Blake articles Options

[digigirl02]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musi...lpreview27.html

Sanjaya, Blake bring it home
Sanjaya Malakar and Blake Lewis, the two Seattle-based runners-up on "American Idol," are coming home tonight. "American Idols Live," the three-month, 56-stop tour, featuring the top 10 contestants from last season's show, will be at the Tacoma Dome tonight and back on the road Saturday morning.

The two-hour show will highlight at least one appearance by each of the top 10 idols, including all-female and all-male ensembles. The show's set list is the same for each stop on the tour, with the exception that all contestants will perform solos in his or her hometown.

Lucky for us, that means we get a special serenade by Federal Way's Sanjaya Malakar and Kenmore's Blake Lewis.

Malakar, 17, who was heavily criticized last season for being one of the weakest singers on the show, is looking forward to "redeeming" himself over the course of the tour, which began in Florida on July 6 and ends in New Hampshire on Sept. 22.

"So far, it's been nice to be able to perform and afterward people are like, 'Wow, you're better than you were on the show,' " he says. "It's nice to get that kind of feedback and prove that I belonged [in the top 10]."

Malakar is nervous about performing in front of his friends and family, all of whom will attend either tonight in Tacoma or Saturday night in Portland, but he's looking forward to being on the stage side of a venue he's known his whole life.

"I've been to the Tacoma Dome like a million times and I never, ever, ever would have thought I was going to play there," he says. "It wasn't even a dream to play there. It was too unlikely to even dream about."

Lewis, who celebrated his 26th birthday last night with his friends and family in Kenmore, is looking forward to the four-minute beatboxing set he's performed regularly since the start of the tour. Hometown fans will recognize it from his days as a freelance musician at venues around Seattle.

"They let me do whatever I want to do up there, just like I've always done. I get to just be me, run around stage and make all kinds of weird noises," says Lewis, referring to his playful vocal looping style.

Some of the songs Lewis will perform tonight will appear again on his upcoming solo album, which he plans to release in November. He's already recorded seven songs for the album and now spends his travel time — six to eight hours a day on a tour bus — writing new songs. "When it comes to music, I'm a workhorse," he says.

In addition to performances by our local boys, tonight's show promises a solo by American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, a duet with Lewis and Chris Richardson, and a demonstration of vocal fortitude by leading ladies Melinda Doolittle and LaKisha Jones.

Haley Edwards: 206-464-2745 or hedwards@seattletimes.com

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/pop/325201_nightlife27.html

Seattle's favorite 'Idol' comes home to perform with nine close friends
By GENE STOUT
P-I POP MUSIC CRITIC

Blake Lewis may be an American Idol with thousands of rabid fans throughout the world, but his heart is still in Seattle.

"I'll never not live in Seattle, I love it so much," the famous Bothell beatboxer, aka "Bshorty," said in a phone interview while en route to an "American Idols" concert in Alabama.

"People ask me, 'Are you moving to California?' I say, 'Like, hell no.' Seattle is so wonderful."

But it isn't just the scenery that makes Seattle wonderful. It's the music scene.

"There's the fact that people moved away after the grunge scene died and there's no spotlight on this town that has so much music to offer. That's sad. So I'm going to come back and start setting up shows at like the Vera Project and do more youth events in the hip-hop community."

Lewis, who just turned 26, was an audience favorite in this year's competition, but came in second. Along with the other famous Idol from the Seattle area -- the outrageously coiffed and ever-charming Sanjaya Malakar -- Lewis performs Friday night at the Tacoma Dome.

The lineup includes winner Jordin Sparks, as well as losers Melinda Doolittle, Phil Stacey, LaKisha Jones, Chris Richardson, Haley Scarnato, Gina Glocksen and Chris Sligh.

The two-hour show (sponsored by Pop Tarts) begins with a group song, "Let's Get It Started," before everyone peels off for a series of solos and duets, some with a full band.

Bshorty was wary of "American Idol" when he auditioned for the show's sixth season.

"I'd never seen the show before," he said. "And when I first saw it, I was like, 'Oh, my God, this is so cheesy.' But it's totally different once you become a part of it. And it's so big now. It's really unbelievable the power of communication you can have by just singing a song."

Lewis, a Redmond native who grew up in Bothell, Lynnwood and Edmonds, shrugged off judge Simon Cowell's rebuke of Seattle's talent pool at the local auditions.

"He kind of shot his mouth off," Lewis said. "But it was the last date of the entire audition tour and by that time they were tired of listening to people."

Over the phone, Lewis came across as earnest and grounded. He was grateful for the chance to compete on "American Idol."

"The communication level is unparalleled to anything that you'll ever get to experience," he said. "It brings families together and people who haven't talked to each other in a long time.

"I've told myself that I'm a communicator and I want to communicate my art with people. And what better way to do that on the biggest TV show ever?"

What was the scariest moment?

"Actually, I didn't have any. Honestly. I never viewed it as a competition. I never really got scared or stressed. I've just been performing for so long that I just go out and sing."

Lewis realized he was gaining momentum when he first sang "You Give Love a Bad Name."

"The energy from the room was just amazing," he said. "And for like two hours afterward I could still feel the energy. That was the one performance where I really felt good about myself. And you're your own worst critic."

