Idol 34 - Blake Lewis

34. Blake Lewis

Season 6, Runner-up

I'm finally getting to Blake! Haha. No, he wasn't an amazing vocalist - though he was arguably above average - but he was probably the most unique contestant I had ever heard on Idol.

Let's start with Blake's audition. I didn't really know what to expect with this dude at first. He did his beatboxing thing, which I thought was pretty cool that time. I mean, I had never heard beatboxing mixed with scatting like that. But the real part that sold me on Blake was when he sang Crazy. I thought it was not that bad.

So, I was thrilled when Blake entered the Top 24 of Season 6 and started the it with a bang. Seriously. He proved all his detractors wrong and became the one of my favorites among the guys. Now, the thing that I really loved about Blake throughout the semifinals was that he was very contemporary and sang songs that never would've been sung by anyone else at that point. He definitely brought something fresh and new to the competition that was very welcome to me.

People can say what they want about his voice, but he is a good singer. No, he's not the typical big voiced Idol contestant, but he can sing, and he has one of the best musical senses of any contestant ever to be on the show. As I've mentioned, he was easily one of the most original contestants on Idol.

Now, I was a bit worried for Blake when it would come to theme weeks. I figured he might have some difficulty balancing his unique style and dealing with much older music. Fortunately, I don't think it was much of an issue at all. Some of his performances showed that he was willing to take big risks and truly make a song his own. Yes, there were some okay performances that weren't too impressive, but he wasn't anything really terrible - maybe You Should Be Dancing on Top 4 week? Haha.

The only thing that kind of bugged me about Blake's singing was when he would use his falsetto. I don't think he's got a very pleasant falsetto, so I wish he would've stuck to his chest voice more often than he did. But that's a minor quibble.

As for his post-Idol album, I think Audio Day Dream was probably one of the most underrated albums of an Idol contestant. It was actually good and wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. But, whatever.

Favorite Performance(s): My favorite Blake Lewis' performance would absolutely have to be You Give Love a Bad Name. This was the point in the competition that he really proved most of his nay-sayers wrong. By far, one of the most brilliant performances ever on the Idol stage. Every note and the whole delivery was just amazing to watch. Somewhere Only We Know was also really good because he just sang the song straight and proves that he isn't a one trick pony. Time of the Season was excellent, as well. Blake made very subtle changes to the song, but in doing so he made it sound very modern.

You Give Love A Bad Name

Somewhere Only We Know

Time Of The Season

#33 - Caw! Caw!