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Access Atlanta > American Idol Buzz > Archives > 2008 > June > 22
Sunday, June 22, 2008
6/22: Blake Lewis dropped by Arista
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wow. That was quick! The runner-up curse continues, save for Clay Aiken.
Season six runner up Blake Lewis lost his record deal with Arista just a few months after coming out with “Audio Day Dream,” which generated zero radio hits (“Break Anotha” and “How Many Words” went nowhere) and 299K albums sold since December, 2007.
I can’t say this is surprising news, though it did happen rather quickly. We haven’t heard or seen much from Blake in months and honestly, I don’t think anybody on this blog was terribly confident he’d become a big star. His skills lie in production and as I noted last year, he’d probably make a good living being a Timbaland-type.
And these guys asking him questions are pretty clueless—seems clear they’ve never seen the show!
“What was it like to be on ‘American Idol’?” one interviewer actually asked.
“Wow, that’s a pretty bad question!” Lewis said. (Gotta appreciate his honesty!). They are relying on questions provided by fans, which are not much better. Snooze.
Lewis casually drops the news of losing his Arista deal at the 2 hours and 6 minutes mark about eight minutes into the interview: “It’s a huge success for me,” he said. “It went great.” Then he added, “I got dropped from my label two days ago. I never wanted to be with a major label. I wanted to be with an independent label. After ‘American Idol,’ I was forced into the deal. I still got 80% percent control of my record and making a record I’m really proud of… I don’t feel I got the support I needed at that record label. It’s a good thing.”
First, season one runner-up Justin Guarini lost his RCA Records deal soon after selling fewer than 150K. Season three runner-up Diana DeGarmo lost her deal after selling 170K. Season four runner up Bo Bice lost his deal with RCA despite moving more than 650K. Season five’s Kat McPhee’s deal didn’t last long either after she sold fewer than 400K.
More to come if I can find anything. Reaction??