Beatboxing, the hip-hop-derived art of creating musical sounds, particularly beats and rhythms, using one's voice and mouth, raised its profile through Lewis' appearances on "American Idol."

"People may view beatboxing as a gimmick and as not a very creative art form," Lewis said. "But there are so many talented people out there doing it.

"I was very happy that I got to put a little shine on the human element of hip-hop. 'American Idol' has never seen hip-hop, and I'm hoping for next year that some hip-hop artists get onto the show. Because it's a powerful show and it's going to reach more people who don't know about this culture."

Lewis started beatboxing when he was 17 and had known DJ Alexei "Sabzi" Mohajerjasbi of Blue Scholars since junior high.

"The first time I ever beatboxed, (Sabzi) played piano," Lewis said.

So it was perfectly natural for Lewis to drop in on the Scholars' May 11 performance with RA Scion (Randy Abeo) at The Showbox on the day of Blake Lewis homecoming celebrations in downtown Bothell and Seattle's Westlake Square. The show was a release party for the Scholars' current album, "Bayani."

Lewis hopes to collaborate with Sabzi and RA Scion on "a Seattle track" for his upcoming album, due by Thanksgiving.

"Just imagine the best mix tape you ever got back in the '80s," he said. "And the conscious through-line will be the beatboxing. I'll have tons of beatboxing."

This post has been edited by digigirl02: Jul 27th 2007, 2:10 PM

[misterscribbs]

Thanks for posting.

[digigirl02]

Your welcome, I got it at BLMM.

[erica_yo]

Awesomee, thanks for posting!

[BLaKeRGuRl_77804]

Thanks!

[angelxtreme]

Great articles , thanks for posting , 7 ! YAY @ the additional song completed

[digigirl02]

From HeraldNet.

Entertainment
American Idols Live!
7 tonight, Tacoma Dome; $38.50 to $69, 206-628-0888.

Published: Friday, July 27, 2007

Blake's back home

By Victor Balta, Special to The Herald

Blake Lewis is coming home.

He captured the hearts and ears of Americans across the country as he climbed into the finals on "American Idol" with his remarkable, unique and clever sound, but only the greater Seattle area can lay claim to the Bothell resident, and he'll be the one all eyes are on when the "American Idols Live" tour stops tonight at the Tacoma Dome.

"I'm stoked I get to go home," Lewis said in a phone interview Wednesday from Sacramento, Calif. "Just being in the 425 (area code), I'm excited, man."

Lewis' last "Idol"-related homecoming came when he entered the final three in the Fox reality competition, which is the most-watched television show in America. He visited Bothell and turned the place upside down.

"Coming home in that top three was just a trip, man," Lewis said. "There was like 10,000 people at Bothell landing when I did that show. That was a really nice feeling, but then I was (thinking), 'Where were you guys six months ago when I was playing the Jet Deck?'"

Lewis was referring to the locale on Paine Field where he played at open-mike nights for a couple of years before taking a chance on an audition for a TV show he'd never seen.

"I turned it on one day (during) the first season it was on and I saw someone singing really bad, and I never turned it on again," Lewis said. "I was turned off by it. But then (last year) I was at a point in my life where I just wanted to go audition. I didn't have anything to lose, it was just one audition. There's like 9,000 people there, you never think you're gonna get it."

He got in, and he moved on until the final week of the season, when he lost out to 17-year-old sensation Jordin Sparks. Like Chris Daughtry a year earlier, Lewis did it all on his own terms, even though his particular sound wasn't necessarily best suited for "American Idol."

"I just saw the show as an opportunity to be myself and that I got to be myself, I got to beat box, and I got to arrange the songs myself," Lewis said. "In six years, they said I was the first one to actually truly arrange the songs each week. I got to really produce my own outcome for the songs on that show, that was just huge. I was kind of a control freak. I know who I am and I'm not someone who can be molded."

Lewis is now working on his debut album, writing songs on tour and preparing to record the rest of them. He has six songs done for the album that he expects will be entitled "A.D.D.," for "Audio Day Dream," and will be released on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

"I wrote a song yesterday with Chris Rich(ardson)," Lewis said. "We're working on stuff. I've got about 10 new beats that I'm just writing to and picking out the ones I feel best represent me."

If local fans somehow miss Lewis representing himself in Tacoma this weekend, he has a special performance planned once the long "Idol" tour is over in September and the Mill Creek fire marshal might be interested in this one.

"My good friend Steve, owner of the Jet Deck, just opened a new place right there on 164th Street," Lewis said. "I can't wait until I'm done touring, I'm going to have a show there. I've got to go back and play my roots."

Reporter Victor Balta: victor.a.balta@gmail.com.

Associated Press

Blake Lewis performs on "American Idol."

article curtosy of BLMM.

This post has been edited by digigirl02: Jul 27th 2007, 5:30 PM

[sashimigirl]

Audio Day Dream ... A.D.D.

He is the Best Idol Evar!

Thank you for posting these!!!

This post has been edited by sashimigirl: Jul 27th 2007, 5:38 PM

[*Laci]

omgggg I love it a.d.d that is so cool!
& yat for new songs tonight!? did I read that right?

[digigirl02]

omgggg I love it a.d.d that is so cool!
& yat for new songs tonight!? did I read that right?

[*Laci]

I can't wait whyyy can't I live in WA

[digigirl02]

I wonder if he is going to do them at the Portland show?