Blake Lewis
Blake Lewis (real name - Blake Colin Lewis) is an American singer-songwriter and beatboxer who was the runner-up to Jordin Sparks on the sixth season of American Idol. He was born on July 21, 1981.
Aside from singing and beat boxing, Lewis plays the guitar, keyboard, drums and has written many songs such as "She Loves the Way", "Emotional Waterfalls", "Dumpty Humpty" and "Jealousy". He describes himself as an improve musician and often uses devices such as loop pedals and the Kaoss Pad to layer beat boxing, instruments, vocals and effects to create a song live on stage.
Being a member of the a cappella group KickShaw for four years after graduating from high school in 1998, 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".
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. Before Idol, he was working on a solo album with a number of tracks finished.
