: Remixes & Rarities, featuring unreleased tracks and new remixes of former releases, with mixes from KJ Sawka and Alex Greggs. His fourth studio album, Wanderlust Unknown, was released on January 24, 2020, featuring lead singles “Pot of Gold” and “Trouble,” and included collaborations with fellow American Idol alum Elliott Yamin and new recording artist Olivia Kuper Harris.
Notable Works and Milestones
Lewis’s signature moment on American Idol was his beatbox-driven performance of “You Give Love a Bad Name” by Bon Jovi, which Randy Jackson called the most original performance ever on the show and which was later ranked number six on AOL.com’s list of top 20 all-time greatest American Idol performances. A.D.D. (Audio Day Dream) remains his highest-charting album, reaching number ten on the Billboard 200, while Heartbreak on Vinyl marked his successful move into the dance and electronic space. Outside of his own releases, Lewis has voiced Kasuka Heiwajima in the English dub of the anime series Durarara!! and a character named Thump in one episode of Generator Rex, and he has written and produced tracks for other artists, including Olivia Kuper Harris’s Juicy and Olivia Ryan’s “New Warriors.”
Blake Lewis Family
Blake Colin Lewis was born and raised in the Seattle area as the only child of Dallas Lewis and Dinah Lewis. His mother, Dinah, is a former rocker who still sings and plays guitar, and she was an early musical influence on her son. Lewis has described his family background as Welsh, Swiss, German, and Irish.
Personal Life
Lewis is also known by the nickname Bshorty, a stage name he adopted before his solo career and later carried into his work on American Idol and beyond. He has long ties to the Pacific Northwest music scene, having performed regularly at Seattle-area venues and worked with the a cappella group Kickshaw in the years following high school. In addition to his music, Lewis has supported cancer research at Seattle Children’s Hospital, donating a portion of merchandise proceeds after friends were diagnosed with lymphoma, and he competed on Don’t Forget the Lyrics in 2010 to raise additional funds for the hospital.