Blake Lewis News

That was fast.

Reportedly, Blake Lewis has already been dropped from Arista Records.

The sixth season runner-up did not see his debut album, Audio Day Dream, produce a single chart-worth single, as it underperformed American Idol standards, selling 98,000 its first week and 299,000 to date.

Clive Davis embraces Blake Lewis, months before the latter would be dropped from his record label.

Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee were dropped from their respective labels about 18 months after they were signed. Ruben Studdard released three albums before he was dropped.

Blake had just signed with Arista last August. We wish him the best of luck.

As we get set to start the path toward a new American Idol in two weeks, let's look back at last year's two finalists.

How have Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis fared on the charts?

Jordin Sparks
Album sales: Her eponymous debut disc has sold 283,000 copies since Nov. 20, after starting with the lowest sales by far for an Idol winner.
Track downloads: 1 million (567,000 for the single Tattoo).
Radio airplay: Tattoo is No. 14 on the national all-format airplay chart, No. 8 in the top 40 format.
Creative control: Jordan co-wrote one song on her album, par for the course for Idols, whose strong point is usually singing, not writing or producing.
Promotional activities: Set to sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl.

Blake Lewis
Album sales: Audio Day Dream has sold 156,000 copies since Dec. 4, a middling pace for an Idol runner-up.
Track downloads: 505,000 (34,000 for single Break Anotha).
Radio airplay: Break Anotha hasn't hit the national chart but is close to entering the top 40 format chart.
Creative control: Blake co-wrote all but one of the songs on his album, an unprecedented degree of involvement for an American Idol.

The debut album from Blake Lewis dropped at number-10 on The Billboard 200 album sales chart after selling 98,000 copies during its initial week of release.

It's not a terrible showing for "Audio Day Dream," but the figures were lower than fifth-season American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee's self-titled debut, which sold 116,000 copies and dropped at number-two on the same chart.

Fourth-season runner-up Bo Bice debuted at number-four on The Billboard 200 in December 2005 with "The Real Thing," which sold 227,000 copies in its first week.

However, Blake's debut numbers were higher than those of original American Idol runner-up Justin Guarini. His self-titled debut moved only 54,000 copies in its first week of release in June 2003; while Diana DeGarmo saw her CD,"Blue Skies," move just 47,000 in its first week of sales.

New Year's Eve will be chock full of American Idol stars.

As previously reported, Carrie Underwood will ring in 2008 as part of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.

Now, FOX has announced today that Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks will join the band Lifehouse to perform on the network's New Year's Eve Live special.

New Year's Eve Live will be hosted by So You Think You Can Dance host Cat Deeley, along with Spike Feresten from Talk Show with Spike Feresten.

These American Idol finalists will ring in 2008.

Here are a couple excerpts from an interview Blake Lewis recently conducted with our friends at BuddyTV:

We know you collaborate with your fellow Idol Chris Richardson a lot.  How much involvement did he have in the album?
We wrote one song together called “What'cha Got 2 Lose,” and then we co-wrote another song with Sam and Frodo out of New York called “I'm Just Human,” which will be a bonus on iTunes.  With “What'cha Got 2 Lose” I got co-production on that song as well with JR Rotem.  It's just great, a rollercoaster ride.

“What'cha Got 2 Lose” is kind of along the lines of “Break Anotha,” but definitely funkier.  It's Prince meets James Brown meets The Zapp Band, rollercoaster into Michael Jackson “Thriller” in the breakdown with me scratching over it.  It was definitely the ADD track of Audio Day Dream.

Are there any guests on the album that you'd like to talk about?
There's just one guest, and that's Lupe Fiasco.  He blessed the track “Know My Name,” which I wrote with Ryan Tedder and Josh Hodges.  It's just a funky soul Nikka Costa meets Robin Thicke inspired track, with an a capella breakdown, just vocals, beatboxing.

When Lupe comes in it's all vocals, there's no break with a drum set on it.  The track came out amazing and his verse is sick, so I'm very honored and fortunate to have him on this album.

Read the full interview here.

Blake Lewis recently sat down with his hometown newspaper, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Here are highlights from the interview:

Q: "Audio Day Dream" seems to be loaded with potential hits, from ballads to hip-hop songs. Are your expectations high?
Lewis: I got to make the album I've always wanted. That's huge. I set high goals for myself. I don't tell anyone what they are. I'll tell them once I've reached them. I've done that my whole entire life. I put myself out in the universe, I put myself out there in a positive way.

Q: After "Break Anotha," how will you decide which songs to release as singles?
Lewis: I definitely want singles that best represent me. I'm not going to say which one, but there's a song that I didn't necessarily want on the record. But I know the label people love it, and you have to deal with the corporate stuff at a major label.

Q: Fellow American Idol Kelly Clarkson ran into trouble last summer when she refused label head Davis' offer of $10 million to delete five tracks and replace them with songs he would handpick. Did Davis ask for any changes on your album?
Lewis: On one song, he said, 'You should change this bridge because it doesn't sound like you.' He was right on a lot of things. And we compromised on a couple of things, but that's about it. He really didn't touch the record. He was just so into it. Which is huge because my whole dream was to be signed by Clive Davis, so I wasn't going to mess that up.

Q: What's your perspective on American Idol now that it's behind you?
Lewis: American Idol' was great. I was scared in the beginning because I had never seen it before, and I was afraid it would take my artistic integrity out of the mix. But it did the opposite. I was forced to do other people's music, but I didn't mind because I just made it my own, arranged it myself and I had a lot of fun with it. I didn't take it seriously because I'm not a competitive person.

I'm down to create. It launched my career out into the universe. What I want to do now is create music that I'm passionate about.

The excitement over Jordin Sparks' new album will barely have died down when the runner-up from this year's competition comes out with his debut CD.

On December 4, Blake Lewis fans will finally get a chance to purchase the much-hyped "Audio Day Dream."

In a recent interview, the beat boxing hunk made it clear he's grateful for the opportunity.

"Being on American Idol was the lottery ticket," Lewis said. "It's one of the most amazing experiences I'll never have again ever in my life. I'm not a big fan of television at all, but it's an amazing way of communicating with people. I tell people that all I was put on this earth to do is communicate my art to people, and what better way to do that (than) on "American Idol."

So, what sort of music should we look forward to on the album?

"I don't want to be put in a box," Lewis said. "If there's any box I could be put in, it's pop music. The surprise is that, hopefully, it's an album you've never heard before, but it's very pop and mainstream. I just go with my gut feeling and my instincts and intuition. I did that on the show, and that's how I approached (the album), too."

With his new album coming out on December 4, Blake Lewis is revealing the inspiration behind at least one song on it.

"One of my songs is based on Natalie Portman," Blake told In Touch magazine. "It's called 'Know My Name' and it's about the idea of having a celebrity crush when you see someone in a magazine and you just like her for some reason and think, 'I could be with that girl.'"

Hey, we can relate. We've seen Megan Fox nude.

Lyrics of Blake's song include: "You and me pretty girl, and a future of bliss."

We're less than a month away from Audio Day Dream, folks.

The debut album from Blake Lewis hits stores on December 4, but we've got the CD cover below:

The debut album from Blake Lewis, Audio Day Dream, will hit shelves on December 4.

In the meantime, AOL is streaming the American Idol runner-up's first single, "Break Anotha." Listen to it now.