Michelle Lewis Explained

Michelle Lewis
Background:solo_singer
Birth Place:New York City
Years Active:1994–present
Label:Giant Records
Kismet Records

Michelle Robin Lewis (born) is an American singer-songwriter who has released two solo albums. She has since worked as a songwriter for artists including Cher, Shawn Colvin, Hilary Duff, Kay Hanley and Kelly Osbourne.[1]

Biography

Michelle Lewis was born in New York City to saxophonist Morty Lewis and Annette Sanders (née Benbasset), a session singer for radio and TV jingles.[2] [3] As a child, she was a jingle singer and also a regular on Sesame Street.[4] She was raised in River Vale, New Jersey.[5]

Lewis began performing with emerging downtown NY bands such as Blues Traveler and Spin Doctors while she attended Columbia University.[6] After graduation, Lewis was hired by jazz label GRP Records as a production coordinator and then signed a publishing deal with BMG Music in 1994. While at BMG, she wrote singles for artists such as Amy Grant and Todd Terry. She also earned a Juno Award for Dance Recording of the Year for "Deeper Shade of Love," a song she wrote for Camille at the Juno Awards of 1996, and Australian pop star Deni Hines won an ARIA Award for Breakthrough Artist for Lewis' song "It's Alright" at the 1996 ARIA Music Awards.[7]

Lewis signed with Giant Records and released her debut album, Little Leviathan, in 1998. The single "Nowhere and Everywhere" was featured on the soundtrack to the film Practical Magic.[8]

Recently, she is known best for creating music for the Disney Jr show Doc McStuffins, which aired for five seasons, and for which she won a Peabody Award in 2015. She also received her first Emmy nomination this past year in 2015 for Outstanding Original Song for her work as a composer of the song "Holiday Ride" on the Nickelodeon show, Bubble Guppies at the 42nd Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.[9]

While she continues to perform with her band, The Goods, write songs for pop radio and compose for kids’ television, Lewis' experience as a working songwriter led her and some of her long-time collaborators, Kay Hanley, Shelly Peiken and Pam Sheyne, to found Songwriters of North America (SONA) – a Los Angeles-based organization of professional songwriters and composers who wish to advocate for upholding the value of their work in the digital future.[10]

Discography

Solo

Year Album Artist Role
2001 Letters Out Loud Michelle Lewis Vocals, guitar, composer, producer
1998 Little Leviathan Michelle Lewis
1994 The Jazzhole Songwriter, performer

Film

Year Film Role
2021 The Loud House Movie Composer, performer, songwriter
2006 Charlotte's Web Composer
2006 Bambi II Composer, performer
2004 A Cinderella Story Songwriter
1998 Practical Magic Performer, songwriter

Television

Year Show Role
2019 DC Super Hero Girls Songwriter
2018 Muppet Babies Songwriter
2016 The Loud House Composer
2013 Shake It Up Composer
2013 Doc McStuffins Composer
2008 Ruby and the Rockits Composer
2007 The Hills Composer
2006 That's So Raven Too! Composer
1998 Touched by an Angel Composer

Vocals

Year Album Artist Role
2015 Ghost Notes Veruca SaltVocals
2012 Merry Christmas, Baby Rod StewartChoir
The Party Starts Now (From Disney's Club Penguin) DJ CadenceVocals
2010 Hooked! Lucy WoodwardVocals
2003 Kids in America American Juniors Vocals
2002 Citizen Cope Citizen CopeVocals
1996 The Beat is the Bomb Jazzhole Vocals
1995 And The Feeling Goes Round Jazzhole Vocals
1994 Bullets Over Broadway Original Soundtrack Vocals

Selected songwriting discography

Year Album – "Song" Artist Role
2024Super Magick — "This Time"Better Than EzraSongwriter
2015 Sometime Last Night – "What You're Missing" R5Songwriter
2012 DNA – "Wings" Little MixSongwriter
2010 Il Volo – "This Time" Il VoloSongwriter
2010 Christmas Is the Time to Say I Love You "It's Not Christmas Without You" Katherine McPheeSongwriter
2009 Paper Empire – "Bright Lights" Better Than EzraSongwriter
2009 Mitchell Musso – "Odd Man Out" Mitchell MussoSongwriter
2009 Echo (Crooked Crown) – "Where Do I Begin" Maia SharpSongwriter
2008 Camp Lisa "Going Away", "Wake Up Song", "Best Friend", "When It Rains", "It's Not Goodbye" Lisa LoebSongwriter, producer, vocals
2007 Noise From Words – "No Words", "All My Love" Michael McDermottSongwriter
2007 Inside Out "High" Emmy RossumSongwriter
2007 Broken and Beautiful – "Broken and Beautiful" Suzie McNeilSongwriter
2006 Sunday Love "Get You Off", "Hole" Fefe DobsonSongwriter
2005 Traveling Light "Traveling Light", "Hanalei Road", "Love Song (For Everyone)" Courtney JayeSongwriter
2005 A Little More Personal (Raw) – "My Beautiful Life" Lindsay LohanSongwriter
2003 Shut Up – "Come Dig Me Out"Kelly OsbourneSongwriter
2002 Living Proof – "A Different Kind of Love Song" CherSongwriter
1998 Remix Your Imagination – "It's Alright" Deni HinesSongwriter, vocals
1997 Ready for a New Day "Live Without You" (featuring Jocelyn Brown) Todd TerrySongwriter
1997 Behind the Eyes "I Will Be Your Friend" Amy GrantSongwriter, vocals
1997 Before the Rain – "Think About Me" (featuring Basil Reynolds) EternalSongwriter
1996 Songs of the Letter PeopleVarious Vocalist

[11]

Notes and References

  1. Future 25: Kay Hanley and Michelle Lewis, Co-Directors of Songwriters of North America. Rolling Stone. September 30, 2019.
  2. Nager, Larry (March 21, 1997). "Commercial Breakthrough: Annette Sanders Trades Studio Work for Club Dates". The Cincinnati Enquirer Weekend. p. 39. Retrieved December 18, 2022.
  3. "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ5F-63L : 7 January 2021), Annette Benbasset in household of Joseph Benbasset, The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 3-256, sheet 62A, line 5, family 116, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 2467.
  4. News: MICHELLE LEWIS: "LITTLE LEVIATHAN" . 1998-08-14 . Mike Joyce . . Washington, D.C. . 0190-8286 . 1330888409.
  5. Gavin, John A. "Workshops on words give clue to future", The Record, March 3, 2000. Accessed January 6, 2023, via Newspapers.com. "Lewis, the recording artist, had similar advice as she told students how she sat in the same classrooms in the mid-1980s. Now 28, Lewis lives in Manhattan, has written songs for prime-time television, and just cut her first CD. Yet she said she didn't want to miss the opportunity to come back to River Vale and talk to students who might have the same dream she had."
  6. Web site: Michelle Lewis Letters Out Loud . www.michellelewis.com . 12 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20011029173421/http://www.michellelewis.com/about/about_bio.html . 29 October 2001 . dead.
  7. Web site: Michelle Lewis Letters Out Loud . www.michellelewis.com . 12 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20050212074116/http://www.michellelewis.com/about/about_index.html . 12 February 2005 . dead.
  8. Web site: Practical Magic (1998) - IMDb. IMDb.
  9. Web site: Michelle Lewis – PopTech . 2022-12-22 . en-US.
  10. http://www.michellelewissongs.com/about3.html Michelle Lewis Website – About Page
  11. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/michelle-lewis-mn0000888794/songs List of all songs throughout career