Donell Lewis

Hailing from the western suburbs of Auckland, New Zealand – Donell Lewis is a rising R&B star. From humble beginnings with his Samoan background, the self-taught producer and singer made it his ambition to be a star coming onto the scene in 2012. Rising to fame in NZ with the debut hit single feat Fortafy, “Missing My Love” peaked at #5 on the music charts in 2012 and he followed this up with the solo release “That’s My“ in 2013 which was added to high rotation on Mai FM & Flava FM. This made Lewis became a name worth mentioning beside the stars of the NZ music top tier.

Teaming up with long time friend and collaborator Fortafy, they released their EP / mixtape titled “Lust Power” in 2014 which spawned the international hit “Show No Love” which has over 5 million Spotify streams to date. This presented Lewis with opportunities to travel across the Pacific headlining club shows in Australia, Rarotonga (Cook Islands), Fiji, Samoa and more. Soon after he headed off to Europe for 2 months in 2015, headlining over 20 shows and being sort after for features with some of Europe’s biggest urban artists. Upon returning from Europe, Lewis was awarded the Phillip Fuemana Award – Most Promising Pacific Artist in 2015 at the Vodafone Music Awards and soon after dropped the single “Don’t Need ‘em” feat. Fortafy and William Singe.

After releasing the remix of ‘Don’t Need ‘em’ feat Kennyon Brown – the pair then began to collaborate together releasing their cover of Lost Frequencies's “Reality” which has since gained over 1 million views on YouTube. They since released their reggae inspired “Morning Ride” and “She Mad She Angry” gaining over 10 million views between them on YouTube, realising they were onto something they worked on a collaborative studio album in 2016. Lewis aligned with Kennyon Brown once again headlining yet another tour across Europe, soon after the joint project with Kennyon Brown titled “Legooo” was released in April 2017. ‘Legooo’ was an enormous success for the independent pair topping the Heatseeker charts in New Zealand for 2 weeks straight and spawned the single “Whine 4 Me” which topped the urban and airplay charts in Germany.

Endlessly endeavouring to branch out of his home turf, Lewis consistently travelled non-stop in 2017 headlining multiple tours and club shows across Australia and NZ with frequent collaborators Kennyon Brown and DJ Noiz, 50+ shows together in a year. The three of them subsequently made their debut USA / Hawaii tour in March 2018, selling out shows in San Jose, LA, Seattle, Salt Lake City and Las Vegas – and were invited to perform on selected shows with Missouri's Spawnbreezie. They had since returned the USA in March 2019 in support of their hit single "Better Days" which was met with strong success headlining shows in California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada Oregon and Washington to sold out audiences in each state. Lewis also announced his inclusion in the inaugural "Future Nesian Festival" which hit Australian shores in 2019, plus was included in the singles "Tati" and "Amelia" along with frequent collaborators DJ Noiz and Kennyon Brown.

Since 2020, Lewis has released a multitude of street singles including the stand out 2020 release "Missing You" which has now gained over 3 million streams worldwide and gained him the cover of R&B Connect subsequently on his birthday: Friday, July 2 2020. This past 3 months in 2021 has been a huge moment for Lewis as his first ever single released in 2012 "Missing My Love has gone viral on TikTok and already gained over 700,000 TikTok videos to date plus over 5 million streams via Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. With his debut solo full length dropping late 2021 titled "Uce Wayne", this is certainly a year to be on the watch for Donell Lewis.